Suzanne Harris-Brandts is co-founder of Collective Domain. She is also an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urbanism and Faculty Associate at the Institute of European, Russian & Eurasian Studies (EURUS) at Carleton University. Previously, she taught at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture & Planning (MIT-SA&P) and the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture (UWSA). In 2019, she was an Invited Lecturer at the International Black Sea University (IBSU) in Tbilisi, Georgia. Suzanne’s research brings together design and the social sciences to explore issues of power, equity, and collective identity in the built environment. It has covered topics as broad spanning as iconic state building, incentivized urbanism, tourism development, heritage preservation, urban mobility, and conflict and displacement—often foregrounding the role of designer agency. Her work has been disseminated in a range of outlets, from books to blind peer-reviewed journals, design publications, lectures, and exhibitions.
Harris-Brandts holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Waterloo and a PhD in Urban and Regional Studies from MIT. Her Master’s thesis delved into the politics of architecture and landscape in rural areas of the occupied West Bank. It received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s (RAIC) Student Medal and was featured in her co-curated exhibition “Landscapes of Resistance: The Marshall Islands and Occupied Palestinian Territories,” shown at Cambridge Galleries. Parallel to her doctoral field research, in 2017-2018, Suzanne led the research initiative Indigenous Outsiders, exploring the endangered architectural legacy of Muslim communities in Georgia’s mountainous Adjara region. It included the field documentation of over twenty remote wooden mosques built between 1817 and 1926. Suzanne then curated a traveling exhibition, publication, and website showcasing the work, funded by the Graham Foundation and the Open Society Foundation. Other areas of Harris-Brandts’ research have been generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), The Aga Khan Foundation, The Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), and MIT.
Drawing from her dissertation, which uncovers the politics of urban development and image making in capital cities, Suzanne’s current book project is entitled Constructing the Capital. It foregrounds case studies from Eurasia to look at capital city campaigns in “hybrid regimes” (part-democratic/ part-authoritarian regimes). The work demonstrates how architecture and urban design are manipulated for power retention in hybrid regimes, while also highlighting bottom-up, community-based strategies that resist such actions.
Suzanne is a licensed architect with the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) and a certified LEED AP BD+C. She has over a decade of professional experience working at design practices, including in Toronto, Vancouver, London (UK), the West Bank, and Abu Dhabi. In 2010 and 2011, she was an Architect-in-Residence with Decolonizing Architecture Art Research (DAAR), investigating the architecture and urban planning implications of de-facto political boundaries at the community level. While working at Lateral Office, she acted as deputy curator for Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15, Canada’s selection for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale which received the jury’s Special Mention. Suzanne then helped lead the Canada-wide tour of Arctic Adaptations, including showings at The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Yukon Arts Centre, Museum of Vancouver, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, and Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum. During her time at Lateral Office, Suzanne also served as primary design-researcher for the book “Many Norths: Spatial Practice in a Polar Territory” (Actar, 2017).
Publications:
Harris-Brandts, S. (In press, 2023). The Monument to Fallen Diplomats. In Davidson, T. & Dean, D. (Eds.) Monumental Memories: A Critical Reading of Memorials, Monuments, and Statues in Canada’s Capital Region. Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (Forthcoming, 2023). Re-conceptualizing the social, environmental, and political hazards associated with displacement in the Republic of Georgia. In Gaillard, J.C., Rodriguez Alarcón, M., Ocampo Go, C. (Eds.) Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Natural Hazard Science: On Cultural Perspectives. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2022). The ‘White Palace’ Party Headquarters: Architecture, Urban Design, and Power in North Macedonia. In Koch, N. (Ed.) Spatializing Authoritarianism. 86-112. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Gogishvili, D., & Harris-Brandts, S. (2022). The Urban Impacts of Second-tier Mega-Events in the Global East: The European Youth Olympic Festival in the South Caucasus. In Bignami, F., & Cuppini, N. (Eds.) Mega-Events, Urban Transformations and Social Citizenship: A Multi-Disciplinary Analysis for Epistemological Foresight. 94-113. London, UK: Routledge.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (2021). Architecture and Friendship Among Nations: The Shifting Politics of Cultural Diplomacy in Tbilisi, Georgia. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 27 (12). Taylor & Francis, 1213-1229.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Polese, A. (2021). Between Sotsgorod and Bazaar: Urbanization Dynamics in Central Asia. In Van den Bosch, J. Fauve, A. & De Cordier, B. (Eds.), European Handbook of Central Asian Studies: History, Politics and Societies. 887-922. Hanover, Germany: Ibidem-Verlag.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (2021). The Politics of Urban Recovery in a Soviet-era Resort Town: Heritage Tourism and Displaced Communities in Tskaltubo, Georgia. In Al-Harithy, H. (Ed.) Urban Recovery: Intersecting Displacement with Post War Reconstruction. 271-294. London: Routledge.
Gogishvili, D., & Harris-Brandts, S. (2021). Projecting the Future: Novel Technologies of Spectacle in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. GeoAgenda, 21(3). Association Suisse de Géographie, 8-13.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2020). Designing Activism (Interview). In Galt Publication, Issue 3, Burning, 87-90. University of Waterloo.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Gogishvili, D. (2020). Lofty Ideals in Aerial Connectivity: Ideology in the Urban Cable Car Network of Tbilisi, Georgia. Eurasian Geography & Economics, T. Taylor & Francis.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2020). [Book Review] Iconic Planned Communities and the Challenge of Change. Corbin Sies, M., Gournay, I, and Freestone, R. (Eds.). University of Pennsylvania Press. Journal of Historical Geography, 110-111.
Gogishvili, D., & Harris-Brandts, S. (2019). Coinciding practices of exception in urban development: mega-events and special economic zones in Tbilisi, Georgia. European Planning Studies, 1999-2019.
Gogishvili, D., & Harris-Brandts, S. (2019). The social and spatial insularity of internally displaced persons: “Neighborhood effects” in Georgia’s collective centres. Caucasus Survey, 7(2), 134-156.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2019). Revisiting State Spectacle Through the New Capitals of Asia [Author-Critic Forum for: The Geopolitics of Spectacle: Space, Synecdoche, and the New Capitals of Asia by N. Koch]. Central Asian Affairs. Vol. 6, No. 6.4.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Gogishvili, D. (2018). Architectural Rumors: Unrealized Megaprojects in Baku, Azerbaijan and their Politico-Economic Uses. Eurasian Geography & Economics, 59 (1), Taylor & Francis, 73-97.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2018). The Role of Architecture in the Republic of Georgia’s European Aspirations. Nationalities Papers. 46 (6), Taylor & Francis, 1118-1135.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2018). Could UNESCO World Heritage Status Help Refugee Camps? How to handle ‘refugee heritage’ from an architectural perspective. Frieze, November/December 2018, Special Issue on Decolonizing Culture. Frieze Publishing.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Gogishvili, D. (2018). Up in the Air: Traces of Aerial Connectivity in Tbilisi. In Neuburg, K., Pranz,, S., Tseretelli, W., et al. (eds.), Archive of Transition. 94-102. Niggli Verlag Publishers. Salenstein, Switzerland.
Harris-Brandts, S., Wheeler, A. & Shioshvili, V. (2018). Wooden Mosques: Islamic Architectural Heritage in Adjara, Georgia. Tbilisi, Georgia: National Research Centre for Georgian Art History & Heritage Preservation.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2017). Informal Infrastructures of Dirt, Demolition, and Sewage in the West Bank. In S. McDowell, Water Index: Design Strategies for Drought, Flooding and Contamination . 149-155. New York, New York: Actar.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2017). Georgia and the South Caucasus. In S. Piesik, HABITAT: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Planet. 327-330. London, UK: Thames & Hudson.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2016). Decentralize, Desecularize, and Deregulate! The transformation of Kutaisi, Georgia. In MONU Journal , 25 Independent Urbanism, 86-91. Bruil & van de Staaij.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2018). Building Vacancies: Tourism and Empty Real Estate in Batumi. Urbanistica Tre Journal, 15, Special Issue: Cities of the South Caucasus. Roma Tre Press, 45-56.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2013). Contesting Limits. In L. Sheppard & N. Bhatia (Eds.), Bracket: Goes Soft. New York, NY: Actar.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2013). Landscape in the West Bank. In Ground Journal, 21, Contested Terrain. Ontario Association of Landscape Architects.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2013). Unearthing Potential from Dirt, Demolition Debris, and Sewage in the West Bank. In Ground Up Journal, 2 Grit, 78-85. University of California, Berkley.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2013).Extraterritorial Activation: Harnessing Potential from the Indeterminacy of Closed Military Zones in the West Bank. In Lunch Journal, 8 Futures for Sites Unknown, 176-183. University of Virginia.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2012). Decaying Jurisdictions in the West Bank. In Shift Journal, 2 Process, 47-52. University of North Carolina.
Exhibitions and Exhibition Catalogues
Harris-Brandts, S., Sichinava, D. & Gogishvili, D. “Build it and They Will Come.” Tbilisi and Batumi, Georgia. Tbilisi Architecture Biennial - What Do We Have in Common? (2020).
Harris-Brandts, S., Wheeler, A. & Shioshvili, V. “Wooden Mosques: Islamic Heritage in the Republic of Georgia.” Tbilisi and Batumi, Georgia. Tbilisi Night of Photography (2019); National Research Centre for Georgian Art History & Heritage Preservation (2018); Contemporary Art Space Batumi (2018).
Harris-Brandts, S. “Crossing Borders - Design Responses to Global Issues in the Developing World.” The Larry Wayne Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2013).
Cambridge Galleries “Landscapes of Resistance: The Marshall Islands + Occupied Palestinian Territories”. Cambridge, ON October 2012
Presentations
Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) Annual International Conference. “Shared Islamic Architectural Heritage? Conflict over Turkey’s Foreign Mosque Building and Disempowering Local Communities.” Montreal & Online, 20-22 September 2023. *Forthcoming
British Association for Slavonic & East European Studies (BASEES) Annual International Conference. “Architecture, Spectacle, and Digital Projections in Astana, Kazakhstan.” Glasgow, Scotland, 31 March 2023. w/ D. Gogishvili.*Forthcoming
Global Consequences of Displacement from Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Space, Place and Pluralism
Conference Organizers and Presenters: Session 2: Internal Displacement: Governance. “Protracted Displacement in Georgia: Governance Issues and Ongoing Challenges to IDP Livelihood.” Global Centre for Pluralism, Ottawa, Canada, 03-04 November 2022. with J. Sahadeo; M. Nikolko; D. Carment; D. Sichinava. Paper with: D. Sichinava
Cities After Transition (CAT) Annual Meeting. Session Organizers and Presenters: Dual Sessions 5A, 5B: “The Socio-Political Impacts of Large-Scale Urban Development.” Budapest, Hungary, 27-29 June 2022. w/ D. Sichinava, D. Gogishvili.
American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting. “Exporting Authoritarian City Building: Entangled Illiberal Practices in Emirati Urban Development within Georgia.” New York, NY, USA *Online, April 2022. w/ D. Sichinava, D. Gogishvili.
Sustainability Talks 2021 - Invited Lecture. “Greenwashing for State Power Gain: The Manipulation of Iconic Eco Designs under Eurasia’s Authoritarian Regimes. Bosch Alumni Network Germany; *Online, 30 November 2021.
Kuma International Architecture Month 2021 - Invited Lecture. “Living Borders: Bosnia & Herzegovina in dialogue with Palestine.” Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina; *Online, 28 October 2021.
Trialog Annual Conference.“In-Between World”: Cooperation and collaboration between Western actors and Eastern European urban initiatives and NGOs. Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Erasmus University *Online 09 September 2021.
Architecture, Media, Politics, Society (AMPS) Conference, “Toward a New Present in Architectural Education: Looking Back to the 1960s and 1970s Avant-Garde for Introductory Design Studio Teaching.” Online due to COVID-19; 22 April 2021, with Zachary Colbert & Maya Jarrah.
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Annual Meeting. Invited Session Moderator: Culture and Heritage. Online due to COVID-19. 25 March 2021.
Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, “The Political Life of Architecture I: Power and Corruption in Skopje’s “White Palace” Party Headquarters. University of Toronto; 25 February 2021.
Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, “The Political Life of Architecture II: Soft Power and Politics in the Adaptive Reuse of Tbilisi’s Institute of Marx, Engels, and Lenin Building.” University of Toronto; 28 January 2021.
Institute of European, Russian & Eurasian Studies, “Friendship, Modernization, or Hegemony? Exploring Soft Power Design Narratives and Politics in the Conversion of Tbilisi’s Institute of Marx, Engels, and Lenin Building.” Carleton University, EURUS Program, 19 November 2020.
Write On 2020: A Themed Writing Workshop. “Rooted - Togetherness in the Built Environment.” Invited Session Lead.
Green Mobilisations in the Cities of Central Asia and South Caucasus. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan & Tbilisi, Georgia; November 2019. “Opportunities for Activist-Academic Collaboration in Soviet-era Mono-towns” American University of Central Asia, Tbilisi State University.
19th Annual Aleksanteri Conference: Technology, Culture, and Society in Eurasian Space Helsinki, Finland; October 2019. “Projecting the Future: Novel Technologies of Spectacle in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. University of Helsinki
City Debates 2019: Urban Recovery @ the Intersection of Displacement and Reconstruction. Beirut, Lebanon; April 2019. “The Politics of Urban Recovery in a Stalinist-era Resort Town: Heritage Tourism and Displaced Communities in Tskaltubo, Georgia.”
Urban Forum on Land Use and Urban Planning Practices in Cities of EU Associated Countries. Tbilisi, Georgia; March 2019. “Understanding Social Restructuring and Urban Renewal Strategies.”
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) Annual Convention Boston, MA, USA; December 2018.*Session Co-Organizer with David Sichinava: The Roles of Selective Remembering and Forgetting in Transforming Post-Socialist Cities.
Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Annual Meeting: The Continuing City. Buffalo, NY, USA; October 2018. Megaproject Rumors: The Politico-Economic Uses of Unbuilt Eco-Island Proposals in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) 19th Annual Conference. Pittsburgh, PA, USA; October 2018. Author-Critic Forum: The Geopolitics of Spectacle: Space, Synecdoche, and the New Capitals of Asia.
European Architectural History Network (EAHN). Tallinn, Estonia; June 2018. Europe’s Own Islamic Architecture: Heritage, Contestation, and Necessity
Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Annual Meeting: Cities, Regions and Growth. Denver, CO, USA; October 2017. “The Restructuring of Urban Space for Tourism in Post-Revolutionary Batumi, Georgia”
Urban Transformation: Post-Revolutionary Geographies of Cairo. Cairo, Egypt; June 2017. “The New Geographies of Capital Cities.” American University of Cairo/ Cairo University.
Space, Society, Politics – The Regional Aspects of Sustainable Development. Tbilisi, Georgia; June 2017. “Tourism Development During State Building: The Case of Post-Revolutionary Batumi, Georgia.” Tbilisi State University
American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting. Boston, MA, USA; April 2017. “The Role of Architecture in Post-Soviet Georgia’s European Aspirations.”
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Annual Meeting: The Expanding Periphery. Toronto, Canada; March 2015. “The Humanitarian Architect: Notes on Ethical Engagement” University of Toronto, Ryerson University & University of Waterloo.
After Empirical Urbanism. Toronto, Canada; February 2015. “Urbanism and Displacement” University of Toronto: John H Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.
Debating Decolonizations Conference. Kingston, Canada; September 2014. “The Architect-Activist.” Queen’s University: Department of Global Development Studies.
Thinking Architecture Symposium. Cambridge, Canada; March 2014.“Architecture and Landscape Architecture’s political forays” University of Waterloo: School of Architecture.
Between Architecture of War and Military Urbanism. Tallinn, Estonia; April 2013. “Political Economy of Land in the Occupied West Bank” Estonian Academy of Arts: Faculty of Architecture.