Irit Katz is Professor of Architecture and Politics at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Christ's College, and a Leverhulme Research Fellow (2025-26). Her academic work focuses on built environments shaped in extreme conditions, including spaces of displacement, conflict, and environmental changes, in historic and contemporary contexts. Her research has won numerous recognitions including the Mellon/SAH Author Award, the RIBA President’s Award for Research, and the John Urry Mobilities Prize.

The crisis of culture is a crisis of imagination. In our podcast with Irit Katz, we addressed this very problem, looking at the context of crises going on today; and the need for new ways of imagining a liveable future. A liveable future is about the bonum commune, the common good, it emphasizes the role of the community; instead of maximizing the benefits of single individuals, as is the case in today’s global capitalist world view.

According to Irit, imagination is not confined to art or mere aesthetics in its common understanding, it is a necessity of life. In regards to shaping a better future, we have to focus on collective forms of imagining, says Irit, instead of still being stuck in traditional forms of imaginaries. In this context, she addressed “classical” utopias, being detached from concrete situations and local needs, and their practical impact in shaping cities and communities until today. Based on her practical work, Irit advocates for a “situated approach” as she calls it, and for the need to train imagination. In this context, there is a difference between imagination - thinking the new - and imaginaries as ideas about a future that are stuck in the past; such as the idea of the nation state, existing capitalism with its image of the human, or the inability to see contexts. New forms and ways of a collective consciousness had been discussed with Irit, as well as a new understanding of order as a flexible, viable structure, not a rigid frame not allowing for change. Such a new concept of order is mandatory for community-based imagination and hence, for a liveable future on our planet.

Die heutige Wohnraumsituation ist von zentraler Bedeutung für Raum und Gemeinschaft, dem Leitthema unserer Stiftung. In unserem Podcast mit dem Baden-Badener Betriebswirt Karl-Werner Farkhou, geschäftsführendem Gesellschafter von zwei Firmen zur Hausverwaltung, wurden neben Fragen der Wohnraumsituation auch Aspekte zur Lösung dieser Problematik behandelt. Vor dem Hintergrund des Gemeinwohls standen Faktoren zur Debatte, die in ihrem Zusammenwirken die bestehende Wohnraumproblematik ausmachen und verschärfen. In diesen Zusammenhängen wurden machbare Lösungen besprochen, um besagte Problematik zu entschärfen.

In this podcast with Miriam Samir Rincón, it is about the preservation of the cultural heritage of the Chinampas system in Mexico City. The Chinampas belong to UNESCO Cultural Heritage and are a unique blend of ecological and cultural sustainability from Aztec times onwards. Now, this unique life space is endangered by urban sprawl, corrupted policies, pollution, and tourism.

Miriam, holding a prize-awarded degree in architecture from University of Notre Dame, is an architect, urban designer, and heritage advocate whose work explores the intersection of culture, ecology, and the built environment. Her research focuses on the restoration of living cultural landscapes, particularly the chinampa system of Xochimilco, examining how traditional knowledge and ecological systems can inform the future of cities.

Her work has earned international recognition, including the Urban Guild Award, and the Hereditas Urbium Prize. Her work has been featured in The Art of the New Urbanism, published by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). She served as Director of Projects at INTBAU Mexico, where she led heritage-led design and educational initiatives. Miriam is currently an Urban Designer at Moule & Polyzoides, internationally recognized pioneers and advocates of traditional architecture, urbanism, and place-based community design.