Łukasz Stanek

Łukasz Stanek is a Professor of Architectural History at the University of Manchester, UK. His research focuses on architecture and urban planning in post-war contexts, particularly socialist countries' global influence and Cold War dynamics. He has taught at ETH Zurich, Harvard University GSD, and the University of Michigan. His work explores Henri Lefebvre's theories and the socio-political dimensions of modernist architecture in non-Western contexts. Stanek has received prestigious awards, including the RIBA President’s Award for History & Theory Research (2020) and the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion (2020). Supervised students include researchers focusing on Saudi Arabian urban policies, Lagos’ political spaces, and post-Soviet Uzbekistan's urban transformations. His research aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals related to urban sustainability and global equity.

Key research interests include:

• Critical architectural debates since 1968
• Global modernism and its non-capitalist variants
• Socialist architecture’s impact on Global South urbanization

Recent articles analyze Cold War urban comparisons, East German construction in Iraq, and Comecon architecture in Mongolia. His work bridges architectural history with political economy and global labor studies.