Claudia Westermann is a Senior Associate Professor in Architecture and licensed as a practising architect with the German Chamber of Architects. She holds post-graduate degrees in Architecture and Media Art from the Karlsruhe University of Technology (KIT) and the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Germany respectively, obtaining a Ph.D. from the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Integrative Arts (CAiiA), Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth, UK. Her Ph.D. was supervised by the renowned pioneer in telematic art, Prof. Roy Ascott.Dr. Westermann worked in architectural practice for several years before founding her own studio with a focus on trans-disciplinary projects at the threshold of art, technology and architectural design. Her works have been widely exhibited and presented, including at the Venice Biennale (Architecture), the Moscow International Film Festival, ISEA Symposium for the Electronic Arts, the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany. The project Seats For Seeing, which she created in collaboration with colleagues at XJTLU, was installed in Fujian, China, in 2019.Claudia Westermann’s research is informed by second-order cybernetics, actualising in inter-disciplinary projects concerned with the ecologies, poetics, and philosophies of art and architectural design. In recent years, her research has increasingly engaged with Asian/Chinese positions. The research aims to advance the understanding of Art, including Design, as a performative process that creates limits rather than limitations and, is, therefore, a discipline of radical communication that always seeks to extend itself towards an Other – the unknown – addressing it without pre-quantifying it to render it scientifically verifiable.

Claudia Westermann is a member of the Editorial Organism of the ESCI listed journal Technoetic Arts, founded by Prof. Roy Ascott. She was elected Vice President of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) for the 01.2024-12.2026 three year term.

Administrative posts at XJTLU have included the Programme Director of the BEng(Hons) Architecture and the Chair of the Departmental Learning and Teaching Committee with shared membership in the Universitys Learning and Teaching Committee from 2015 to 2018. She is currently the designated marketing coordinator and chairs the Design School's Learning and Teaching Work Group on Electives.

Her website is at https://www.litra-design.com.

Claudia Westermann’s research is informed by second-order cybernetics, actualising in interdisciplinary projects concerned with the ecologies, poetics, and philosophies of art and architectural design. In recent years, her research has increasingly engaged with Asian/Chinese positions. It aims to advance the understanding of Art, including Design, as a performative process that creates limits rather than limitations and, is therefore, a discipline of radical communication that always seeks to extend itself towards an Other – the unknown – addressing it without pre-quantifying it to render it scientifically verifiable. Since August 2020, Dr. Westermann is a member of the Editorial Organism of the ESCI listed journal Technoetic Arts, founded by Prof. Roy Ascott. She was elected to the Executive Board of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) as Member-at-Large for the 01.2021-12.2023 three year term.

Claudia Westermann welcomes ideas and proposals from potential PhD students in all areas of her research expertise. She specifically encourages candidates to get in touch who are interested in exploring themes related to art, architecture and urban development in China. In this context, one could imagine studies exploring the relations between art and architectural design, between Western and Eastern Aesthetics, studies related to place making in the networked city, and to urbanisation and heritage (memory), just to name a few. Candidates with an interest in digital tools for place making, and in the design of augmented spaces could also be linked to recent research conducted with Hai-Ning Liang of the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. The Department has a limited number of scholarships available for outstanding PhD applicants, covering the tuition fees and providing a monthly stipend of 5000 RMB.

EMPLOYMENTS, higher education and practice

Senior Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University - 2016 to Present

Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University - 2012 to 2016

Univ.Ass. postdoc. (Senior Lecturer), Institute of Architecture and Design, Faculty of Architecture, Vienna University of Technology - 2006 to 2010

Architect (in Practice), Rossmann Partner Architekten, Karlsruhe, Germany, 1999-2001

Architectural Assistant, Rossmann Partner Architekten, Karlsruhe, Germany, 1994-1998 (PT)

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LITRA, CEO

Founder, LITRA :: Laboratory for Inhabitable Theories and Research in Architecture, 2001 to present

Professional licensure and registration, German Architects Chamber section Baden-Wuerttemberg, 2001

ARC308 Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics (module leader)

ARC304 Final Year Project (module leader / tutor)

ARC107 History of Western Architecture (co-teacher)

ARC204 Small Urban Buildings (tutor)

ARC407 Architectural Theory and Criticism (module leader)

ARC305 Small and Medium Scale Buildings (tutor)

ARC001 Introduction to Architecture and Visual Culture (tutor)

ARC407 Architectural Theory and Criticism (module leader)

ARC413 Design Studio 3 (tutor)

ARC411 Practice Based Enquiry and Architectural Representation (module leader)

ARC410 Design Studio 4 (tutor)

ARC305 Small and Medium Scale Buildings (module leader / tutor)

ARC205 Design and Building Typology (tutor)

ARC204 Small Urban Buildings (tutor)

ARC105 Small Space Design (module leader)

ARC101 Design Thinking and Articulation (module leader)

ARC001 Introduction to Architecture and Visual Culture (tutor)

2020 XJTLU Best Final Year Project (Part 1) in Architecture award for the FYP project The Re-Enchantment of Nature in the Post-Anthropocene by Zuo Annan. Tutor recognition. Shared first prize. Project nominated for the RIBA Bronze Medal and available from the RIBA President’s Medals website.

2018 Final Year Project of Li Shaokang, co-tutored with A. Raonic in 2016-17, awarded with a second prize in the Jiangsu Province Department of Education Final Year Project Awards. Tutor award.

2017 Outstanding Design Brief award for Final Year Project studio brief: Framing Indeterminacy, co-author with Aleksandra Raonic, 2017 National Architectural Education Annual Symposium in Shenzhen, China.

2017 Outstanding Design Studio Coursework award for Li Shaokang’s FYP ’A Palimpsest of Old Shanghai’, tutor award, co-tutored with Aleksandra Raonic, 2017 National Architectural Education Annual Symposium in Shenzhen, China.

2017 Outstanding Design Studio Coursework award for Shao Fuwei’s FYP ’Shifting Perspectives in the Urban Theatre’, tutor award, co-tutored with Aleksandra Raonic, 2017 National Architectural Education Annual Symposium in Shenzhen, China.

2017 Best Final Year Project in Architecture award for Li Shaokang (FYP co-tutor with Aleksandra Raonic), Xiapos;an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

2016 Final Year Project of Wang Siyao, tutored in 2014-15, awarded with a third prize in Jiangsu Province;, Department of Education, Jiangsu Province, PR China

2016 Best Final Year Project in Architecture award for Bian Zhifan - shared with two other students (FYP co-tutor with Aleksandra Raonic), Xiapos;an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

2015 Best Final Year Project in Architecture award for Wang Siyao (FYP tutor), Xiapos;an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

2014 Best Final Year Project in Architecture award for Huang Chien-hua (FYP tutor), Xiapos;an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

2014 SIP Excellent Educator Award, Suzhou Industrial Park

2014 Nomination by year 4 students for the apos;Best Teacherapos; Award, Xiapos;an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

2014 Most Innovative Teaching Practice - University Award 2014 (winner), Xiapos;an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

2003 Nomination of the video composition apos;btd xapos; in the category animation, International Festival of Cinema and Technology, New York, USA

2002 Good design medal Hugo H#xe4;ring Preis - while employed at Rossmannamp;Partner Architects, received as a member of the design team responsible for the reconstruction of Mann Mobilia Karlsruhe, BDA (German RIBA equivalent)

2001 First Purchase, competition entry, Two New Buildings for the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hildesheim, Germany (3600 sqm / 10 Mio Euro), lead designer, in cooperation with Planum Architects, Baden-Baden, Germany

1997 A Monument for the Karhum#xe4;ki Brothers, competition, 4th Prize, City of Kuorevesi, Finland

1996 Erasmus scholarship, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

1986 , Canada scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and Education Baden-W#xfc;rttemberg, Germany amp;#8211; 3 months