Tom Avermaete | Endowed Professorship for Research in Visionary Cities

The endowed professorship (Endowed chair “City Culture and Open Space“) financed by the City of Vienna, was installed in 2015 within the study programs of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. It has the objective to artistically, radically and poetically bring forward the debate on the city and architecture. The object of study is the city. The teaching and research beholden with the endowed professorship focuses on the formulation of radical and visionary concepts regarding urban space. A further goal is to intensify the exchange of ideas and knowledge transfer between the city of Vienna and the Institute for Art and Architecture.

Tom Avermaete is appointed for the Endowed Professorship for Research in Visionary Cities for the study year 2016/2017.

Tom Avermaete is full professor of architecture at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. He has a special research interest in the public realm and the architecture of the city in Western and non-Western contexts. With the chair of Methods and Analysis he focuses on the changing roles, approaches and tools of architects. His research examines precedents -design attitudes, methods and instruments- with the explicit ambition to construct a critical base of design knowledge and to influence contemporary architectural thinking and practice.
Avermaete is the author of Another Modern: the Post-War Architecture and Urbanism of Candilis-Josic-Woods (2005), The Balcony (with Koolhaas, 2014) and Casablanca -Chandigarh: Reports on Modernity (with Casciato, 2014). He is a co-editor of Architectural Positions (with Havik and Teerds, 2009), Colonial Modern (with von Osten and Karakayali, 2010), Structuralism Reloaded (with Vrachliotis, 2011), Making a New World (with Heynickx, 2012), Architecture of the Welfare State (with Swenarton and Van den Heuvel, Routledge, 2014) and Casablanca-Chandigarh: Reports on Modernization (with Casciato, Park Books, 2015).
Tom Avermaete is a member of the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journals OASE Architectural Journal and the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE, until 2015) and a co-editor of the Yearbook. Architecture in the Netherlands. Avermaete is the initiator of several exhibitions, amongst others Wonen in Welvaart/ Dwelling in Welfare (Antwerpen, Belgium, 2006) and In The Desert of Modernity (Berlin 2008, Casablanca 2009).
With the Chair of Methods and Analysis he was responsible for The Balcony gallery at the 2014 Venice Biennale. Together with Maristella Casciato he recently curated the exhibition How architects, experts, politicians, international agencies and citizens negotiate modern planning: Casablanca Chandigarh (CCA, Montreal, Canada, 2014-2015) and Lived-In. The Modern City as Performative Infrastructure (VAi/DeSingel, Antwerp, Belgium, 2015-2016).