New Leadership at Umeå School of Architecture

The new leadership at Umeå School of Architecture. From left: Sangram Shirke, programme responsible, Sara Thor, deputy head of department and head of education, Maria Luna Nobile, head of research, Cornelia Redeker, head of department, Katrin Holmqvist-Sten, director of studies and assistant head of department, and Daniel Movilla Vega, new director of doctoral studies.

ImageErik Persson

Cornelia Redeker is professor in Architecture and assumed the role of Head of Umeå School of Architecture (UMA) from September 2023 together with Sara Thor and Katrin Holmqvist-Sten, both with previous experience from management at UMA and other departments at Umeå University.

“It is an honour and of course a great responsibility to take on this role. I am looking forward to expanding on the amazing place that UMA already is” says Cornelia.

Cornelia Redeker is an architect and urban planner originally from Germany and has been teaching and researching at Umeå School of Architecture since 2021. She studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne in Germany and the Berlage-Institute in the Netherlands. Her PhD at TU Delft in the Netherlands focused on urban flood integration. In parallel to developing her PhD research, she was teaching urban design and regional planning at TU Munich while also consulting for urban development- and upgrading projects internationally through her office Cities on Rivers / Cities on Sand.  From 2012 onwards, Cornelia worked as associate professor in architecture and urban design at the German University in Cairo.

The North of Sweden is currently undergoing its third industrial transition and that at an unprecedented scale. As the only architecture school in this region, we must bring forward new ways of how we build and of how we live together in response to urgencies that we are facing globally

At UMA she has initiated the research and teaching lab Designing Cycles at 64° together with Sara Thor. The lab explores how buildings, and their inhabitants can turn from being consumers to becoming producers through integrated models and prototypes for local food production, water and energy systems, specifically under sub-arctic climate conditions like those in Umeå.

“The built environment offers an enormous capacity to turn our ecological footprint into a positive one. Through the emergent research environment at UMA, I would like to see how we can contribute to this in a more impactful way, e.g., through retrofitting, multifunctionality and reuse”, Cornelia Redeker explains concerning her visions for the department under her leadership.

“The North of Sweden is currently undergoing its third industrial transition, and that at an unprecedented scale. As the only architecture school in this region, we want to bring forward new ways of how we build and of how we can live together in response to urgencies that we are facing globally: climate change, urbanization, the commodification of housing and issues of displacement. In my opinion one way of how to accelerate this change is to create stronger links between our education, which is to a large part project-based, and research, and I believe UMA is in a very strong position to develop these links”, Cornelia elaborates.

UMA is a very special community of academics, administrators, technicians, and students working together in a very collaborative way. Our team of educators and researchers is extremely international. Altogether, this creates a very enriching environment

Katrin Holmqvist-Sten has been taken on the role of director of studies and has been appointed assistant head of department. She has a background in the history and theory of art and has taken on various roles at UMA from 2008 onwards. Between 2017 and 2021 she was head of department at Umeå School of Fine Arts. Her current research concerns the spatial infrastructure of culture and especially houses of culture in the north of Sweden and their role in the urban context and discourse.

Sara Thor continues in the role as deputy head of department which she was appointed to in 2019. She is furthermore appointed as head of education. Sara Thor has been teaching at UMA for the last eight years and is also currently involved in the research project Designing Cycles at 64° together with Cornelia Redeker.

Part of the new leadership are also Maria Luna Nobile, head of research and Daniel Movilla Vega, in the new role of director of doctoral studies. Sangram Shirke is continuing his appointed role as programme director at the department.