CED PhD Student Frederik Braüner awarded 2021 Commonwealth thesis prize

In a livestreamed ceremony, Minister of Education and Research Jesper Petersen awarded a 2021 Commonwealth prize to Frederik Braüner, a doctoral student in the Department of Architecture’s History, Theory, and Society program, for his master’s thesis, “An Intersectional Architecture,” completed at The Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. He joined two other scholars selected from the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Denmark for the recognition, which comes with an award of 40,000 kroner.

Braüner’s thesis research, conducted in the city of Nuuk in Greenland, combined interviews of residents, reflective essays, and architectural design and drawing to propose intervention strategies to expand social and cultural inclusion in the Qapiarfiusaaq housing district, the built artifact of an era of welfare colonialism.

The Ministry of Education and Research has posted an English-language precis of Braüner’s project, here. 

The jury of the Commonwealth thesis competition commented:

“Frederik's project is a clear, thorough and well-researched alternative to architectural design and it is used in a context in Greenland, where the built environment longs for sensitivity and inclusive approaches to how we could renew the city and build in the future. […] These ideas can both be included directly in the ongoing renovation of buildings in Greenland, as well as inspire similar renovations both in the Commonwealth and in general in the Arctic.”

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At the 2021 Commonwealth thesis prize award ceremony, from left to right: Frederik Braüner; Hans Müller Petersen, Director of the Danish Agency of Higher Education and Science; and Lene Dammand Lund, Principal of The Royal Danish Academy.