People at BAS

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Christof Mayer (* 1967) studied architecture in Berlin and London. He graduated 1998 at the Technical University of Berlin. In 1999 together with Andrea Hofmann, Jan Liesegang and Markus Bader he founded the architecure collective raumlaborberlin. In 2000 he became member at the Chamber of Architects Berlin and started Büro für Architektur und Städtebau. Christof Mayer has been teaching at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art, the Bauhaus Dessau,  the Bergen Architecture School and the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Basel.  2014 he hold a residency at the Monash University in Melbourne.

Short biography:

BIO

Christopher Dell (Prof. Dr. phil. habil.) works as a theoretician in urban design and architecture, as composer, as musician and as artist in Berlin, Bergen and Copenhagen. He is the head of ifit, Institute for Improvisation Technology, Berlin. Dell held professorships in Urban Design Theory at the HafenCity Universität Hamburg (where he contributed to the conceptualizing and establishing of the newly founded Master's programme Urban Design) and the Technical University Munich. In addition he held the chair for Urban Design and Urban Renewal at the University of Fine Arts, Berlin. In the international context his Urban Design teachings also include a.o. the Architectural Association London, the University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, the Fine Arts Academy Arnhem, the HSL Luzern and the ETH Zurich. 

Holding a PhD in Organization Psychology and a habilitation in Cultural Science, Dell has published numerous books and articles, mainly on the subject of urban studies.  Since 2017, Dell has been a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 2020 he joined integral designers network, Paris as associated member. In the framework of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, Dell collaborated with Christophe Hutin Architects on the French pavilion. He took up a fellowship abroad at the Studio for Architecture of the Federal Republic of Germany at the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris in 2022. Together with Sally Below, he curated the performative installation and exhibition project "Piazza Spinelli" as a contribution to the International Building Exhibition Heidelberg 2022. 

In addition to numerous essays and book contributions, Dell has published an extensive body of monographs: “Prinzip Improvisation“, Köln 2002, „Improvisations on Urbanity“ Rotterdam 2009 (with Ton Matton), „Tacit Urbanism“, Rotterdam 2009, „Replaycity“, Berlin 2011, „Die improvisierende Organisation“, Bielefeld 2012, „Ware:Wohnen!“, Berlin 2013, „Das Urbane“, Berlin 2014, „Epistemologie der Stadt“ Bielefeld 2016, „Stadt als offene Partitur“ Zürich 2016, „Improvisaton und Organisation“ (with Wolfgang Stark) Bielefeld 2017, „The Improvisation of Space“ Berlin 2019, "Das Arbeitende Konzert/ The Working Concert" Leipzig 2020, “Tom paints the Fence, Re-Negotiating Urban Design“ (with Bernd Kniess and Dominique Peck), Leipzig 2022, „Dialogue Concerts. Conceptual Research on Architecture and Music“, Leipzig 2022, “Raum und Handlung”, Bielefeld 2023, “Piazza Spinelli. Übungsraum für die Stadt” (with Sally Below), Berlin 2024, “Raumpolitik”, Bielefeld 2025, „Erweitertes Raumdenken I: Michel Foucault“ Bielefeld 2026 (upcoming)

B.Arch.Sci, M.Arch, MNAL

Cristian Ștefănescu (Bergen, NO) received his Bachelor of Architectural Science from Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Following several years of architectural practice, he went on to receive his master's degree in architecture from the Bergen School of Architecture, with an exchange at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

He teaches and coordinates the 3rd year urban studies studio, which engages the city through architectural and artistic practice. He has previously taught in the master program and been an assistant teacher in the complex building 3rd year studio.

His architectural practice a-works engages with architecture and art projects of a mainly civic nature, exploring themes of space, memory, precision, making, clarity, beauty and the everyday.

Espen Folgerø received his master in Architecture from Bergen School of Architecture in 2007. He has worked as an architect at 3RW Architects before co-founding OPA FORM Architects in 2012 together with Marina Bauer. He has been the principal teacher on various courses at BAS since 2009 on all levels from first grade to master, amongst them several design/build workshops. He is currently responsible for the 2^nd grade curriculum at BAS. Espen Folgerø represents the APP teaching staff at BAS in the board of the school. I addition to practicing and teaching architecture, Espen Folgerø is involved in the production of prefabricated wooden building elements through the companies Ei Løe AS (owner and board member) and Elementfabrikken AS (owner and board member).

Most of my artistic work is situational. I work mostly with light, - light touching, form and space. This has resulted in a number of «light installations» interior and exterior. I work mainly with site based ideas; content and character. 
Materials are chosen according to the idea and in relation to the site.My choice of materials is unlimited;anything from traditional materials to building- or natural materials.
The light can be natural or a variety of artificial light.
The situations can be either small or large but always with one or another form of energy.My main focus is on relativity of space/form/light with a versatility.
Light and space relativity is common to all my works.
I am fascinated by light, yet not necessarily limited to the colour white whenever the situation requires something else.

Short biography:

Guillaume ECKLY is one of the founding partners of GENS, an architectural practice based in Nancy, France. Resolutely focused on an operational practice of architecture and construction, GENS also operates in other fields, such as art, education and scenography, as they all draw on the same unique material: reality.

Photo Credit: Luminate Photography

I hold a PhD in Plant Ecology from the Department of Biology, University of Bergen (2009). I currently work at the Department of Biological Sciences and in 2017 I was appointed UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Heritage and Environmental Management - Nature and Culture.

My research focuses on the dynamics in coupled human and natural systems, including sustainable development, natural resource management, agro-biodiversity, sustainable land use, ecosystem services, agroecology, and food security. I work with colleagues across the social and natural sciences to elucidate links between anthropogenic activities and the environment, in Europe, as well as in Asia, North-America and Africa. I seek to gain multifaceted knowledge within ecology and associated disciplines to investigate social-ecological complexities. In addition to a PhD in ecology I have completed a minor in Social Anthropology, and the cross-disciplinary courses Ecology and Development and Resource Management and Environmental Conservation.

As the UNESCO Chair at UiB, I'm currently working on the establishment of Norway's first Biosphere Area - Nordhordland Biosphere Area - under UNESCO's Man and The Biosphere-programme.

I work mostly in cross-disciplinary projects, and have taken part in several collaborative multidisciplinary research and education activities:

• Scientific coordinator for the Nile Basin Research Programme 2009 (www.nile.uib.no) - working group on Biodiversity and Land Use Change, Uni Research.
• Scientific coordinator of Bergen Summer Research School 2013 (www.uib.no/rs/bsrs) – organizing PhD courses on Food as a Global Development Challenge for 70 students, UiB Global.
• Lecturer and supervisor on the NOMA (NOrad MAster) Programme 2010-2014, Regional Master Program in Biodiversity and Environmental Management, lectured three cohorts and supervised 6 Master students.
• Member of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM) (2015 - p.d.)
• UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Heritage and Environmental Management - Nature and Culture, appointed by UNESCO 1st Feb 2017

Short biography:

"Jonas Løland (*1991) studied architecture in Oslo and Munich. He graduated in 2018 from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, receiving work experience as an architect in Germany, Switzerland and Norway, before establishing his own office in 2021. As a hybrid practitioner his approach actively mixes architecture, art, research, writing, furniture, textiles and political activism.

He teaches the 3rd year urban studies studio, which engages the city through architectural and artistic practice.

Jonas Løland has taught at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, ETH Zurich and the Bergen School of Architecture. Beside practice and teaching, he has lead the Oslo Association of Architects’ program committee (2023-2025) and served as a contributor and editor for the housing politics and architecture journal Ny Boligplan (2024-2025)

www.jonasloland.com

Dr. Nancy Couling is a New Zealand architect who recently completed a Marie Curie Post-Doc Fellowship at the TU Delft with the research project OceanUrb- the unseen spaces of extended urbanisation in the North Sea. Her special field of interest is the entanglement of urbanisation processes with liquid spaces and she is part of the research group “Territories of Extended Urbanisation” led by Christian Schmid & Milica Topalovic, Future Cities Laboratory 2, ETH Singapore.

Based in Switzerland where she completed her PhD (2015), she previously taught and practiced in Auckland, NZ, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Venice & Berlin where she co-founded & -directed the practice cet-0/cet-01 until 2010. She co-edited the prize-winning Barents Lessons- Teaching & Research in Architecture (2012) with Harry Gugger, Aurélie Blanchard & Ludovic Balland Typography Cabinet Basel, and The Urbanisation of the Sea (forthcoming 2020) with Carola Hein, and continues to exhibit, publish and lecture internationally.

Short Biography

Pavlina Lucas (b.1970, Cyprus) studied architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (M.Arch 2000) after studies in (photo)journalism and art history at Boston University. In 2014 she completed the practice-based PhD project "The Photographic Absolute: An Architectural Beginning" at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. 

Lucas worked as project architect at Atelier Peter Zumthor for a number of years. She moved to Oslo in 2008. Her practice is driven by a hands-on approach. Phenomenology and Mutualism are the cornerstones of her work. She uses writing, photography and performance art as re-search tools. She has taught at various schools, including the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, Aarhus School of Architecture, Oslo School of Architecture, and Tromsø Academy of Landscape and Territorial Studies. In 2019 she joined BAS, where she teaches in master studios and tutors diploma projects.

Per finished his diploma in 1992 at BAS. Prior to this, he was educated as a teacher. These two professions have confluenced and reciprocated throughout his career; as a teacher at various levels, as associated professor of Architecture and Design at the University of Stavanger and finally as co-owner of Arkitektkontoret Schjelderup & Gram as (www.sgram.no). The studio is responsible for a number of projects ranging from small scale transformations to major cultural heritage restorations of national significance. Regardless of the type of project, focus will be on embodied knowledge, situated experience and the hybrid relation between man and built environment, between individual and community and between past, present and future.

Short Biography:

Rosario Talevi works as an architect, curator, editor and educator at the intersection of critical spatial practices, site-based pedagogy, and ethics of care.

Her practice explores architecture as a form of agency and as a form of care—both in its transformative capacity and in its potential to act otherwise. She often works through fieldwork, informal gatherings, and small-scale spatial gestures that emerge in dialogue with places and the people who inhabit them. Much of her work unfolds collectively, through shared processes and in response to specific contexts.

Rosario is a founding member of Floating University, a natureculture learning site located at the former Tempelhof airport, where she co-directed the organisation (2019-2022) and curated the Urban Practice programme (2020-2021) as well as the Climate Care festival across its three editions (2019, 2021, 2023). The festival engaged with theory and practice at the intersection of climate challenges, ethics of care, and environmental humanities. Today, she continues to dedicate her time to the association’s ongoing initiatives.

In 2025, Rosario has been appointed Associate Professor for Architecture/Urban Practice at the Bergen School of Architecture in Norway. Previoulsy, she has held teaching and research positions at Universidad de Buenos Aires, Technical University Berlin, and Berlin University of the Arts. She was a visiting professor for Social Design (2021-2022) at the University of Fine Arts (HFBK) in Hamburg and the Eco-Social Design (2023-2025) at the Free University of Bolzano.

Between 2016 and 2021, she collaborated frequently with raumlaborberlin on projects such as the Urban School Ruhr and the Chicago Architectural Biennial. She also served as research curator for the practice-based project Making Futures and co-edited its resulting publication (Spector, 2022).

She is a founding member of Soft Agency, a diasporic group of female architects, artists, curators, scholars, and writers working with spatial practices. Projects with Soft Agency include Landscapes of Care Journal for the Copenhagen Architecture Festival (2021) and Caring (2020), a public programme at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.

In 2022, Rosario was a fellow at the Thomas Mann Haus in Los Angeles, California. 

She speaks internationally about her practice in both institutional and non-institutional contexts, and her work and writing have been widely published and exhibited.

Raised in Buenos Aires, she lives in Berlin and is the single mother of Florentina Talevi (born 2003).

Short biography:

Stéphane Damsin is an architect. He graduated from the Institut Victor Horta (now the Faculté d’Architecture ULB La Cambre Horta) in Brussels (Belgium), 2005. In 2009, he founded the architecture practice Ouest. From 2011 to 2021, he curated the city and architecture program at the art center Recyclart in Brussels. He has taught at various universities, including ULB Brussels and UDLA Santiago de Chile, as well as at several summer schools all over the globe.

Short biography:

Sveinung Rudjord Unneland (NO) b. 1981. Lives and works in Bergen. Unneland's practice is varied and range from theatre set design to abstract painting but include also collaborative and self-organized activities and book publications. He was the initiator of the artist-run exhibition space Joy Forum and is now involved in the establishing the unfinished institution at Laksevåg in Bergen. Unneland is educated at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts and the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissense between 2002- 2007. Between 2012-2018 he was teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen. From 2018-2022 he combined this with the completion of an artistic doctorate: Urgent affairs, Strange Empathy. In the project, Unneland examines structural and architectural changes, in parallel with that he explores how we can establish different autonomous spaces and practices within the institutional context as such.

Unneland has presented his work at among others Hordaland Kunstsenter, DNS, Kristiansand Kunsthall, Tag Team Studio, Lautom Contemporary, BIT-Teatergarasjen, Entreè, Landsforeningen Norske Malere (LNM), Nasjonalteateret, Kunstnerforbundet, After The Butcher, Joy Forum, KODE - Bergen Kunstmuseum and CAPC Musée d'art contemporain Bordeaux in addition to have been involved in several public commissions. 

(Tønsberg, NO). Born i 1976. Graduated from Bergen School of Architecture(BAS) in 2002. The diploma thesis UBO02(Sondresen/Ruud) was exhibited at Norsk Form in 2003, and published in The Norwegian Architectural Review the same year. Teacher and Diploma supervisor at BAS from 2002. Guest teacher and appointed examiner at NTNU(Trondheim) 2008-2014. Worked as Chief Architect in the Norwegian State Housing Bank, Hammerfest region, 2004-2005. Architect at Ola Roald Architecture 2005-2010. Founded his own practice ARK-TELLUS in 2011 with Eivind Hanch-Hansen. Has written several articles and lectured on the topic of architecture and pedagogy i Norway, Denmark and Finland. Experiance as performing arcitect for large and small projects in all phases.

Tom Chamberlain graduated from the painting school at the Royal College of Art in London in 1999. Recent group exhibitions include at the Drawing Room in London, Jhaveri Contemporary in Mumbai, Staatliche Museeen zu Berlin, MONA in Hobart , and Plan B in Cluj, Romania. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in London, Los Angeles and Berlin, where he is represented by Aurel Scheibler Gallery. His work is held in several public collections including the Kupferstichkabinett and MONA, and numerous international private collections. He has been a visiting tutor at the Royal Academy of Art in London, Escuela Nacional de Pintura in Mexico City, and various UK art schools including Arts University Bournemouth where he was Senior Lecturer. He was a sensor for BAS from 2010 until 2017.

Tord Bakke has an education (M.Phil) in social anthropology from the University of Bergen (2001), where he also has worked as a lecturer. He has teaching experiences from different higher education institutions and more than 15 years of experience from working as an urban planner. Tord has a broad expertise from planning in all levels, from comprehensive regional plans to detailed zoning plans, with a core competence in large scale feasibility studies and environmental- and social impact analysis. As a trained anthropologist he has had a strong focus on social development and sustainability in all his projects. As a side competence he has worked extensively with issues of maintaining cultural heritage - including fieldwork and registrations for the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Tord has lectured at BAS since 2000.

Vibeke Jensen (Berlin, DE/ Trondheim, NO) received her Master in Architecture from NTH Trondheim (NTNU), with exchange to AHO. She did 3 years of graduate studies at the Architectural Association in London and received her AA Graduate Design Diploma in 1992. Between 1992 and 2015 Jensen was based in New York practicing as an international artist in Belgium, Norway, NY, Beijing, Shanghai, Bogota, Trieste, Salzburg and Mexico City, with exhibitions in museums and galleries, projects and commissions in public space, and artist residencies. Her work is situated within a Critical Spatial Practice. She has taught master courses and workshops at BAS, AHO, NTNU, KHIB, Oslo Architecture Triennale, and presented her work at international schools and conferences (Universität für angewandte Kunst, Wien; Scandinavia House, New York; Zurich University of the Arts; Metropolis Laboratorium, Copenhagen). She is currently guest professor at Bergen School of Architecture where she tutors diploma students and engages in Master Courses.