Gitte Schreurs (1992) is Doctor of Architecture and postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven.

She graduated as an architect at the Faculty of Architecture, KU Leuven, Campus Ghent in 2015. Her graduation project ‘Collective Structures’ received magna cum laude and was nominated for the Steel Award.

She gained several years of experience as an architect in practice (2015-2018) in the fields of architecture, urban design, design of public space, and the relation between architecture and the public realm. During these years, she combined working in practice with part-time academic research. Since 2018, Gitte is a full-time researcher and teacher at KU Leuven, Department of Architecture. Her PhD, funded by an FWO fundamental research grant, was concluded in February 2022. Currently, she works as a post-doctoral researcher and teaches Elective and Design Studio courses in the 1st and 2nd Master of KU Leuven.

Gitte Schreurs’ doctoral research was entitled ‘Insight on the reconfiguration of vulnerable industrial waterfronts facing shocks and stresses’ and considered Coney Island Creek in Brooklyn, New York, as its main case study.
This research has provided critical insights on the spatial translation of shocks and stresses into the urban fabric, and the consequential transformation of vulnerable post-industrial waterfronts. Her research focused on the post-industrial coastline of New York City with comparative analyses of spatial, social, economic, and environmental transformations of multiple coastal areas in the city. The main case study, the Coney Island Creek neighborhood in the South of Brooklyn, has been studied in-depth by a multi-scalar and multi-layered approach. This case has served as an exemplary case for the needed transformation of vulnerable post-industrial waterfronts in metropoles.

In her post-doctoral research, Gitte is testing the research methodology of the PhD on other cases in both New York City and in Brussels. With this new research, she investigates how spatial qualities in different built environments enhance local social and economic processes.

Gitte has been collaborating in several workshops and masterclasses in New York since 2014. She organizes summer schools in New York and teaches master students at KU Leuven, focusing on the topic of her research.
Additionally, Gitte is an active part of the follow-up committee of the NYhub.

 

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