Gustav Kjær Vad Nielsen
Research Fellow - Spaces for Deliberation
Fellows at DemocracyNext work to explore some of the most pressing questions of how we make the next democratic paradigm a reality through research and action. Under the project title, 'Spaces for Deliberation' Gustav is collaborating with James MacDonald-Nelson on research focused on the current and possible spatial qualities of places intended for deliberative decision-making processes. The intention is to expand the current knowledge base of what spaces for Citizens’ Assemblies look like and how they function.
Gustav is educated as an architect and explores an activist “open” practice that includes action-research, curatorial inquiries, spatial design, community organizing and strategic planning. He researches histories of participatory, collective and civic practices of design and planning with an interest in how architects and planners might lend real power and meaning to future paradigms of collective citizen-led spatial practices by; supporting social organizing in marginalized communities and the development of new institutions, promoting alternatives to western, neoliberal and hetero-patriarchal imaginaries and expanding design pedagogies and epistemologies with the use of tactical spatial interventions.
He consults and collaborates on projects across many geographies and is currently associated with the Master in Architecture Programme at University of Luxembourg as an urban researcher, and is continually involved as a member of the Yale Urban Media Project at Yale University. Gustav is the co-editor of the book I, Like Many Things, an experimental edited publication that weaves everyday architectural encounters with grand cultural narratives found at home, conceived as a part of the Home Work Research Project (HMWRK)—which he co-founded in 2020—and published by Yale School of Architecture in 2023.
Gustav holds a Master of Architecture degree from Yale School of Architecture and a BA in Architecture degree from Aarhus School of Architecture. He has previously worked with architecture and planning offices in Denmark, USA and the Netherlands.
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