Łukasz Stanek:
History of world urbanism
written from the margins
I am a historian of 20th-century urbanism, focusing on connections between regions that have often been considered peripheral. I explore how associations between Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East have shaped urban landscapes globally. I show how competing visions of the world facilitated architectural exchanges between places outside the colonial-capitalist core. I study these exchanges as sources of conceptual innovations that help us understand the social and environmental challenges of urbanization today.
Publications:
My monographs include Architecture in Global Socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War (Princeton University Press, 2020) and Henri Lefebvre on Space: Architecture, Urban Research, and the Production of Theory (University of Minnesota Press, 2011). I have edited Henri Lefebvre’s book on architecture, Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment (University of Minnesota Press, 2014) as well as Team 10 East (2014), Urban Revolution Now (2014), and Postmodernism Is Almost All Right (2012). My papers have been published by the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Contemporary European History, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Urban Studies, and The Journal of Architecture, among others.
Practice:
Recently, my project on architectural gift-giving in global socialism has been exhibited at the Architecture Museum der TUM in Munich (The Gift: Stories of Generosity and Violence in Architecture, 2024). I also curated Accra Futurism (ArchiAfrica Gallery, Accra, 2019) and two shows at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw: Postmodernism Is Almost All Right (2011) and PRL™ (2010). My work has been exhibited at the Rotterdam Biennale of Architecture (2022) and the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2018), among other venues.
Academic position and education:
I am a Professor of Architectural History at A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. After studying architecture, urban planning, and philosophy in Kraków, Münster, Weimar, and Zurich, I defended my PhD at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands (2008). Before coming to the University of Michigan, I taught at the Swiss Federal University of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and the University of Manchester, and I was a guest professor at Harvard University and the University of Ghana at Legon in Accra. I was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in Washington DC, the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, and the Institut d’Urbanisme in Paris. I am based in Ann Arbor and Rotterdam (the Netherlands).
Teaching:
At Michigan, I teach undergraduate and graduate-level courses on the history of architecture and urbanization during the long 20th century from a global perspective. Recently, I have taught courses on architectural mobilities in 20th century Africa, the history of architectural gift-giving during the Cold War, architecture in global socialism, and the temporalities of decolonization. My methods seminar focuses on methodologies of architectural research, notably questions of archival justice and the critical uses of large sets of archival data. See my courses at the University of Michigan here.
CV available for download here
Contact: lustanek@umich.edu