About

I am Dr. Melissa Harrison (b. 1989 New Zealand), an architect, movement artist, writer, and facilitator whose work engages with critical spatial practices, commoning, and embodied experience. I completed my doctoral research at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 2023, where I explored community-based practices of commoning space and pedagogies of (un)learning under the supervision of Stavros Stavrides (NTUA), Penny Koutrolikou (NTUA), and Jesko Fezer (HFBK). Woven throughout my research and practice are the narratives and modes by which we navigate difference towards more just futures. My research was supported by the William Chick Doctoral Scholarship in Architecture from the University of Auckland. I also hold an MA in Architecture from the University of Auckland and have (conventional) professional experience in Christchurch and Auckland. Amongst other things, I am a member of the >top project space and association, where I co-organised the project, Common(s)Lab (2018-2021); a member of the Urban Commons Research Collective that co-edited the Urban Commons Handbook (2022); and an editorial member of the publishing platform AoA.

Research Interests

Critical spatial practice; spaces of commoning; the politics of space and bodies; relational aesthetics; postcapitalist praxis; multi-species becoming; (un)learning; transformative/situated pedagogies

Current | Recent

Co-editing (with Mindaugas Gapševičius, Bauhaus University Weimar) Non-machines: An attempt to understand life as it is, forthcoming.
Harrison, M. (2025). Common Sense, Common Space. In J. Bingham-Hall. Staging Ground: Infrastructures, Performance, and Bodies in Movement. London, Paris: Theatrum Mundi; Barcelona: dpr-barcelona.
Harrison, M. (2024). Choreographies of Commoning. Nomi: Agents of Alternatives.