PhD in Architecture
Current position: Architect and Co-founder of EAT group (Eco Art & Theory), Serbia
Research focus: sustainable urban and rural development
From 2011 to 2012, Ksenija was a visiting PhD researcher at the Institute for Architectural Technologies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Her research contributes to rural sustainability by collecting and distributing past knowledge and experiences on rural housing.
2015 Publication of her first book
2014 Young Researchers’ School, Shanghai, China
2008 University of Belgrade’s award for best research work
CV as submitted for the Green Talents award (2013):
Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Research focus: sustainable rural development
Ksenija Bunjak is working on the Serbian Village Atlas project, identifying the characteristics of Serbian villages to help develop sustainable solutions to architecture and infrastructure in rural areas.
With an impressive academic and professional background in architecture, Ksenija Bunjak has been studying and researching how to bring sustainability to the rural areas of Serbia – areas in which 40% of the Serbian population live. Following the footsteps of Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Bunjak also believes: “The core of every serious architectural design research lies in those modest homes that are the same to the architecture as the folklore is to the literature.”
Bunjak’s research project focused mainly on sustainable rural environment and architecture. In that vein, Bunjak initiated a big multi-disciplinary research project on mapping the characteristics of villages. Bunjak said the aim was to describe and evaluate the villages, “to define development opportunities and to provide possible solutions in the context of present problems in rural areas.”
Thanks to her research and the final map that she is currently creating, not only will the environment in rural areas be improved and the quality of life raised, but solutions to sustainability problems can be realised more efficiently, keeping in mind the very well-known characteristics of rural areas in general.
Apart from her academic and professional interest in rural development, Bunjak has also initiated a volunteer organisation: Eco Art and Theory (EAT), with the objective to promote and educate the dwellers of rural areas in a sustainable way of thinking.
The jury emphasised Bunjak’s major contribution to obtain rural sustainability by conserving and distributing past knowledge and experiences on rural housing. Thereby, she is creating preconditions for future sustainable rural strategies and raising the quality of life in these regions.
