Since 2014
Chair of International Urbanism Department and Co-Director of the Institute for Urban Planning and Design, University of Stuttgart and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning
Course Director of the Masters’ Degree Program on Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD)
2014
Urban Development Research Analyst. German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU)
2011 – 2014
Post-Doctoral Researcher. Habitat Unit, Technical University Berlin
DFG-Project: “Housing for the Urban Poor: From Local Action to Global Networks”
2009
Doctor of Engineering (Dr.-Ing. in Architecture),Technical University Berlin
Dissertation: “Housing as Governance. Interfaces between Local Government and Civil Society Organisations in Cape Town, South Africa”
Since 2004
Consultant for urban development and trainer to bilateral and international development agencies (oikos human settlements research group)
2003 – 2013
Member of the teaching and research team. Habitat Unit, Technical University Berlin
2001
Graduate Engineer (Dipl.-Ing. in Architecture and Urban Design), Rheinisch-Westfälisch Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen
CV Summary
Prof. Dr. Astrid Ley is Chair to the Department of International Urbanism, co-director of the Institute for Urban Planning and Design (Städtebau-Institut) and course director of the international masters’ program on Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD) and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Stuttgart. Her expertise in urban development has led her to work as a consultant for the oikos human settlements research group. She holds a degree in architecture and urban design from Rheinisch-Westfälisch Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen and a Doctor of Engineering degree from the Technical University Berlin (TU Berlin).
Professionally, she started as project coordinator of the Bundesweite Servicestelle Lokale Agenda 21 at Agenda-Transfer in Bonn. Later on, she joined the teaching and research staff at Habitat Unit at TU Berlin where she lectured on urban design and urban management. In 2010, she held a lectureship position at the School of Architecture and Planning in the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa).
Before joining the University of Stuttgart, she was a research analyst on urban development for the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) as well as a senior researcher at Habitat Unit at TU Berlin in the project “Housing for the Urban Poor: From Local Action to Global Networks”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Her field of expertise and publications comprise diverse topics related to urbanization processes in the Global South with an emphasis on informality, housing and upgrading processes, local governance, community-led processes, participation, and co-production in urban development. Furthermore, she has been co-editor of the series “HABITAT-INTERNATIONAL – Schriften zur internationalen Stadtentwicklung / Series on International Urbanism” published by transcript Verlag.
PUBLICATIONS AND EXPERTISE (SELECTION)
Ley, A. (together with Lakshika Meetiyagoda, Susantha Amarawickrama & P.K.S. Mahanama) (2024): ‘Spiraling up: Sense of place with co-creation experiences insights from Crow Island Beach Park, Sri Lanka’. In: Habitat International, Volume 154, December 2024, 103219
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2024.103219
Ley, A. (together with L. Meetiyagoda, P.K.S. Mahanama & S. Amarawickrama) (2024): ‘A ladder of sense of place: Case study of Crow Island Beach Park, Sri Lanka’. In: Cities, Vol. 145, 104695, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2023.104695
Ley, A. (together with J. Fokdal & J.H.J. Cortes) (2023): ‘Mismatches in the Production of Social Housing in the Global South’. In: Simon Güntner/Juma Hauser/Judith M. Lehner/Christoph Reinprecht (eds): The Social Dimension of Social Housing. Leipzig: Spector Books
Ley, A. (together with F. Schreiber & J. Fokdal) (2023): ‘A Catalyst for Innovation? A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing the Potential of Urban Experiments to Transform Urban Planning Practices’. In: Planning Theory & Practice (The Taylor & Francis Group / Routledge), 20 April 2023: https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2023.2199460
Ley, A. (together with L. Fischer, S. Guenat & F. Schreiber) (2023): ‘Stuttgart meets superblocks: rediscovering streets as urban living rooms through a transdisciplinary and intercultural teaching approach’. In: Carlos Gotlieb & ENSAP Bordeaux & ADERA (eds) (2023), 15th Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU) at the Bordeaux National School of Architecture and Landscape 2022: Internationalizing Education for the Ecological Transition Challenge: New Stakes for Sharing Knowledge and Acting in a Changing World. Conference Proceedings.Topic 1: “New interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches for facing global changes and their local impact”, Section B: “Reviewing territorial practices through cross-scale and
cross-cultural approaches”, pp. 161–173
Ley, A. (together with F. Schreiber, J. Nöldeke, Š.Setzen, and C. Kropp) (2022): ‘The Social Quality of Design-Build: Lessons Learnt from Higher Education’. In: Sustainability 2022, 14, 10816. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710816
Ley, A. (together with E. Keunen) (2022): ‘Understanding residential mobility: Why the African context matters’. In: Journal of Urban Affairs. Published online on 10 June 2022: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07352166.2022.2063134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2022.2063134
Ley, A. (together with J. Fokdal & F. Schreiber) (2021): Participatory design of people-centered cities – How to shape the future we want? Young urban experts take on the steps needed ahead. Stuttgart: Department of International Urbanism, University of Stuttgart. Recommendation paper published on behalf of Robert Bosch Foundation.
Ley, A. (together with C. Kropp, S. Ottenburger, U. Ufer) (2021): ‘Making intelligent cities in Europe climate-neutral. About the necessity to integrate technical and socio-cultural innovations’. In: TATuP (Zeitschrift für Technologiefolgenabschätzung in Theorie und Praxis / Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice) 30/1, Special Topic: Climate-neutral and intelligent cities in Europe. Leading article, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), pp. 11-16, https://doi.org/10.14512/tatup.30.1.11
Ley, A. (together with K. Ackermann, S. Beretta, S. Busch, J. Dieterle, M. El-Shahat, J.Hosni, F. Laue,Y. Moustanjidi, and V. Stützel) (2021): ‘Public Usable Space as a Catalyst for Quality of Life Improvement The Case of Cape Town’s Social Farming Projects’. In: J. Martinez et al. (eds.), Handbook of Quality of Life and Sustainability, International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life, Springer Nature, pp. 469-495, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50540-0_1
Ley, A., Rahman, Md Ashiq Ur (eds.) (2020): Housing and Human Settlements in a World of Change, Habitat-International Series on International Urbanism, transcript, Bielefeld, https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839449424
Rahman, Md. Ashiq Ur and Ley, A. (2020): ‘Micro-credit vs. Group savings – different pathways to promote affordable housing improvements in urban Bangladesh’. In: Habitat International 106, 102292, pp. 1-9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2020.102292
Rahman, Md. Ashiq Ur and Ley, A. (2020): ‘Institutionalising informal networks of the urban poor under an enabling paradigm: a case study on Greenland slum of Khulna city in Bangladesh’. In: International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 12 (2), pp. 187-201, https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2020.1719498
Ley, A. (2019): ‘Community Resilience and Placemaking through Translocal Networking: Learning from Thailand and the Philippines’. In: The Journal of Public Space 4(2), pp. 165-178, https://doi.org/10.32891/jps.v4i2.1208
Ley, A. (2018): ‘Internationaler Städtebau im Kontext weltweiter Transformationsprozesse’. In: Baum, M.; Böhm, U.; Ley, A.; Schönle, D. (eds.), Lehrbausteine. Basiswissen für Entwurf und Planung. Stuttgart: Städtebau-Institut der Universität Stuttgart, pp. 9-18
Ley, A. and Fokdal, J. (2018): ‘Wer entwickelt die Stadt? Von Beteiligung zu Koproduktion im internationalen Kontext’. In: Baum, M.; Böhm, U.; Ley, A.; Schönle, D. (eds.), Lehrbausteine. Basiswissen für Entwurf und Planung. Stuttgart: Städtebau-Institut der Universität Stuttgart, pp. 375-382
Ley, A. and Fokdal, J. (2018): ‘Reallaborforschung aus internationaler (Stadtentwicklungs-)Perspektive. Transformative Ansprüche im Globalen Süden’. In: Reallabor für nachhaltige Mobilitätskultur (ed.), Stuttgart in Bewegung – Berichte von unterwegs. Berlin: Jovis.
Herrle, P., Ley, A. and Fokdal, J. (2015) (eds.): From Local Action to Global Networks: Housing the Urban Poor. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, ISBN: 978-1-4724-5051-7.
Ley, A. (2012): ‘Juggling with Formality and Informality in Housing: Some Lessons from the New South Africa’. In: Berking, S., McFarlane, C. and Waibel, M. (eds.): Urban Informalities: Reflections on the Formal and Informal. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, pp. 13-28.
Ley, A. (2010): Housing as Governance. Interfaces between Local Government and Civil Society Organisations in Cape Town, South Africa (Dissertation). Münster/Berlin: LIT Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-643-10330-7.
Herrle, P., Ley, A. and Jachnow, A. (2006): The Metropolises of the South: Laboratory for Innovations? Towards better urban management with new alliances. Development and Peace Foundation, Policy Paper 25, May 2006.
