Citizen Professionals Reclaiming Collective Spaces

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.

Michael Obrist, born in Bolzano in 1972, is one of the five founding partners of feld72 Architects in Vienna and university professor at TU Wien. He is the co-curator of the Austrian Pavilion “Agency for Better Living” at the Biennale of Venezia 2025. Since 2018, he has been university professor of Housing and Design and Head of the university’s Housing and Design Research Department. He made a central contribution to the creation of the interdisciplinary Centre for New Social Housing, which was jointly initiated by TU Wien and the International Building Exhibition IBA Wien 2022. He has held visiting professorships at Politecnico di Milano and the University of Arts Linz and taught at the Public Art Masterclass of the Salzburg Summer Academy and the Architectural Association Visiting School in Slovenia. Guest Editor of ARCH+ “Agency for Better Living” and  of ARCH+ "Vienna.The End of Housing (as a Typology)" (with Christina Lenart and Bernadette Krejs), both with Spector Books. Editor (with Antonietta Putzu) of "The Last Grand Tour" (Park Books). The work of feld72 in the areas of housing, educational and office buildings, and urbanism has received numerous awards (including a number of Austrian State Prizes, the Gold Medal for Italian Architecture, and the Architecture Award of the City of Vienna) and has been presented at several biennales, worldwide (Biennale di Venezia 2025, 2016, 2011, 2010, 2008, and 2004, Bi-city Biennale Shenzhen/Hong Kong 2009, Biennale São Paulo 2007, and Biennale Rotterdam 2003).

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.