Suzanne Harris-Brandts
Assistant Professor
M.Arch Chair & Graduate Supervisor
Faculty Associate, Institute of European, Russian & Eurasian Studies (EURUS)
Suzanne Harris-Brandts is a licensed architect with the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), certified LEED AP BD+C, and founding partner of Collective Domain. She holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Studies from MIT and a Master of Architecture from the University of Waterloo. Harris-Brandts teaches in the graduate and undergraduate programs, including graduate thesis advising, and administratively is the School’s M.Arch Chair and Graduate Supervisor. Previously, she taught at the International Black Sea University (Tbilisi, Georgia), MIT School of Architecture & Planning, and the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture.
Harris-Brandts’ research brings together design and the social sciences to explore issues of power, equity, and collective identity in the built environment. It covers topics as broad spanning as iconic city building, incentivized urbanism, contested place meanings, and design’s relationship to conflict-induced displacement—often foregrounding the role of designer agency. Her work has been disseminated in a wide range of outlets, from books to peer-reviewed journals, design publications, lectures, and exhibitions, funded by the SSHRC, Graham Foundation, and Open Society Foundation, amongst others. Harris-Brandts’ current book project uncovers the politics of urban development and image-making in Eurasian capital cities. It foregrounds city building campaigns in part-democratic/ part-authoritarian ‘hybrid regimes,’ demonstrating how architecture and urban design are manipulated for power, also highlighting bottom-up, community-based strategies to resist such actions.
Harris-Brandts has over a decade of international experience at design and research firms, including in Toronto, Vancouver, London, Tbilisi, and Abu Dhabi. In 2010 and 2011, she was an Architect-in-Residence with Decolonizing Architecture Art Research (DAAR) in the occupied West Bank. Her personal research expanded on this experience, delving into the politics of architecture and landscape in rural areas of the West Bank. It received a Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Medal and was featured in the co-curated exhibition “Landscapes of Resistance: The Marshall Islands and Occupied Palestinian Territories,” at Cambridge Galleries.
Research
CV – Suzanne Harris Brandts
2023-25 SSHRC Insight Development Grant (PI) “Megaproject Mirages: Uncovering the Politico-Economic Uses of Speculative Eco-flagships in the ‘Global East’”
2021-26 SSHRC Insight Grant (Co-applicant) “Gardens Otherwise and Elsewhere: A Historical and Ethnographic study of Georgian Gardens”
2022-24 SSHRC Connection Grant (Co-applicant) “Displacement in Wartime; Routes and Destinations, Space, Place and Pluralism: Russia’s Invasion, Ukrainian Actions and Consequences for Europe and Eurasia”
2022-23 SSHRC Connection Grant (Co-applicant) “Agora II: (Un)Common Precedents”
2020 Tbilisi Architecture Biennial (PI for Collective Domain) “Build it and they will come”
2018-22 NSF Georgia Fundamental Research Grant (Co-applicant) “Examining the Social Impacts of Large, Private Sector Urban Development in Batumi and Tbilisi, Georgia”
Publications
(Selected List)
Harris-Brandts, S. (2024). Heritage Diplomacy, Neo-Ottomanism, and a Local Quest for a New Place of Worship: The Politics of Mosque Building in Batumi, Georgia. Fabrications, 34(2). Special issue: What is “shared”? Architectural Heritage in Conflict, 1-18.
Harris-Brandts, S., Gogishvili, D., & Sichinava, D. (2024). #SpendYourSummerInGeorgia: Popular Geopolitics and Tourism Marketing in Georgia-Russian Relations, Social and Cultural Geography, 1-19.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (2024). Re-conceptualizing the social, environmental, and political hazards associated with displacement in the Republic of Georgia. In Gaillard, J.C., Rodriguez Alarcón, M., Ocampo Go, C. (Eds.) Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Natural Hazard Science. Oxford University Press.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2024). [Book Review] Open Gaza: Architectures of Hope. Sorkin, M. and Sharp, D. (Eds.). The American University in Cairo Press. Journal of Architectural Education – JAE.
Harris-Brandts, S. & Goci, E. (2023). Formalizing Tirana. OnSite Review, 43 (Temporary Architecture), 32-37.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2022). The ‘White Palace’ Party Headquarters: Architecture, Urban Design, and Power in North Macedonia. In Koch, N. (Ed.) Spatializing Authoritarianism. 86-112. Syracuse University Press.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (2021). Architecture and Friendship Among Nations: The Shifting Politics of Cultural Diplomacy in Tbilisi, Georgia. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 27 (12), 1213-1229.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (2021). The Politics of Urban Recovery in a Soviet-era Resort Town: Heritage Tourism and Displaced Communities in Tskaltubo, Georgia. In Al-Harithy, H. (Ed.) Urban Recovery: Intersecting Displacement with Post War Reconstruction. 271-294. London, UK: Routledge.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Gogishvili, D. (2020). Lofty Ideals in Aerial Connectivity: Ideology in the Urban Cable Car Network of Tbilisi, Georgia. Eurasian Geography & Economics, 65 (3),289-319.
Gogishvili, D., & Harris-Brandts, S. (2020). Coinciding Practices of Exception in Urban Development: Sports Events and Special Economic Zones. European Planning Studies, 28 (10), 1999-2019.
Gogishvili, D., & Harris-Brandts, S. (2019). The Social and Spatial Insularity of Internally Displaced Persons: “Neighbourhood Effects” in Georgia’s Collective Centres. Caucasus Survey, 7(2), 134-156.
Harris-Brandts, S., & Gogishvili, D. (2018). Architectural Rumors: Unrealized Megaprojects in Baku, Azerbaijan and their Politico-Economic Uses. Eurasian Geography & Economics, 59 (1), 73-97.
Harris-Brandts, S. (2018). The Role of Architecture in the Republic of Georgia’s European Aspirations. Nationalities Papers. 46 (6), 1118-1135.
Practice
OAA, LEED AP BD+C
(Co-founder) Collective Domain
Education
PhD in Urban and Regional Studies – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): School of Architecture and Planning, Cambridge, MA, USA (MIT Presidential Fellow)
MArch – University of Waterloo: School of Architecture, Cambridge, ON (RAIC Medal Recipient; CCA Prix de Rome in Architecture Nominee; Canadian Architect Award Nominee)
Hon. HBAS (Co-op) – University of Waterloo: School of Architecture, Cambridge, ON
Recent Courses
ARCS 5031A – MArch 1 Graduate Studio
ARCS 3306 – Urbanism Studio 5: Global Perspectives
ARCS 3304 – Urbanism Studio 3: Urbanism on the Periphery
ARCS 2106B – Studio 3, 2nd Year Undergraduate Studio
ARCU 4400 – Theories of Urbanism
PhD Dissertation Advisor
M.Arch Thesis Supervisor