Khensani Jurczok-de Klerk South Africa

Khensani Jurczok-de Klerk is an architectural researcher and designer from Johannesburg. At the centre of her practice is an interest in spatial storytelling and commitment to spatial education. Khensani is a doctoral fellow at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta) ETH Zürich, where she is also currently conducting her PhD. Her independent research and practice focuses on safe space, questioning how architecture has been implicated in such spatialities particularly in relation to reducing Gender-based violence (GBV) whilst thinking of intersectional feminist imaginaries beyond dominant understandings of domesticity. 

Khensani is founder of Matri-Archi(tecture), an association based between Switzerland and South Africa that hosts a network of spatial practitioners dedicated to the development of African spatial education, offering a site for artistic collaboration through design, art and architectural research projects. She is also the host and producer of the podcast KONTEXT. 

She previously taught at the chair of Affective Architectures at the ETH Zürich, where she co-coordinated the Department of the Ongoing platform. She has also taught in Johannesburg and practiced in London, amongst engaging in educational contexts through giving lectures and talks at various institutions across the world, including South Africa, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and central Europe. She has exhibited work in various contexts including the Chicago Architecture Biennial (US), Vitra Design Museum (DE), Pinaktohek der Moderne (DE) and Keyes Art Mile (SA) to name a few.