Markus Miessen (*1978, Bonn) is an architect, spatial consultant and writer migrating between Berlin, London, and the Middle East. In 2002, he set up Studio Miessen, a collaborative agency for spatial practice and cultural analysis, and in 2007 was founding partner of the now Berlin-based architectural practice nOffice (www.nOffice.eu).

Miessen studied at the Glasgow School of Art (BArch), graduated from the Architectural Association in London with Honours (AADiplHons) and received a Master in Research degree from the London Consortium (MRes). He is currently a PhD candidate at the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, London.

As a writer, Miessen contributes, edits and advises globally, and has delivered articles in newspapers, magazines and books, ranging from academic to scientific to popular culture. He is the author of The Nightmare of Participation – Crossbench Praxis as a Mode of Criticality (Sternberg Press, 2010), which is currently being translated into 5 other languages. In various collaborations, Miessen has edited and published books such as Waking Up From The Nightmare of Participation (Expodium, 2011), When Economies Become Form (Berlage Institute, 2009), Institution Building – Artists, Curators, Architects and the Struggle for Space (Sternberg, 2009), East Coast Europe (Sternberg, 2008), The Violence of Participation (Sternberg, 2007), With/Without –Spatial Products, Practices and Politics in the Middle East (Bidoun, 2007), Did Someone Say Participate? An Atlas of Spatial Practice (MIT Press, 2006) and Spaces of Uncertainty (Müller+Busmann, 2002). In 2008, the British newspaper The Independent listed his book Did Someone Say Participate as one of the ten best architecture books of all time.

Since 2008, Miessen is an active member on several expert boards including at SKOR (Amsterdam), Aedes Network Campus (Berlin), the think tanks W.I.R.E. (Zurich) and SciFi (LA), the editorial boards of Kaleidoscope (Milan), Volume (Amsterdam), Bidoun (New York), Build (Wuppertal), and Archive Journal (Berlin).

As a consultant, he has worked with the Slovenian Consulate (NYC) during Slovenia’s presidency of the EU council, strategically advised the European Kunsthalle (Cologne) and SKOR (Amsterdam), devised a long-term project for the Serpentine Gallery (London), researched and proposed for General Public Agency (London), and wrote policy papers for the think tank for everyday democracy Demos (London).

His work has been exhibited widely, including at the Lyon, Venice, Performa (NYC), Gwangju, Manifesta, and Shenzhen biennials, and has received various awards and prizes including from the Flemisch Government (Brussels), Stimuleringsfonds voor Architectuur (Amsterdam), Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Berlin), the Henry Saxon Snell Prize, and was nominated for the RIBA Silver Medal. In 2010, Miessen was selected for the Longlist (100) for the Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst (Berlin) and became a member of the European Cultural Parliament.

Miessen frequently co-organizes conferences, curates exhibitions, and has taught and lectured at has taught and lectured at many international institutions. In 2008 he initiated and now directs the Winter School Middle East (Dubai/ Kuwait) and in 2010 worked as a Harvard fellow on a research project in Kuwait, with Joseph Grima. From 2004-08 Miessen taught as a Unit Master at the Architectural Association (London), in 2009/10 he was Visiting Professor at the Berlage Institute (Rotterdam), from 2010-12 he is Visiting Professor at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (Karlsruhe) and the Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design, HEAD (Geneva). From October 2011, Miessen will launch a new professorship for Critical Spatial Practice at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule (Frankfurt).