The Cass staff profiles content store_hidden Dr Kirsten Jeske Thompson Our staff

Kirsten is a chartered architect in the UK and South Africa. She completed her architectural training in South Africa, and went on to do achieve her Interdisciplinary Design in the Built Environment MA at Cambridge.

Kirsten's research in Cambridge served as springboard for her doctoral research under supervisors Prof. Matthew Barac, Prof. Maurice Mitchell, and Prof. Peter Carl, while starting :nhab:t architects' studio as a vehicle for implementing intervention projects and undertaking further research.

Kirsten's research engages placemaking and the city.

Her PhD focused on the neo-Apartheid city and what is called 'intervention forensics' in pursuit of upgrading livelihoods through architecture and placemaking and upgrading of 'shack urbanity' – the peri-urban development of place on the periphery of host cities.

As an early career researcher, Kirsten continues to further develop threads of outcomes from her PhD.

This includes writing papers and implementating of the Shack Urbanity Intervention Tool that was developed as a methodology for intervention for upgrade projects that seek to provide housing as a means to bring citizens out of poverty.

1. UN-Habitat World Urban Forum: member of South African delegation to Kuala Lumpur
2. Design Director at London based architects' practice
3. Director at :nhab:t architects studio - researching and implementing placemaking and Shack Urbanity Intervention Tool following methodologies of visualisation of intervention forensics
4. Board Member and Chairperson of the Built Environment chapter at BIDC, South Africa, strategising and implementing community development projects

Thompson, K., (2016) Visualising Process and the Actors of Change: Settlement Upgrading in Duncan Village, East London in Upgrading Informal Settlements in South Africa - A Partnership Based Approach. UCT Press. Cape Town. South Africa.

Dr Kirsten Jeske Thompson
Research Assistant in Architecture
Email Kirsten