Short presentation

Ellen Braae is professor of landscape architecture theory and method and head of the research group ‘Landscape Architecture and Urbanism’. Ellen is trained as an architect and landscape architect from the Aarhus School of Architecture, where she also got her PhD. Ellen has several years of practice experience, including her own office. 

For more information, please see CV.

News:

NEW BOOK: Architecture and Welfare. Scandinavian Perspectives

The decades after the Second World War saw ambitious building programs to ensure social welfare. The Scandinavian countries in particular underwent an intense modernisation phase with the aim to distribute welfare to all. Yet, the relationship between welfare values and design in Scandinavia is anything but stable. The spatial and political legacy of post-war construction varies amongst Denmark, Sweden, and Norway and their welfare models have been changed, contested, and copied over time. This book explores how architecture, once seen as a medium for universal welfare, inclusion, and political participation, is now often associated with the opposite, such as alienation, exclusion, and segregation. The volume offers new perspectives on the history and redesign of post-war architecture and urbanity. 

Architecture and Welfare includes more than 20 richly illustrated contributions. It is edited by Prof. Thordis Arrhenius, School of Architecture, KTH Stockholm, Prof. Ellen Braae, Landscape Architecture and Planning, University of Copenhagen and Dr. Guttorm Ruud, Oslo School of Architecture and Design and published by Birkhäuser Verlag, 2025.

CV

Curriculum Vitae

Ellen Braae

Professor

Section for Landscape Architecture and Planning,

Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen,

Rolighedsvej 23, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C,

email: [email protected]

ORCID: 0000-0003-1516-2507

Private: Strandvejen 34, 1.th, DK-8000 Aarhus C

Email: [email protected], mobile: +45 29 17 71 17

EDUCATION

PhD 2003       The Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark

Dr. of Applied Sciences: Architecture (landscape architecture, urbanism, cultural heritage)

Master 1991   The Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark

Cand. Arch. in Architecture and Landscape Architecture

2023-             MBA (small) on Public Management, AROS Business Academy

2015, 2016     Yellow Research Course on ERC grants

2010              Professional Jury Membership Course

2009              Research Management Course, 9 days, Implement

2007              Project Management Course, 3 days, Implement

2004              Pedagogical Course for Associate Professors, Aalborg University

1997              Master Class, The Berlage Institute

1991-1996      Studies abroad: Rome (½ year 1991, 1993), China (1 mth. 1994), Paris (½ year 1995), Berlin (1 mth. 1996)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES

2018              Visiting Professor, TU Delft, the Netherlands

2010              Visiting Professor, AHO, Norway

2009-             Full Professor in Landscape Architecture and Urbanism, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2009-             Cofounder and partner, IKAROS Press

2006-2009      Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture, Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark

2005-2008      Cofounder and partner, Metopos: By- og landskabsdesign

2003-2006      Associate Professor in Urban Design, Aalborg University, Denmark

2001              One-year scholarship, Danish Arts Foundation

2000-2005      Founder and owner, Sic! Design

1999-2002      Cofounder and editor, Arkitekturnet.dk

1996-2003      PhD-fellow, The Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark

1995-             Cofounder and partner, Berg & Braae ApS

1993-1995      Founder and owner, Ellen Braae Landskab

1994-1996      Assistant teacher, The Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark

1991-1996      Project developer and manager, Schønherr Landskab and Skaarup Landskab

2013-2014      Sick leave (close family) (9 months)

2000–2001     Maternity leave (12 months)

1998–1999     Maternity leave (13 months)

POSITIONS OF TRUST (selected)

• Member of Expert Panel preparing new national Architecture Policy – personally appointed by the Minister of Culture, 2022-
• Board member of Executive Committee for Int. Union of Architects World Congress DK 2023, 2019-2023
• Board member of Practice Committee for Int. Union of Architects World Congress DK 2023, 2021-2023
• Board member of CAFX, Copenhagen Architecture Festival, 2022-
• Member of Evaluation Committee for the Faculty of Architecture, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, 2019
• Member of Expert Panel on Art Research, Danish Art Foundation and Norwegian Art Council, 2019
• Chair of the Danish Arts Foundation | Architecture – personally appointed by the Minister of Culture 2018-2021
• Board member of the Danish Art Foundation, 2018-2021
• Member of the IBA Parkstadt Expertenrat, The Netherlands, 2018-2021
• Chair of the Danish EU “Cultural Heritage and Global Change” Panel, 2012-2015
• Board member of Havekulturfonden, 2012-
• Member of JPI Cultural Heritage Expert Panel, Italy, 2011-2015
• Appointed Fellow of Akademiet (Danish advisory board to the state in artistic matters), 2011-
• Member of national research assessment panels in Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland
• Executive Board Member for the EU-funded project JPI Cultural Heritage and Global Change, 2011-2014
• Member of the Danish Research Fund for Independent Research (Culture & Communication) 2011-2015
• Head of Studies for BSc and MSc in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, 2009-2015
• Member of ‘Kunstnersamfundet’ 2009-
• Appointed examiner in Architecture, the Danish Schools of Architecture, 2009-
• Appointed examiner in Urban Design, Aalborg University, 2009-2018
• Member of the Danish Road Agency Jury, 2006-2011
• Appointed examiner in Art history and Visual Culture, 2006-2017
• Member of CUSAP, Copenhagen Urban Space Action Plan, The municipality of Copenhagen under the auspice of Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, 2004-5
• Member of the Danish Public Research Council for Cities and Buildings, 1999-2001
• Member of curator group behind the exhibition FABRIK, The Aalto Museum, Aalborg, 2001-2
• Member of ‘Akademiraadets Stipendie og legatudvalg’ 1998
• Member of planning group “The kindergartens of the future” six architectural competitions 1994-1998 

• Jury member of appr. 40 national and international architecture competitions, 1996- (mainly focusing on strategic urban development, climate change, and cultural heritage)

RESEARCH PROFILE

My research profile bridges practice and academia, design, science, and the humanities. My focus in recent years has been on site-specificity, placemaking, nature-based urban development and on post-war open-space design and planning – in particular their materialities, uses and discourses, from a past-present-future perspective. I have worked extensively on issues related to the transformation and preservation of post-industrial urban landscapes from the perspective of the intersection between site-based landscape architecture and urbanism, taking a combined cultural-heritage and sustainability approach. I also focus on cultural heritage, theories of transformation, landscape theory, open spaces, strategic urban development, design and planning theory, aesthetic theory, design methodology.

RESEARCH LEADERSHIP

Currently developing the new research platform ‘Regenerative Landscape Futures’ (1 mio DKR). Recently, PL and PI on EU HERA funded ‘Public Spaces in European Social Housing’ (€1,000,000) and PL and PI on ‘Reconfiguring Welfare Landscapes’ (6.5 million DKK), funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, and PL on the research project ‘Sven Hansen – Danish Welfare Modernist Landscape Architect’, started in 2016, funded by the Danish Art Foundation and Dreyer’s Foundation. Previously PI on Danish Building Culture 2015 (4 million DKK) researching ‘green heritage’ vis-à-vis climate change and urbanization. Head of the Research Group for Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at Copenhagen University (approx. 15-20 persons).

TEACHING, current responsibility

MSc Theories and Methods in Landscape Architecture, 15 ECTS, focus on value lenses, 50 students /course

MSc Urbanism Studio, 15 ECTS, focus on strategic design as transformation of public space, 50 students /course

MSc theses supervision, in total appr. 35.

PHD SUPERVISION / ASSESSMENT

12 completed: 2024- Sofie Stilling, Filming senses - film as decision-making tool in early phases of urban development, IGN, UC-Science; 2024– Johanne Heesche, Transformation of the Welfare City Industrial Areas in Loop City, IGN- UC-Science; 2022 – Asbjørn Jessen, Reassembling Welfare Landscapes, Institute for Geoscience and Natural Resource Management (IGN), UC-Science; 2021– Hanne Nielsen, Large Cities – Quiet Places, UC-Scrience; 2020 – Kristen van Haeren, Thickness of Green in Danish Post-War Social Housing Estates, UC-Science; 2019 Anna Aslaug Lund, Room for Rain. The City as a Garden and the Future of Streets, IGN, UC-Science; 2016 Lars Rolfsted Mortensen, Transformation of Post-War Industrial Areas, Royal Academy for Architecture (co-supervisor); 2013 Mads Farsø Rasmussen, Towards a New Landscape Architecture: To Cultivate the City, Forest & Landscape, UC-Life; 2012 Lisa Babette Diedrich, Translating Harbourscapes, UC-Life; 2011 Svava Riesto, Landscape Biography: Studying Former Industrial Sites During Urban Development, UC-Life; 2010 Stefan Darlan Boris, Urban Skov- og Landskabsinfrastruktur, Aarhus School of Architecture; 2007 Lea Louise Holst Laursen, Shrinking Cities, Aalborg University.

Chair or member of PhD-assessment committees, 20 in total, at TU Delft and Vrije Universiteit, the Netherlands; Universitá UIAU di Venezia, Italy; KU Leuven University, Belgium; Chalmers University and SLU, Sweden; Norwegian University of Life Sciences and Oslo University, Norway; Aarhus School of Architecture and Royal Academy of Architecture, Denmark.

PUBLICATIONS

I have published widely in international books and journals (more than 50 articles and book chapters) besides writing books. Urban Planning in the Nordic World (Wisconsin University Press/Aarhus University Press 2020) focus on welfare planning and design from WWII to current day. Beauty Redeemed: Recycling Post-Industrial Landscapes (Birkhäuser 2015) offers a transformation design theory and reflects the cultural entanglements of post-industrialisation. The Routledge Research Companion to Landscape Architecture, co-edited with H. Steiner (Routledge, November 2018), contains twenty-five chapters and provides a comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art research in the field of landscape architecture. Questions of politics, ethics and sustainability run through many of the contributions, as do questions of aesthetics and/or design. I have published a volume on ‘green heritage’ vis-à-vis climate changes and urbanization. I have two books in the pipeline – both related to the 20^th century architectural production in Denmark and Scandinavia.

Moreover, I have a con amore and micro publishing house called IKAROS Press. December 2024, I launched a book series, Landscape Manifesto_Small books–Great Ideas! with three volumes.

Occasionally, I review for journals, such as 2022 Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2019 SPOOL, 2018 International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2012 Landscape Research, 2012 ACSA, American Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2011 Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2011 Nordic Journal of Architecture, 2011 ECLAS, European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools, 2010 Journal of Landscape Architecture.

AWARDS AND GRANTS

LECTURES, LECTURE AND CONFERENCE SERIES

Over the years I have lectured at multiple universities in Europe and the US: Columbia University, Harvard University, USA; Universitá UIAV di Venezia, Milan University, Italy; Delft University and Vrij University (Amsterdam), The Netherlands; ETH Zürich, Switzerland; Leuven University, Belgium; Sheffield University, England; Sweden Agricultural University, Chalmers University, Sweden; Oslo University, Norway’s University for Life Sciences, Oslo Architectural School, Norway and at various Danish universities and schools of architecture. I have also lectured extensively outside academia.

Coconvenor and coorganiser of the first Symposium of Urban Design Theory and History to be held at TU Delft, Nov 1-3, 2023 together with Janina Grossey, Tom Avermaete, and Matthew Heins (https://urbandesignsymposium.com)

Co-initiator of the DARE network, The Danish Network for Architecture and Urbanism Research, Bloxhub (https://bloxhub.org/science-forum/architecture-and-urbanism-researchers-join-forces-to-create-novel-solutions-to-global-challenges/)

Initiator of and responsible for the public lecture series CLL – Copenhagen Landscape Lectures, University of Copenhagen, since 2012

Responsible for the international conference series World in Denmark, biannually as a research conference over 10 years ending 2014.

Responsible for the international conference Landscape and Landscape Architectural Research, The Aarhus School of Architecture, 2007

EXHIBITIONS

The Habitable Skin with Studio Croquille and Studio Terroir at CAFX planned for May 2025

PuSH exhibition with Tietjen at CAFX, 2022

Commons and Communities, adaptive exhibition and travelling Danish Embassies abroad, curated for the Danish Ministry of Culture, 2019-

Canarysect exhibition with Diedrich & Lee at [LAND]SKAPA, SLU, 2013

The Travelling Transect exhibition with Lee & Diedrich at Nordes 13

Velfærdsbyens landskaber – Albertslund (The landscapes of the Welfare City – Albertslund), Albertslund Town Hall and Kroppedal Museum 2012

Three own works shown at an international juried exhibition, 4th Landscape Biennial Barcelona 2006

Børns Rum (Children’s Space), Copenhagen, Odense and Aarhus, Exhibition in common for The Danish Art Foundation and The Ministry of Social Affairs, 1998

FABRIK, exhibition at the Aalto Museum, Aalborg, 2001-2

Verbum – haven som argument (Verbum – the garden as an argument), AAA and Danish Architectural Center, on Schønherr’s work. Responsible for the exhibition idea, design and management, 1993

AWARDED COMPETITION ENTRIES (alone or in collaboration)

2024 The Danish Biennial Entry 2027 – selected participant with ‘A Habitable Skin’ w Studio Croquille, Studio Terroir and Taryn Hompfrey

2023 Musikhushaven Aarhus, prequalified for a competition entry with DETBLÅ, Torben Schønherr and Søren Jensen Engineers

2020 Spinderiparken, 1^st prize with DETBLÅ, The Municipality of Vejle

2019 Folehaven – transformation of a 1950s social housing estate, 1^st prize with SLETH

2018 Levantkaj, 2^nd phase of Nordhavn, with SLETH, SLA, Moe et al., 2^nd prize

2010 Natural Science Museum Denmark, with Drewniak and mbp-a, awarded

Teaching

Ellen's teaching and supervision focus on strategic design / transformation of urbanized areas with a special attention towards cultural heritage, urban development and climate change adaptation.

She supervises on bachelor, master and PhD level. Ellen is course responsible for the 15 ECTS MSc Urbanism Studio [http://kurser.ku.dk/course/lnak10082u/2016-2017] taught together with Associate Professor Anna Aslaug Lund. Moreover, Ellen is responsible for the 15 ECTS MSc course Theories and Methods in Landscape Architecture [http://kurser.ku.dk/course/lnak10054u/2016-2017] together with Professor Svava Riesto.

Within recent years Ellen have annually offered a PhD-course in collaboration with PhD-fellows and colleges from the Research Group for Landscape Architecture and Urbamism.