Dr Elahe Karimnia

About me

I am an interdisciplinary urban scholar working at the intersection of critical urban practice, spatial justice, and urban design. My work explores how public and cultural life in cities is shaped, contested, and reimagined through feminist, decolonial, collaborative, and creative approaches.

I have taught across a range of design studios and theory modules at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm) and Central Saint Martins (London). At UWE, I am co-Programme Leader for  the Architecture and Planning degree, teaching across Architecture and Planning modules, and supervising PhD, MSc, and undergraduate dissertations.

Before joining UWE, I worked as an Associate in Urban Research and Spatial Practice at Theatrum Mundi (London/Paris), contributing to projects such as Urban Backstages, Choreographing the City, and Movement Forum, which explore interdisciplinary methods between choreography, urban design, and cultural production.

Area of expertise

Research Interests

With an interest in design as social practice, my work explores transforming places and their publicness through potentials of creative temporary practices through which marginalised voices, bodies and their spatial practices offer otherwise futures to planning practice and experiential and relational element to the theoretical aspects of place-making.

My doctoral thesis, Producing Publicness (KTH Stockholm, 2018), developed a critique of the intention–outcome gap in designing publicness, highlighting the potentials of appropriations of public spaces as users’ often invisible spatio‑temporal agencies.

I am a member of Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environmnets (SPE) and Associate member of Digital Cultures Research Centre (DCRC)

Current projects

Meanwhile cultural spaces: Evaluating the impact of temporary reuse for the creative industries  

Role: Co-Principal Investigator
Funder: CATE College-building Research Fund
Project Dates: August 2023 – July 2024

The vision for rejuvenating high streets through meanwhile projects—temporary use of vacant spaces—is gaining momentum. This approach is capturing the interest of local authorities, property owners, and developers as it offers a response to contemporary crises. The value of meanwhile projects particularly as grassroots initiatives in reclaiming space for community purposes has been recognised more than before. Sparks Bristol (run by Art Space Life Space and Global Goals Centre) is a creative meanwhile project, facilitated by Bristol City Council (BCC), repurposed a former Marks and Spencer building in Bristol's city centre. By providing an interim evaluation, the aim of this project is to understand meanwhile projects as urban experiments, and the dynamics, complexities, and potentials of temporary adaptations of heritage spaces in the current economic climate.

Inclusivity in Meanwhile practices

Role: Principal Investigator
Funder: Vice Chancellor Early Career Researcher (VC ECR)
Project Dates: August 2024 – July 2026

This VC ECR funded project addresses the barriers of inclusivity in meanwhile spaces. On the one hand the research aims to explore a deeper understanding and the critical role of meanwhile spaces when vacancy is considered as one of the big issues in city centres and high streets across the UK. On the other hand, it aims to provide a critical understanding of ‘inclusivity’ as drivers for radical encounters in city, beyond representations. Such encounters are spatio-temporal and affective practices that are deeply relational, embodied, and situated. My research suggests creative methodologies [such as choreography] to explore such urban encounters that are important for pursuit of social inclusion in planning practice and placemaking.

Co-producing community-led manifesto for a sustainable neighbourhood

Role: Principal Investigator
Funder: CATE Public/Community Engagement and Knowledge Exchange (PCEKE) Fund
Project Dates: February 2026 – July 2026

Transforming inner-city industrial sites such as those in Fishponds remains challenging for urban planning and for local authorities such as Bristol City Council (BCC). These sites provide opportunities for regeneration and housing, yet their historical detachment from surrounding neighbourhoods can persist if redevelopment sidelines local perspectives on what constitutes a sustainable neighbourhood. This community engagement project aims to support the Fishponds community’s understanding of development proposals by co-creating a document that communicates their requirements. This document will establish a foundation for possible dialogues with Bristol local authority planners before and during the consultation process. This communication is crucial in the absence of a place-based regeneration framework or strategic plan for the industrial developments.

PhD supervision

I am currently supervising:

• George Lovesmith, DPhil — Belonging in placemaking: tools to creatively cultivate belonging in processes of public placemaking.
• Jenna Dutton, PhD student — Gender‑based inequalities in the city and the role and potentials of urban planning.
• Rengin Gürel, PhD student — Interactive documentary as inspiration for design.
• Joy Pedro, PhD student — Co‑designing green spaces to improve the mental health of young people.

Publications