Jonathan Orlek is an architectural researcher and practitioner, often working at the intersections of art, architecture, and ethnography. His research explores artist‐led organisations and spaces, community-based prototyping, housing, and urban practices of care. He is currently working on collaborative design-research projects through the Community Prototyping Cluster at Liverpool School of Art and Creative Industries. 

His edited book, Artist-Led Housing: Histories, Residencies, Spaces (2024) examines the role of artist-led organisations within the provision of housing. With a wide range of contributions—and expanding out of his embedded research and practice with East Street Arts—the book suggests future trajectories for living together creatively. Artist-Led Housing: Histories, Residencies, Spaces was accompanied by the exhibition No Going Back (2024, co-curated with Karen Watson) which investigated the role of art and artists in the city and civic practice, through the lens of East Street Arts’ archive. It is the most comprehensive exploration of East Street Arts’ archive to date. 

Orlek is a director of Studio Polpo, a social enterprise architecture collective based in Sheffield. He was a designer for The High Street of Exchanges, an immersive installation occupying one room of the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2021. This design-research project explored the future of the British High Street. Other projects with Studio Polpo include experimental sleepover performances, co-housing design workshops, play installations and bio-material prototyping. His work with Studio Polpo has been commissioned by The Hepworth (Wakefield), The Tetley (Leeds), Bloc Projects (Sheffield), and Mostyn Gallery (Llandudno).

Enquiries from students considering a PhD related to any of the above research areas are warmly welcomed.