Lara Hesse (M.Sc.)

Lara Hesse, M.Sc. (she/her) works, researches and teaches as an urban planner on spatial commons, cooperative urban development and just land and housing policies. She studied spatial planning (B.Sc.) at TU Dortmund University and the University of Valladolid (Spain), and urban and regional planning (M.Sc.) at the University of Kassel. In her Master’s thesis “KulturRaumCommons Kassel”, which was awarded the 2025 Pfeiffer Prize, she examined the practice, significance and vulnerabilities of alternative, self-managed cultural spaces as places of commoning. Before joining the University of Kassel, Lara gained diverse experience in research, practice and administration.

Since April 2026, she has been working as a research associate in the Department of Architecture Cities Economies at the University of Kassel. As part of the KOWOHÄUSER project, she is researching collective housing and financing and operating models for socio-ecological single-family homes and neighbourhoods.