Kasia Nawratek is a Senior Lecturer at Manchester School of Architecture, a qualified architect (ARB) and a writer. Her research interests are focused on the climate crisis response using post-human perspectives, and literary methods in architectural modes of investigation. 

Kasia brings creative writing and narrative techniques into architectural discourse, encouraging students to approach spatial problems from diverse and often unexpected angles. Her teaching draws on Paul Ricoeur’s thinking on the linguistic roots of imagination and is underpinned by Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of polyphony, supporting an inclusive, dialogic studio culture. She is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Kasia currently leads Year 3 Undergraduate and the Some Kind of Nature Atelier. The atelier responds to the climate crisis, the defining challenge facing both the profession and humanity, through a post-humanist framework that foregrounds relationships and decentres humans. This brings a particular emphasis on the biodiversity crisis and the inclusion of non-human actors in the design process. Narrative and speculative design methods are used to test the boundaries of our imagination and question the present by projecting multiple versions of the future. Architecturally, the agenda translates into a strong focus on context, multifunctionality, and a deep understanding of how human and non-human relationships are expressed through space, materiality, technology, and time.

Kasia also leads the Architect as Researcher workshop in the postgraduate course (M Arch, RIBA Part II), using literary methods of investigation and creative writing.

Before joining Manchester School of Architecture, she led Master of Architecture design studios at the Sheffield School of Architecture and at Birmingham School of Architecture and Design, where she also led the second-year undergraduate course. Prior to Birmingham, she taught across undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Plymouth, and was responsible for the International Design Foundation programme.

Alongside her academic practice, Kasia is a creative writer. Her children’s book Kresek, Bartek i całkiem zwyczajny początek won the Kornel Makuszyński Polish Nationwide Literary Award (2017). 

In 2024, she received the SCOSA Innovation in Architectural Education Award, recognising the scope, effectiveness, and impact of her pedagogical innovations.