Nathalie Bredella, Professor of Architectural Theory at Leibniz University Hannover, joined the TUM IAS in 2023 for two years as an Anna Boyksen Fellow. The fellowship, named after Anna Boyksen — the first woman to study engineering at TUM — supports outstanding female scholars working with a TUM host on research connected to gender and diversity perspectives.
A central outcome of Bredella’s residency is the book “Desire and Denial: On Constructing and Contesting Infrastructures”, published by Distanz Verlag in December 2025 and co-edited with Prof. Dietrich Erben and Grayson Bailey. The volume approaches infrastructures not merely as technical systems, but as cultural and political formations that stabilize and transform societal processes.
Drawing on Brian Larkin’s concept of the “politics and poetics of infrastructure,” the contributions interpret infrastructures as material expressions of symbolic, economic, and political projects. In this perspective, infrastructures embody collective desires — for mobility, safety, control, or modernization — that shape planning processes and articulate normative visions of the future.
At the same time, infrastructures are understood as operating through forms of denial that potentially obscure environmental consequences, social inequalities, political exclusions, or colonial continuities. The essays examine this tension by framing infrastructures as politically contested and culturally mediated sites where social and epistemic orders intersect. The book’s subtly translucent pages echo these themes, encouraging a layered reading experience.
Alongside the book project, Bredella contributed to the international platform e-flux Architecture, including the “Technoecologies” issue. This editorial context situates architectural discourse within broader technological and ecological debates. It reflects Bredella’s ongoing research on the role of media and digital technologies in the production of architectural knowledge.
Both publications emerged within the intellectual environment of the IAS fellowship and relate to Bredella’s focus group “Feminism and Digital Cultures in Architecture.” The group investigated the histories and theoretical implications of digital practices, examining how technological developments are embedded in broader social, political, and economic frameworks.
Bredella’s work is characterized by an interdisciplinary perspective linking architectural theory with media and technology studies. She studied architecture at TU Berlin and Cooper Union New York, completed her doctorate at Leibniz University Hannover, and habilitated at ETH Zürich. Her academic appointments have included research fellowships and visiting professorships at institutions such as the Bauhaus-University Weimar, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Berlin University of the Arts, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and the Technical University of Munich.