J ana Culek is an architect, urbanist, researcher and illustrator from Croatia, living and working in Zagreb. She is the founder of Studio Fabula, an architecture and urban design office which was founded in Delft (Netherlands), but is now also active in Zagreb. Since 2023 she is part of the teaching staff at the Urban Studies postmaster specialist program led by DeltaLab in Rijeka. In 2018 she began working on her PhD at the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, researching utopian projects in architecture and literature, and is set to defend her thesis in 2023. After gaining her masters degree in architecture and urban planning form the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb, Croatia, where she is originally from, she completed the postgraduate master program from The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design as a part of the Berlage Generation XXV. Her research and design interests revolve around the topics of architectural representation, narrative structures and utopias. Working within the borders of architecture, urbanism, illustration and storytelling, she focuses and critically reflects on architectural representation and the formation of architectural thought. Her projects focus on architectural stories and the textual and visual representation of those stores. In her work, she employs narrative as a catalyst for creating spatial sequences which are illustrated through text and drawings.

Contact

janaculek[at]studiofabula.eu

j.culek[at]tudelft.nl

info[at]studiofabula.eu

Education

2018 – 2022

TU Delft Faculty of Architecture
PhD researcher

2014 – 2016

The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design, Delft, NL

2007 – 2013

Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, HRV

Professional Experience

2017 – present

Studio Fabula, Delft, NL

Founder, architect

2016 – 2019

Kaan Architecten, Rotterdam, NL

Architect

2013 – 2014

Urbanisticki institut Hrvatske, Zagreb, HRV

Architect

Teaching  Experience

Urban Studies, DeltaLab, University of Rijeka

– Spring 2023 – 

Research Based Design Studio 1 & 2 – design studio held during the second semester of the postmaster specialist program, co-tutor with Ida Krizaj Leko and Leo Modricin

– Fall 2022 – 

Project Communication – seminar held during the first semester of the postmaster specialist program

Chair of Methods and Analysis, Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment, TU Delft

– Spring 2021 –

Transdisciplinary Encounters – Architecture and Literature – architectural design studio, MSc2, co-tutor with prof. Klaske Havik

– Fall 2020 –

Positions: Delft Lectures on Architectural Design and Research Methods – lecture series and theory seminar, Msc1, tutor for one of the seminar research groups on the topic of Image

– Fall 2019 –

Probing into Precedents: Skopje – research seminar incorporated with the graduation studio, Msc3, tutor

Positions: Delft Lectures on Architectural Design and Research Methods – lecture series and theory seminar, Msc1, tutor for one of the seminar research groups on the topic of Monumentality

– Spring 2019 –

Probing into Precedents: Skopje – research seminar incorporated with the graduation studio, Msc3, co-tutor with dr. Aleksandar Stanicic

– Fall 2018 –

Roles of the Architect – seminar, Msc1, co-tutor with Robert Gorny

2020

Urban Maestro Masterclass on Urban Design Governance (urbanmaestro.org) , tutor

Lectures

2022

Utopia as Critical Method – Lecture and workshop held as part of the Utopic Horizzons program organized by the Otherwise group of the Wageningen University (NL)

Dystopian/Utopian – Lecture held as part of the Private_Eye_Butler_Spy exhibition held at the ARCAM in Amsterdam

Drawing as Research – Presentation held during the Rosenberg Talks: Part 1 – Drawing as Object of Knowledge, a symposium organized by KU Leuven

Between Words and Buildings – Keynote lecture at the Crossing the Line symposium organized by the University of Brighton (UK)

2021

NOWHERE – Imagining the Global City – two-part talkshow recorded at the Nederlands Fotomuseum, with architect Kristian Koreman, co-founder of ZUS.cc (Zones Urbaines Sensibles, Rotterdam), moderated by Fátima Mzallassi, on the architectural and urban images, visions, and utopias. Organised at the occasion of NOWHERE – Imagining The Global City exhibition, by photographer Frank van der Salm

Part 1 video

Part 2 video

F / A Fake Authentic – Life of the Others – Lecture series organised by F / A Fake Authentic and AMArchitecture 

Lecture video

2020

History of the Computer in Architecture – Architecture Now 22 – Live conversation at Pakhuis de Zwijger, with Teresa Fankhänel (Architekturmuseum der TUM), Sandra Youkhana and Luke Caspar Pearson (You+Pea, The Bartlett), moderated by Indira van ’t Klooster, on the occasion of The Architecture Machine exhibition at Architekturmuseum der TUM and my exhibited project (Temple for the Pictures)

Conversation video

Examining Utopias – paper presentation as part of the Practice of Architectural Research Symposium

Lecture video

Powers of Utopia – presentation as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2020 Symposium

The Disappearance of Architectural Utopias – paper presentation as part of the AMPS London 2020 Conference – The City and Complexity – Life, Design and Commerce in the Built Environment

Lecture video

2019

A Good Life ABC – book presentation as part of artist talks event at the Experimental Diagramming – Between Spatial Figuration and Abstraction exhibition at the Architekturmuseum of TU Berlin

Utopia as Urban Testing Ground – paper presentation held at the (Un)fair Cities – Equity, Ideology and Utopia in Urban Texts held in Limerick

Drawing as Research – presentation held as part of the Berlage alumni and student meet-up in Porto

Utopia as a Speculative Method in Architecture – lecture held as part of the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture Research Week in the format of a Peer Review Colloquium

Drawings and Texts as a Method of Architectural Research – Recent Work – lecture  held in May at the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb as part of the “Architects about the Architectural Drawing” lecture series

2018

Architecture Picturebook – lecture held at the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb as part of the “Architects about the Architectural Drawing” lecture series

2016

A Flat Tale: The Picturebook as an Architectural Project – presented at the Drawing Futures Conference at  The Bartlett School of Architecture, London

Publications

2023

Utopia as Urban Testing Ground (upcoming) – chapter contribution in Utopia, Ideology and Equity in Urban Texts. Fair and Unfair Cities, ed. Michael G. Kelly and Mariano Paz , Palgrave Macmillan 

Dystopian Optimism: Reading “The Planet as a Festival” (upcoming) – article in the OASE #114 – Optimism or Bust, ed. Stefan Devoldere, David Peleman, Jantje Engels

2022

Examining Utopias – Comparative Scales as a Transdisciplinary Research Method  – chapter in The Hybrid Practitioner, ed. Caroline Voet, Eireen Schreurs, Helen Thomas, Leuven University Press

Read the Book

A Good Life ABC – project publication in Construction and Design Manual: Experimental Diagrams in Architecture, ed. Lidia Gasperoni, DOM Publishers

Buy the Book

“Utopia” – Glossary contribution for the Women Writing Architecture platform

Glossary

The Flying Bunker – project coauthored with Nishi Shah, published as part of Safe New World, ed. Salomon Frausto, The Berlage

2021

“AMS to AM5 – Een eigentijdse utopie?” – review text of the “AMS to AM5” project created by The Why Factory (TU Delft) in collaboration with the AMS Institute, published on ArchiNed

Read the article

2020

“Utopie als kritische methode” – feature on the ArchiNed website

Read Dutch version

Read English version

“Forms of Utopia” – text and research drawings published as part of the Writingplace journal #4

Download article

“Anti-utopia” and “Ideal Cities” – two terms published in Vademecum: 77 Minor Terms for Writing Urban Places, edited by Klaske Havik, Kris Pint, Svava Riesto and Henriette Steiner

Temple for the Pictures,  project drawings and process –  published in The Architecture Machine: The Role of Computers in Architecture, edited by Teresa Fankhänel and Andres Lepik, The Architekturmuseum TUM

Book

2018

“Public Domain” – published in: Showing – Alternative Designs for Museums; Non Architecture Competitions

2017

“Telling Tales” – published in: Archifutures,  Vol.3 – The Site; &Beyond and DPR Barcelona

Link to publication

2016

“A Flat Tale: The Picturebook as an Architectural Project” – published in: Drawing Futures, Publication and Conference; UCL Press, The Bartlett School of Architecture, London

Link to Book

“A Flat Tale” – parts of projects published in: Fairy Tales Volume 3; Blank Space

Lexicon no.2 Agency – Advocacy – Authorship; The Berlage

“A Flat Tale” – published in: Scenes from the Good Life; The Berlage

Exhibitions

Dystopian/Utopian, conceptual design project – project exhibited as part of the Private_Eye_Butler_Spy exhibition at Arcam

Exhibition website

November 2020

The Flying Bunker, theoretical design project- project coauthored with Nishi Shah, exhibited as part of Safe New World Berlage Design Masterclass, led by Theo Deutinger

October 2020 – June 2021

“Temple for the Pictures” exhibited as part of Die Architekturmachine (The Architecture Machine) exhibition at Architekturmuseum TUM in Munich

Exhibition website

2019

“A Good Life ABC” – book exhibited as part of the Experimental Diagramming. Between Spatial Figuration and Abstraction exhibition at the Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Berlin

“Movement from Below” – Pop-up book exhibited at the Hongerige Wolf Festival in the Netherlands

Paromlin – Exhibition of winning competition proposals – held in Zagreb

2018

“Movement from Below” exhibited at Prix de Rome Architecture 2018 – Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam

2016

“Constructed Landscapes”, drawing – exhibited at: Land(e)scape. Drawing exhibition in a domesticated landscape; Artwort, Naples

“A Flat Tale”, architectural project as a set of books – exhibited at: Scenes from the Good Life; Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft

2015

“The Strip”, architectural project – exhibited at: “Project NL”, Exhibition, Post Office, Rotterdam

Competitions (selection)

2021

Tresnjevka Market – architectural and urban planing competition, collaboration with Dora Jerbic Oliveira, Zagreb, HR

2020

Centrum Boortmeerbeek – Masterplan – Invited competition – Boortmeerbeek, BE

Hof van Lent – Housing – Competition – Collaboration with Instill Studio – Nijmegen, NL

The Power Game – exhibition proposal – London, GB

2019

Tampere Green Link – Masterplan – Tampere, FI

Forrest, Square, Field – Masterplan – Trogir, HR

2018

Paromlin – Zagreb’s New Public Library – Awarded 5th Prize – Zagreb, HR

Learn, Stay, Play – YAC – Laveno Mombello, IT

Movement from Below – Prix de Rome 2018 – Project exhibited at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam – Groningen, NL

2017

Non Architecture Competitions: Showing – Honourable Mention, featured in publication

Europan – Amsterdam Piarcoplein – Amsterdam, NL

Tilburg Viewing Tower

A Temple for Hilma – Editor’s Choice Award

2016

Fairy Tales – Featured in publication

Future Architecture Platform – Featured in Archifutures publication

2015

Design a Beautiful House

2014

Aluartforum

2013

Delta Rijeka – Collaboration with GRAS Architects – one of 10 finalists

2011

Think Space – Moral Borders

Europan – Dubrovnik

Oistat Theatre Architecture

d3 – Housing of Tomorrow

2010

Cilnica and Pavlinski Square and Potok Street in Senj

Home for the Elderly and Public Park in Labin