Dr. Julika Gittner

The project Citizen Objects explores the potential for sculpture to act as an alternative medium for the communication of knowledge in public consultation processes around mobility transformations in Berlin between April 2024 to December 2025. The research demonstrated that the talk-centric, technical communication of conventional consultation methods can hinder the meaningful involvement of the majority of urban stakeholders and proposes art-based formats as a method to make complex sustainability concepts more accessible across different age groups, cognitive abilities, and cultural backgrounds and address the participation gap. The findings call for a shift in the thinking and practice of administration-led consultation. The affiliation period will allow Gittner to contribute her research findings to ongoing academic debates on participatory urban governance through preparing a co-authored publication with Dr. Sebastian Matthias (ACSD group affiliate). Furthermore, Gittner will transfer her research findings through her contribution to a workshop organised by the Co-Creation group to city administrators and collaborate with Co-Creation researchers on including her findings into a handbook for participation in mobility transformation.

Dr Julika Gittner is an artist, architect, and researcher whose interdisciplinary practice spans the fields of art, architecture, and public engagement. She holds a Senior Research Fellowship at the RIFS Research Institute for Sustainability, GFZ Helmholtz Centre in Potsdam, where she explores the role of sculpture as an alternative medium for communicating knowledge in public consultation processes related to urban mobility transformations. Her interdisciplinary practice-based PhD in Fine Art and Architecture, funded by the AHRC, focused on sculpture as a form of counter-evidence within social housing campaigns. Her academic career includes extensive teaching across both art and architecture. She served as a Design Fellow at the University of Cambridge from 2010 to 2023, leading the First Year of the BA in Architecture (2010–2019) and a design studio on the MAUD Architecture and Urban Design course (2019–2023). She currently teaches a history and theory course titled Consultation Counter-Cultures at the Architectural Association in London. Her artistic work has been exhibited internationally at venues including The Royal Standard (Liverpool), FlatTimeHouse and Southwark Park Galleries (London), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, the Himalaya Art Museum (Shanghai), Whitechapel Gallery (London), and La Biennale di Venezia (Venice).