Paul Dobraszczyk

Dr Paul Dobraszczyk

Independent Scholar Fellow 2016

Dead Cities: Urban Ruins and the Imagination of Disaster

In recent years, urban ruins have become a growing obsession in both academic and popular culture, whether the all-to-real ruins of contemporary warfare or those imagined in post-apocalyptic cinema and computer games. As the distinctions between real and imagined ruination are becoming increasingly blurred, how might we negotiate the (fine) lines between fantasies of urban destruction and the latter’s manifestation in daily reality? In other words, how might the possible ruin of our cities be imagined in a way that helps us adequately face that very possibility?

More information

Research outcomes

Dobraszczyk, P. (2023)

Animal architecture: why we need to design buildings for wildlife as well as people. The Conversation

Dobraszczyk, P. (2022)

How anarchist architecture could help us build back better after COVID. The Conversation

Dobraszczyk, P. (2021)

Empty cities have long been a post-apocalyptic trope – now, they are a reality. The Conversation

Areas of interest

Architecture Photography Cities Ecology Manchester UK Urban Studies Ruins

Cohort

ISF3

Biography

Paul Dobraszczyk is an architectural writer, photographer and artist based in Manchester, UK. He is also a lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Paul is currently working on a book Geological Architecture, to be published by Reaktion in 2026.

Paul's writing and research broadly covers architecture and cities since the 19th century, with particular interests in ecology, self-building, Manchester, urban futures, underground spaces and ruins, print culture, and industrial architecture. He has published many articles on such diverse topics as drowned cities, the ruins of Chernobyl, neo-Victorian horror cinema, gardening catalogues, census forms, London guidebooks, sewage pumping stations and information for cab passengers. He is also a visual artist and photographer and created the website stonesofmanchester.com in 2018.

Biographical details correct as of 21.08.25