Projects per year
Personal profile
Personal profile
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.
Research interests
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.
Experience
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
Teaching
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)
Awards and honours
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
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Related documents
Education/Academic qualification
Ph.D., Center for Advanced Inquiry in the Integrative Arts (CAiiA), Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth, UK - 2011
Postgraduate Diploma, Media Art (Fine Art), University of Arts and Design at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany - 2003 // postgr. qualification at the Masters level
Dipl.-Ing. Architect, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT formerly University of Karlsruhe TH), Germany - 1999 // RIBA Part 2 equivalent
Keywords
- NA Architecture
- N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
- BH Aesthetics
Person Types
- Staff
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 1 Active
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Strategies for integrating empirical approaches to embodied cognition into architectural design processes
1/09/19 → 3/07/24
Project: Internal Research Project
Research output
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Editorial: Rethinking research with methodologies of art practice
Westermann, C., 20 Mar 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Technoetic Arts. 22, 1Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Symphony of the Everyday – Sunset Sonata / 日常空间交响曲——日落奏鸣曲
Dong, Y., Feng, L. & Westermann, C., 7 Apr 2024Research output: Practice-based research output › Digital, Visual or Audio-visual Creative Work › Original creative work: Visual art work
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Virtual Reality and EEG in Creativity Research: Investigating the impact of designed environments on creative performance
Taherysayah, F. & Westermann, C., 23 Feb 2024, Creativity in the Age of Digital Reproduction: xArch Symposium. Springer, Vol. 343. (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering; vol. 343).Research output: Chapter in Book or Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Proceeding › peer-review
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Virtual reality and electroencephalography in architectural design: A systematic review of empirical studies
Taherysayah, F., Malathouni, C., Liang, H. N. & Westermann, C., 15 May 2024, In: Journal of Building Engineering. 85, 108611.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
Open Access -
#NewMacy ACT I: Redefining Stability (RSD11)
Bunnell, P., Castellanos, C., Chapman, D., Doyle, K., Fang, X. Z., Giancola, M., Lieber, M., McLeish, TJ., Pangaro, P., Pinsker, E., Richards, L., Salvaggio, E., Steier, F., Sullivan, M. & Westermann, C., 30 Apr 2023, Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD11): Possibilities and Practices of Systemic Design. May, C., Sweeting, B., Jones, P. & Matic, G. (eds.). Systemic Design Association, Vol. RSD11 | 2022. 6 p. (Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design; vol. RSD11).Research output: Chapter in Book or Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Proceeding › peer-review
Open Access
Activities
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Invited keynote: The enactive approach to minds, bodies and worlds | a shift in perspective
Claudia Westermann (Speaker)
Nov 2025Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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Scientific Committee | RSD13: Rivers of Conversations (Event)
Claudia Westermann (Member)
21 Jul 2024 → 24 Oct 2024Activity: Membership › Membership of committee
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Living Cybernetics: An Experimental Glossary
Claudia Westermann (Speaker) & Kate Doyle (Speaker)
18 Jun 2024Activity: Talk or presentation › Presentation at conference/workshop/seminar
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Observing Observing
Claudia Westermann (Speaker)
16 Jun 2024Activity: Talk or presentation › Presentation at conference/workshop/seminar
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Cybernetics of Caring | Caring through Cybernetics}
Howard Silverman (Speaker) & Claudia Westermann (Speaker)
16 Jun 2024Activity: Talk or presentation › Presentation at conference/workshop/seminar