Thursday January 15, 6pm
Book launch and lecture by Karin Christof, followed by a conversation with Michael Obrist, Professor for Housing and Design, TU Vienna. Moderated by Anna Soucek, urban researcher and editor at Radio Ö1.
Thanks to the invitation by Elke Krasny, the Professor for Art and Education at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the speakers Michael Obrist and Anna Soucek to join the debate.
Citizens have become more vocal than ever. However, in times of governmental withdrawal and the privatisation of public goods, how do they claim a seat at the table? Drawing on projects in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Vienna, Karin Christof’s research illustrates how citizens can act and empower themselves in this process, which involves learning to collaborate, becoming intermediaries, and balancing resistance to dominant market logics alongside strategic engagement with existing constellations of power and influence—all in service of the common good. The concept of the Citizen Professional serves as a practical reference for citizens and for anyone involved in shaping public space and architecture. It offers a grounded argument for why such involvement matters.
Karin Christof is an urban researcher and curator whose work focuses on cooperative forms of housing, the distribution of land and property in cities, and self-initiated neighbourhood projects that foster communal living and co-working. Trained as an architect and artist in Vienna, Amsterdam, and London, she has worked at the intersection of visual arts and architecture since 2000. In 2024, she completed her PhD on the role of citizen professionals in cooperative and participatory housing and co-working projects, examining how they mediate between civic initiatives, market actors, and public authorities. As co-founder of the consultancy DwellingMatters, she advises on community-led urban development and self-managed neighbourhood spaces. www.linkedin.com/in/karinchristof/
Michael Obrist is Professor for Housing and Design and Head of the Housing and Design Research Department at TU Vienna. In 2025, he was the co-curator of the Austrian Pavilion “Agency for Better Living” at the Venice Biennale. As one of the five founding partners of feld72 Architects in Vienna, his practice focuses on housing, educational and office buildings, and urbanism, and has received numerous awards as well as participated in biennales worldwide. Obrist made a central contribution to the creation of the interdisciplinary Centre for New Social Housing, jointly initiated by TU Vienna and the International Building Exhibition IBA Vienna 2022. He has co-edited critical publications on housing, including ARCH+ “Agengy for Better Living” and ARCH+ “Vienna.The End of Housing (as a Typology)” with Christina Lenart and Bernadette Krejs, as well as “The Last Grand Tour” (Park Books) with Antonietta Putzu. www.wohnbau.tuwien.ac.at, @wohnbau.tuwien; www.feld72.at, @feld72_architects; www.labiennale2025.at, @austrianpavilion
Anna Soucek studied art history in London and is co-founder of the “forum für experimentelle architektur”. She is a member of ORTE Lower Austrian Architecture Network and has engaged as an editor at ORF’s Radio Österreich 1 since 2004, moderating and desgining articles for the programs Kulturjournal, Nachtquartier, Kunstradio and Ö1 Kunstsonntag. She also wrote texts for print media such as “Salzburger Nachrichten”, “KON constructive” and “QUER-Magazin: Architecture and Life in Urban Spaces” with a focus on visual art, architecture, urban development and art in public spaces.
See for more information: https://www.setmargins.press/books/citizen-professionals/
Credits Book Cover:
Cover Image: Nieuw Ateliers Charlois (NAC): Independent Circular Economic Model NAC Foundation, Source: Kamiel Verschuren
Graphic Design: Eric de Haas
