SOCB

School of Collectively Building

WHO WE ARE

SOCB – School Of Collectively Building in Vienna, Austria.

As the world faces a critical climate crisis, the need for collective action has never been more urgent. Together, we must act, react, and reflect to forge a sustainable path forward. “Collectively” means uniting our efforts—whether in researching, teaching, designing, discussing, or developing ideas that shape both the present and future.

Our vision and mission are centered on educating, empowering, and building collectively, guided by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

We accomplish this by providing education to international students, professionals, and communities through a diverse array of training programs, courses, seminars, and conferences. These cover a wide range of topics, including design, architecture, urbanism, landscape, materials, environmental studies, and policy-making.

Our platform serves as a global hub for the exchange of groundbreaking ideas, bringing together brilliant minds from various disciplines. We invite designers, architects, engineers, planners, and specialists to share their expertise, fostering an environment where innovative ideas can flourish. Our collaborative efforts extend to partnerships with institutions, schools, universities, companies, NGOs, and other organizations.

Through our educational courses, research, seminars, workshops and conferences, further research and course work will be exhibited to people and published in books, journals, proceedings and academic articles. We aim to bridge the gaps between students, institutions, companies, and communities, creating a unified front against the climate crisis.

SOCB TEAM

SOCB Team is international and interdisciplinary comes from various countries, culture, disciplines and professionals in Art, Design, Architecture, Urbanism, Landscape, Heritage, History, Theory, Construction, Digital Conservation, Robotics, Mapping, Collective Learning, Disaster studies, GIS, Master Planning and more.

DIRECTOR: The founder of SOCB is Santosh Kumar Ketham, he has been faculty, critic, and lecturer at some of the top design schools and universities. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed publications and editor for Journal Socio-Cultural Theory, special issue publication (SIP) upcoming in 2025. He has been featured on prominent Television programs, including ORF, 3Sat, Deutsche Welle-DW’s documentary ‘Climate Change – Living on the Water’. He also served as a reviewer, session chair for international conferences in London, New York, Prague, Canada, China and Spain. His work, talks are inspiring, empowering people and reforming neglected communities with Collectively Building.

INTERNATIONAL TEAM: The team serves an advisory role, leveraging the diverse skills, experience, and research expertise of a distinguished group of academics.

Panagiotis Papageorgiou Dr., is a Senior Lecturer at the International College Portsmouth, and an Early Career Researcher at the University of Portsmouth. His research lies at the intersection of digital preservation and virtual heritage. Dr Papageorgiou follows a breadth of enquiry around the preservation of, and universal access to, our virtual heritage.

Sonali Dahotre, M.Arch, Landscape Architecture from CEPT University, visiting faculty at various design schools, independent researcher, founder of Sparrow Landscape Initiative – an ecology based landscape design practice, Pune, India.

Rasha Sukkarieh, M.Arch, expert in Advanced Design & Digital Fabrication, Architect, Educator and Independent Researcher, The Impact Lab Beirut, Lebanon.

Priya Chavan, M.Tech. expert in Architecture, Housing, and Urban Planning, PhD Scholar in Disaster Studies and Urban Affairs, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, India.

Moritz Elbert, Dipl. Des. Curator and Strategic Designer, Specialist in Design, Art History, and Theory, TU München/ IUAV Venezia, Germany/Italy.

Aurelie De Smet, Dr., completed her PhD in Architecture from KU Leuven. She is an expert in spatial planning, bottom-up urban initiatives, (landscape) architecture, participatory action research and cross-sectoral collective learning and knowledge exchange. She works as a Service-learning facilitator at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture, Belgium. (Former SOCB Team Member)

RESEARCH + TEACHING

SOCB’s teaching courses foster a vibrant, diverse community rooted in collaboration and innovation. Here, students are immersed in the most cutting-edge design approaches, guided by a distinguished international faculty at the forefront of the field. With a mission to advance research and pioneering design practices, SOCB focuses on the intersection of natural and built environments, urbanization, and the urgent realities of a rapidly changing climate.

SOCB takes a leading role in shaping the future of urban planning and design education, equipping students to confront today’s most complex global challenges. The program empowers the next generation of leaders to develop transformative solutions that elevate and improve society. By uniquely integrating the disciplines of design and engineering, SOCB stands at the forefront of addressing the world’s most critical issues with creativity, expertise, and vision.

Santosh Kumar Ketham, Aurelie De Smet, Rasha Sukkarieh, Priya Chavan, Sonali Dahotre, Panagiotis Papageorgiou, Moritz Elbert.

CONFERENCE + EDITORIAL TEAM

The editorial team at SOCB is a dynamic blend of academic and production editors, working in close collaboration with a distinguished group of guest editors who contribute to both journal and book publications on a case-by-case basis. This exceptional team is further strengthened by an extensive network of esteemed international reviewers, ensuring a diverse, high-quality, and impactful publication process. Together, they drive SOCB’s commitment to academic excellence and global reach.

Editors: Rasha Sukkarieh, M.Arch. B.Arch. PhD Researcher, Sonali Dahotre, M.Arch (Landscape). B.Arch, Priya Chavan, M.Tech. B.Arch. PhD Researcher, Panagiotis Papageorgiou Dr., Moritz Elbert, Dipl. Des., PhD Researcher, Santosh Kumar Ketham, MSc(Urban Strategies). B.Arch (Landscape). Dipl. Arch. PhD Researcher.

PEER – REVIEW TEAM

International academic professional, scholars and experts from around the world. If you wish to become reviewer at SOCB. click here

International Reviewers
  1. Dr Varvara Toura, Completed PhD in urban studies EHESS/ Géographie-Cités, Paris, France (geography/urban planning, sociology, political science, environmental sciences, citizen science) Greece.
  2. Dr. Kanika Bansal, Professor and Dean – Academic Affairs & M. Planning with the Chitkara School of Planning & Architecture (CSPA), Chitkara University, Punjab, India.
  3. Dr. Ahmed Bakry, Lecturer at Kassel University, Faculty of Architecture, Urban and Landscape Planning Institute for Urban Development Department of Economics of Urban and Regional Development.
  4. Dr. Tanaya Verma, 25 years experience in the field of Architecture and Design. Dean of the School of Architecture and Design at K R Mangalam University, Gurgaon.
  5. Dr. Anwar Hamrouni holds a Ph.D. in Architecture and Urbanism from Grenoble Alpes University, Grenoble, France, as well as an M.Sc. in Urbanism, Innovation, and Territory from the same institution.
ADMIN + SUPPORT TEAM

SOCB has International, interdisciplinary administration and support team.

Accounting & Tax: Mag. Hatice Tugrul Kartal, International Business Administration, University of Vienna.

Website Design: Mamatha Vani, Masters in Computer engineering, India.

Volunteers: Verena Spissak, Scheima Kchaou

SOCB MEMBERSHIP

SOCB Membership is open to Students, Organisations, NGO’s, Universities and Companies. Registered members receive 20% discount on courses, research, conferences calls and events. click here