11 December 2018

Prestigious EU grant awarded to Danish-led design/humanities research project



PuSH, a large, innovative Danish-led research project, has achieved funding from the EU HERA programme Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe (2019–2022).

Distinguished researchers and non-academic partners from Denmark, Norway, Switzerland and Italy have achieved success in the face of fierce international competition, receiving €1 million from the EU HERA programme for the collaborative research project Public Space in European Social Housing (PuSH). The project aims to push forward our knowledge about the integration processes and cultural encounters that take place in shared spaces on social housing estates in Europe. PuSH will explore the concept of publicness through the lenses of (non-)planning, democracy, cultural heritage and policymaking by studying the dynamic relationships between people and places on-site.

PuSH is led by landscape architect Professor Ellen Braae and the Danish group comprises architect Associate Professor Anne Tietjen, cultural historian and architect Associate Professor Svava Riesto , landscape architect Associate Professor Bettina Lamm and architecture philosopher Associate Professor Henriette Steiner, all of whom are affiliated with the IGN’s Research Group for Landscape Architecture and Urbanism. PuSH builds on the ongoing project Reconfiguring Welfare Landscapes, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.

The PuSH project will be launched May 2019, and the full project group consists of the following principal investigators (PIs) and organisational partners:

  • Professor Ellen Braae, University of Copenhagen (Project Leader and PI, Denmark)
  • Professor Inger-Lise Saglie, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo (PI, Norway)
  • Associate Professor Marie Antoinette Glaser, Wohnforum ETH Zürich (PI, Switzerland)
  • Professor Laura Lieto, Federico II University, Naples (PI, Italy)

  • Sorcha Edwards, Secretary General, Housing Europe, European Federation for Public, Cooperative and Social Housing, Brussels, Belgium
  • Dr Morten Mortensen, museum curator, Furesø Museum, Denmark
  • Natalia Rogaczewska, Head of European and Public Affairs, Danmarks Almene Boliger/Danish Social Housing Sector, Denmark
  • Katrine Emme Thielke, digital advisor, Denmark
  • Margot Telnes/Øyvind Johnsen, Regional Director/Senior Advisor Husbanken, Norway
  • Lene Basma, Head of Planning Department, Drammen Municipality, Norway
  • Lillian Sandbackken Eilertsen, Head of Fjell 2020, Drammen Municipality, Norway
  • Urs Hauser, Director, Wohnbaugenossenschaften Schweiz, Verband der gemeinnützigen Wohnbauträger/Swiss Association of Housing Cooperatives, Switzerland
  • Dr Antonio Scarponi, exhibition architect and graphic designer, Conceptual Devices, Switzerland
  • Luigi di Magistris/Francesca Pignataro, planner and GIS expert/Executive, Naples Municipality, SIT, Direzione Centrale Pianificazione e Gestione del Territorio, Italy
  • Elena de Filippo, President, Dedalus Cooperativa Sociale, Italy
  • Cristina Ferraiuolo, photographer/curator, Italy