Christa Kamleithner is an architectural theorist and cultural historian, whose research focuses on the epistemological and cultural history of built spaces. She studied architecture and philosophy in Vienna. From 2004 to 2005 she was a research associate at the Institute for History of Art and Cultural Studies at TU Graz, and from 2006 to 2012 she was a research associate and lecturer for art and cultural history at the College of Architecture, Media and Design of the Berlin University of the Arts. From 2007 to 2013 she was an assistant lecturer at the Center for Metropolitan Studies of TU Berlin, and during the summer semester 2011, she taught as a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg in the architecture and urban research master’s program. In 2018, she was awarded her doctorate with a dissertation on the genealogy of the “functional city” at the Department of Cultural History and Theory at Humboldt University of Berlin, where she was engaged as an assistant lecturer. 2019/20 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Bauhaus-University Weimar and thereafter a postdoc researcher and lecturer at the DFG Research Training Group Cultural and Technological Significance of Historic Buildings at Brandenburg University of Technology. Since October 2022, she is a postdoc researcher at the Centre for Cultural Inquiry at University of Konstanz. Her current project is dedicated to the history of the “user.”

• Epistemological and cultural history of built spaces (18th-21st c.)
• History of modern urbanism
• History of postwar architecture and its theory
• Mediality of architecture
• Theories of social space

The Invention of the “User”: An Epistemological and Architectural History, 1957–1977

The “user” is omnipresent today as a consumer of a wide variety of services, from transport networks to social media platforms. After first applications of the term in the 1930s, the term took off in the 1960s: first in the social sciences, then in architectural and urban planning discourse, where it is now used as a matter of course. The term, however, bears a historical signature: its dissemination was related both to the construction of new infrastructures and to new methods of empirical social research interested in the newly built environment and its perception, appropriation, and use. Located at the intersection of architectural history and the history of knowledge, this project traces the rise of the “user” between 1957 and 1977, focusing on the German-speaking world. Yet the epistemic figure cannot be conceived without the global references that produced it: the highway and rapid transit networks, the large-scale housing developments, and the vast complexes for shopping, education, and leisure, between which users navigated, followed patterns that circulated worldwide.

Through selected building projects and the discourses that accompanied them, the project will highlight the promises that were associated with the figure of the “user,” as well as the violence inherent in consumer society and the infrastructures that emerged from it since the 1950s. What have since been called “users” are urban dwellers who have become mobile and who freely arrange the places of their everyday life as well as their social relationships. They cannot be considered independently from the expansion of technical networks, nor apart from social research interested in individualizing forms of social networking. Nonetheless, the promises of freedom and inclusion came with social exclusion. Even before ecological concerns about the energy-intensive urban structure based on fossil capital came to a head, a critical discourse after 1968 responded by exploring and politicizing the “users.” By tracing the transformations of the figure through concrete building projects and discussions, the project elaborates the role of architecture in the emergence of consumer and communication society, aiming to contribute to the archaeology of the present.

Monographs and editions

• “Picturing Motion: Mapping, Modelling and Managing Urban Regions,” ed. with Laila Seewang, Journal of Urban History, in preparation for 2025
• Architectures of Colonialism: Constructed Histories, Conflicting Memories, ed. with Vera Egbers, Özge Sezer and Alexandra Skedzuhn-Safir, Basle: Birkhäuser 2024
• Medium unter Medien: Architektur und die Produktion moderner Raumverhältnisse, ed. with Moritz Gleich, Basle: Birkhäuser, 2023
• Ströme und Zonen: Eine Genealogie der “funktionalen Stadt,” Basle: Birkhäuser, 2020
• “Medien/Architekturen,” ed. with Roland Meyer and Julia Weber, ZfM – Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 12, 2015
• Architekturwissen: Grundlagentexte aus den Kulturwissenschaften, Vol. 1: Zur Ästhetik des sozialen Raumes, ed. with Susanne Hauser and Roland Meyer, Bielefeld: transcript, 2011
• Architekturwissen: Grundlagentexte aus den Kulturwissenschaften, Vol. 2: Zur Logistik des sozialen Raumes, ed. with Susanne Hauser and Roland Meyer, Bielefeld: transcript, 2013
• “Gouvernementalität,” ed., dérive – Zeitschrift für Stadtforschung 31, 2008
• Ästhetik der Agglomeration, with Susanne Hauser, Wuppertal: Müller+Busmann, 2006

Articles and essays (selection)

• “Introduction”, with Vera Egbers, Özge Sezer and Alexandra Skedzuhn-Safir, in: Vera Egbers, Christa Kamleithner, Özge Sezer and Alexandra Skedzuhn-Safir (ed.), Architectures of Colonialism: Constructed Histories, Conflicting Memories, Basle: Birkhäuser 2024, 7–16
• “Architektur als Medium unter Medien: eine Einleitung,” with Moritz Gleich, in Moritz Gleich and Christa Kamleithner (ed.) Medium unter Medien: Architektur und die Produktion moderner Raumverhältnisse, Basle: Birkhäuser, 2023, 7-22
• “Architektur als Medium der Vernetzung: Zur Geschichte des ‘Nutzers’,” in ibid., 253-277
• “In Search of Order: Hilberseimer‘s Visual Patterns,” in Florian Strob (ed.) Architect of Letters: Reading Hilberseimer, Basle: Birkhäuser, 2022, 162-177
• “Dangerous Congestions: Cholera, Mapping and the Beginnings of Modern Urbanism,” in gta papers 5: “Social Distance,” 2021, 38–49
• “Dessau, das Bauhaus und die Ästhetik der Rationalisierung” in 100+: Neue Perspektiven auf die Bauhaus-Rezeption, ed. Bauhaus-Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur und Planung, Berlin: Jovis, 2021, 114–127
• “Aneignung versus Planung: ‘Strategien für Kreuzberg’ und der Streit um die Neuausrichtung der ARCH+, 1975–77,” https://dokumentederarchitektur.de (Juli 2021)
• “Architekturtheorie um 1967: eine Umwelttheorie,” in Juan Almarza Anwandter et al. (ed.) Architekturwissenschaft – Vom Suffix zur Agenda, Berlin: Universitätsverlag TU Berlin, 2021, 190–208
• “Krankheit, Armut, Dichte: Die Kartierung der Cholera und der moderne Städtebau,” in dérive – Zeitschrift für Stadtforschung 81, 2020, 53–58
• “Concrete Abstractions: Berlin’s Statistical Bureau and the Concept of Zoning (1862–1910),” in Anne Kockelkorn and Nina Zschocke (eds.) Productive Universals – Specific Situations: Analysis and Intervention in Art, Architecture and Urbanism, Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2019, 94–123
• “Kategorisierung und Zonierung: Der Entwurf der modernen Stadt im Statistischen Bureau (1860–1910),” in Stefan Haas, Michael C. Schneider and Nicolas Bilo (eds.) Die Zählung der Welt: Kulturgeschichte der Statistik vom 18. bis 20. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart: Steiner, 2019, 51–71
• “‘Überleben im Stadtteil’: Berliner Projektekultur und linke Planungstheorie zwischen 1968 und 1978,” in Anina Falasca, Annette Maechtel and Heimo Lattner (eds.) Wiedersehen in TUNIX! Ein Handbuch der Berliner Projektekultur. Berliner Hefte zu Geschichte und Gegenwart der Stadt 7, 2018, 109–116
• “Konsum und Kritik: Die österreichische Architekturavantgarde, 1968 und die ‘Explorierung der Empfindung’,” in Johannes Porsch, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer (eds.) Wer war 1968? Kunst, Architektur, Gesellschaft. Exhibition Catalogue Lentos Art Museum et al., Salzburg: Pustet, 2018, 441–446
• “Öffnen, Schließen, Filtern und Kanalisieren: Zum sozialen Gebrauch der Sinne,” in Annette Haug and Patric-Alexander Kreuz (eds.) Stadterfahrung als Sinneserfahrung in der römischen Kaiserzeit, Turnhout: Brepols, 2016, 53–72
• “Theorie der Praxis, oder: Von Nutzern und Lesern,” in ARCH+ 221, 2015, 129–132
• “Theorie des sozialen Raumes, oder: Die Konstruktion von Situationen,” in ibid., 135–139
• “Mit dem Markt planen: Zu den epistemischen Voraussetzungen moderner Stadtplanung,” in Matthias Koch et al. (eds.) Planlos! Zu den Grenzen von Planbarkeit, Munich: Fink, 2015, 35–49
• “Was Architektur macht/What Architecture Does,” in ARCH+ 217, 2014, 156–169
• “Narrative Ökonomien: Kommentar zu Alexa Färbers ‘Potenziale freisetzen: Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie und Assemblageforschung in der interdisziplinären Stadtforschung’,” in sub\urban. Zeitschrift für kritische Stadtforschung 2/1, 2014, 116-119, zeitschrift-suburban.de
• “Neue Mischungsverhältnisse. Zum Gebrauch von Infrastrukturen,” in Nathalie Bredella and Chris Dähne (eds.) Infrastrukturen des Urbanen: Soundscapes, Landscapes, Netscapes, Bielefeld: transcript, 2013, 253–274
• “Ökonomie temporärer Nutzungen,” with Rudolf Kohoutek in Philipp Oswalt, Klaus Overmeyer and Philipp Misselwitz (eds.) Urban Catalyst: Mit Zwischennutzungen Stadt entwickeln, Berlin: DOM publishers, 2013, 87–93
• “The Economy of Temporary Use,” with Rudolf Kohoutek in Philipp Oswalt, Klaus Overmeyer and Philipp Misselwitz (eds.) Urban Catalyst: The Power of Temporary Use, Berlin: DOM publishers, 2013, 87–93
• “Urban Icons: Architektur und globale Bildzirkulation,” with Roland Meyer in Informationen zur modernen Stadtgeschichte 2, 2011, 17–31
• “‘Regieren durch Community’: Neoliberale Formen der Stadtplanung,” in Matthias Drilling and Olaf Schnur (eds.) Governance der Quartiersentwicklung: Theoretische und praktische Zugänge zu neuen Steuerungsformen, Wiesbaden: VS, 2009, 29–47
• “‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness’: Liberalism and the Image of the City in German Planning Theory around 1870,” in Arnold Bartetzky and Marc Schalenberg (eds.) Urban Planning and the Pursuit of Happiness: European Variations on a Universal Theme (18^th–21^th Centuries), Berlin: Jovis, 2009, 52–65
• “(Neue) Gemeinschaften: Muster biopolitischer Raumordnung,” in Ludger Schwarte (ed.) Auszug aus dem Lager: Zur Überwindung des modernen Raumparadigmas in der politischen Philosophie, Bielefeld: transcript, 2007, 268–284

• „‚Die europäische Stadt‘ – Geschichte und Kritik eines Konzepts“, European Urbanism Lecture Series, Bauhaus-University Weimar, June 27, 2024
• “Reading the Environment: ILAUD, the ‘User’ and Cities in Transformation”, SUDHT – Symposium of Urban Design History and Theory, TU Delft, November 2, 2023
• “Architecture as a Medium of Connectivity: On the History of the ‘User’, Alliance4Tech Workshop “Wires, Waves, Data: Excavating Berlin’s Urban Media”, TU Berlin, September 7, 2023
• “Social Mobility Hurts: Berlin’s Märkisches Viertel in Film and Sociology, c. 1970,” conference Urban Modernisation and Representations of the Working Class (1950–1975), University of Salford, May 26, 2023
• “After 1967: On the Origins of the Conflict between Reference and Contemporaneity in Architecture,” conference Reference and Contemporaneity in Architecture, Goethe University Frankfurt a.M., May 12, 2023
• “Ströme und Zonen: Zur Modellbildung im Städtebau,” lecture series “Städtebau-Kolloquium”, University of Stuttgart, May 2, 2023
• “Designing (for) the ‘Milieu’: Urban Struggles and Disciplinary Conflicts in 1970s West Berlin,” session Urban Design and the Rediscovery of the History City, EAHN Conference, Madrid, June 17, 2022
• “Visualizing Population Density: Statistical Mapping and the Emergence of a New Urban Imaginary (1830–1910),” conference Making the Social World Objective, University of Zurich, November 11, 2021
• “In Search of Order: Hilberseimer’s Visual Patterns,” conference Hilberseimer: Infrastructures of Modernity, Bauhaus Museum Dessau, October 29, 2021
• Architectures of Colonialism: Constructed Histories, Conflicting Memories, with Vera Egbers, Özge Sezer, Alexandra Skedzuhn-Safir and Albrecht Wiesener, international online conference, DFG research training group 1913 “Cultural and Technological Significance of Historic Buildings,” Brandenburg University of Technology, June 16–19, 2021, https://www.architecturesofcolonialism.net/
• “Netze und Blasen: Eine Architektur- und Wissensgeschichte des ‘Nutzers’,” online lecture series “Werkstatt Architekturgeschichte,“ TU Vienna, June 8, 2021
• “Architectural Theory around 1970: Opening and Closing the Field,” session Split Cultures/New Dialogues: Research in Architectural History and Theory, EAHN Conference, Edinburgh, June 10–13, 2021
• “Blasen, Kapseln und Netze. Agenturen der Individualisierung um 1967,” conference Selbstbehältnisse. Orte und Gegenstände der Aufbewahrung von Individualität, November 15, 2019, Centre Marc Bloch
• “Henri Lefebvre, der Alltag und die Architekturtheorie der 1970er Jahre,” 6^th Colloquium Architekturwissenschaft Praktiken der Architekturforschung, HCU Hamburg, November 7, 2019
• “Neue Verkehrsformen: Die kameralistische Ordnung der Stadt um 1770,” annual conference of the German Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Zirkulation und Kontrolle: Dynamiken des 18. Jahrhunderts, Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel, September 6, 2019
• “Spielraum und Erziehungsprogramm: Zur Soziologie der Fußgängerzone um 1970,” conference Urbane Muße: Materialien, Praktiken, Repräsentationen, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, May 2, 2019
• “Das Neue Bauen und die Ästhetik der Rationalisierung,” XIV^th International Bauhaus Colloquium, Bauhaus-University Weimar, April 11, 2019