Stefan Gruber

Stefan Gruber is an Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture, where he directs the Remaking Cities Institute (RCI) and holds the David Lewis/Heinz Endowments Directorship for Urban Design and Regional Engagement. He also serves as Track Chair of the Master of Urban Design (MUD) program and holds a courtesy appointment in the School of Design.

Gruber’s work spans architectural design, urbanism, and critical research with a focus on spatial justice and the political dimensions of the built environment. He investigates the dynamic between top-down planning and bottom-up transformations of cities, with particular emphasis on spaces and practices of commoning as pathways toward more equitable and regenerative futures—beyond the paradigms of the market and the state. 

TEACHING

At Carnegie Mellon, Gruber teaches Commoning the City, a thesis studio examining grassroots initiatives around the world. The studio’s research constitutes the Atlas of Commoning display in the eponymous traveling exhibition by ifa (the German Institute for Foreign Culutral Relations) in collaboration with ARCh+. He also leads the Urban Collaboratory Studio, partnering with Pittsburgh communities on tactical interventions through urban acupuncture. Past projects include Roaming Porches with the Manchester Academic Charter School and the award-winning transformation of Community Forge Playscape in Wilkinsburg. He teaches additional graduate seminars on planetary urbanization and contemporary urban theory.

From 2006 to 2016, Gruber taught at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he directed the Platform for Geography, Landscape, and Cities and served as deputy head of the Institute for Art and Architecture. He was instrumental in developing the school’s B.Arch and M.Arch curricula. He has lectured and served as a critic at over 40 universities worldwide. 

DESIGN PRACTICE

Gruber founded STUDIOGRUBER in 2006. STUDIOGRUBER’s design work has been exhibited, published and recognized internationally. Realized projects include "Hiding in Plain Sight," a pedal-powered pop-up movie theater for Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership; the "Lecture Pods Semper Depot," a finalist for the Federal Austrian Design Prize; and the "Wishing Table," an installation in collaboration with artist Ursula Achternkamp and gardener Klaus Fischedick at the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau. The office has won numerous competitions including Europan, a biennial competition for architects under 40 to design innovative housing and urban planning for sites across Europe, and the cultural institution SCHUNCK* in Heerlen in the Netherlands. In 2010, STUDIOGRUBER was selected as one of 12 promising Young Viennese Architecture firms (YoVA3) and was recognized as an emerging design talent by the Meuse-Rhine region (ROOTS). From 2002 to 2006, Gruber worked for Diller Scofidio + Renfro on the redesign of Lincoln Center’s public spaces and Alice Tully Hall, among other projects.

RESEARCH AND CURATORIAL PRACTICE

Gruber contributed to the 2024 International Architecture Biennale of Rotterdam, the 2020 and 2024 Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, the 2019 and 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and the 2015 Vienna Biennale. In 2024, Gruber was a research fellow at The New Institute in Hamburg, Germany working with the Reclaiming Common Wealth program on the decommodification of housing. He co-curated the ifa exhibition "An Atlas of Commoning" in collaboration with ARCH+ and guest edited the accompanying ARCH+ issue. Since 2018, the exhibition has traveled to Berlin, Pittsburgh, Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Tbilisi, adding new case studies in each host city. He also curated "A dialogue must take place, precisely because we don’t speak the same language" for the 2020 Tbilisi Architecture Biennale. 

Gruber's writing has been published in Arch+, Le Monde Diplomatique, Bracket, Future Architecture, New Geographies and MonU - Magazine on Urbanism, amongst others. Together with Anette Baldauf, Gruber initiated "Spaces of Commoning," an interdisciplinary research project on commoning, artistic practices and the city, documented in the eponymous book (Sternberg, 2016). Other book publications include a social fiction, The Report (MAK, Museum for Applied Arts Vienna, 2015 with STEALTH.unlimited and Paul Currion); Big! Bad? Modern: Four Megabuildings in Vienna (Park Books, 2015); and Vienna: Slow Capital (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, 2011). 

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Gruber's work has been recognized and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Graham Foundation, the Viennese Science and Technology Fund, the Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Stipend, an Akademie Schloss Solitude residency and multiple Cusanuswerk fellowships. At CMU, his research has been supported by several Margaret B. Gruger Faculty Awards, the CFA Fund for Research and Creativity, a Berkman Grant and a Wimmer Faculty Fellowship.

Gruber is a licensed architect in Germany and holds a Dipl.-Ing. professional degree from the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen, Germany, where he graduated summa cum laude. He also holds a post-graduate MSAAD degree with honors from Columbia University, where he received the Springorum Medal and a William Kinne Fellow Traveling prize. 

In his work, Gruber draws on his nomadic experience. A dual French and German citizen, Gruber was born in London and raised on both sides of the equator in the Americas, as well as both sides of the Iron Curtain in Europe.