Prof. Dr. Carsten Ruhl

Since 2013 Carsten Ruhl is Professor of Architectural History at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main. Previously he served as Professor for Theory and History of Modern Architecture at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and as Professor for Architectural History at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. He studied Architecture, Art History, Philosophy and Historic Science, and since has focused on post 18th century History and Theory of Architecture. His research projects were funded by scholarships from the Gerda-Henkel-Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), London, the Getty Research Institute (GRI), Los Angeles and the German Research Fund (DFG).

In 2017 Carsten was one of the founders of the Center for Critical Studies in Architecture (CCSA) and since 2019 he is one of two directors of the LOEWE research cluster Architectures of Order: Practices and Discourses between Design and Knowledge. The four-year research focus is supported by the Hessian State Initiative for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence, with the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, the Technical University of Darmstadt, the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History and the German Architecture Museum (DAM) participating as partners.

Important publications are Mythos Monument. Urbane Strategien in Architektur und Kunst seit 1945, 2011 (Mythical Monument. Urban Strategies in Architecture and Science since 1945); Magisches Denken – Monumentale Form. Aldo Rossi und die Architektur des Bildes, Berlin/Tübingen 2013 (Magical Thinking – Monumental Form. Aldo Rossi and the Architecture of Image); Architektur ausstellen. Zur mobilen Anordnung des Immobilen, co-edited with Chris Dähne, Berlin 2015 (Exhibiting Architecture. About the mobile organization of the immovable); The Death and Life of the Total Work of Art. Henry van de Velde and the legacy of a Modern concept, proceedings of the 12th International Bauhaus-Colloquium, co-edited with Rixt Hoekstra and Chris Dähne, Berlin 2015; Architekturen des Unbestimmten. Auratische Räume und mediale Projektionen, (Architectures of the Undefined. Auratic Spaces and Medial Projections) in: Anna Minta/Frank Schmitz (Hg.): Auratische Räume der Moderne, Kritische Berichte, Heft 2, Jahrgang 44, Marburg 2016, S. 22-34; The Art of the Deal. Architektur im Zeitalter neoliberaler Selbstentwürfe, (The Art of the Deal. Architecture in the Age of neoliberal Self-Design), in: Dietrich Boschung / Julian Jachmann (Hg.): Selbstentwurf. Das Architektenhaus von der Renaissance bis zur Gegenwart, Paderborn 2018, S. 235-263.

Carsten's current research focuses on concepts of order in modern architectural institutions, networks and organisations, on architectural constructions of subjectivity and historiographical questions related to architecture. Upcoming titles include Organized Architectures: The New Frankfurt and the Bureaucratization of Modernity, in: Housing Regimes, ed. by Regine Hess,  Kritische Berichte, Nr. 2, 2020 and Bauhaus Architecture, proceedings of the CCSA Bauhaus Lecture Series, co-edited with Daniela Ortiz dos Santos and Oliver Elser.

In 2020 Carsten is going to chair the Round Table Split Cultures/New Dialogues at the EAHN meeting in Edingburgh (together with Brigitte Sölch).