Koenraad Danneels

Koenraad Danneels, trained as a historian and urban planner, is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in the theory and history of urbanism at the KULeuven. His research is positioned at the nexus of urbanism, landscape architecture, ecology, and activism. Throughout his career, he is committed to develop research in which history is used as a lens and method in urbanism and spatial planning debates, through which he builds critical perspectives and actively engages with contemporary urban questions. He specifically focuses on the twentieth century history of (ecological) urbanism and urban metabolism thinking, the creation of ‘compensation’ natures, and the development of a more-than-human urbanism, using theoretical frameworks derived from Urban Political Ecology, Ecological Urbanism, Science and Technology Studies, and Environmental History. In his PhD research defended at the University of Antwerp and KU Leuven in 2021, he explored the complex translation of ideas from the ecological sciences to urbanism in Belgium through various case studies spanning the twentieth century, focusing on discourses, networks, and designs. In his postdoctoral research, he includes the study of grassroots movements and activists in the elaboration of different forms of ecological urban design. He is currently active as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University.