Professor Minna Sunikka-Blank

Minna Sunikka-Blank is Professor of Architecture and Environmental Policy, leading internationally recognised research on housing, energy and social justice in the context of the climate emergency. Her work spans from informal settlements in Kenya to low-income communities in India and neighbourhoods in the UK, connecting global and local perspectives to rethink how energy transitions and climate resilience are shaped by everyday practices.

A registered architect, she works at the interface of research, policy and practice, and in 2024 served on the jury for the RIBA Stirling Prize.

Her projects focus on housing and energy from a policy perspective, and she is currently working on climate resilience of urban rental housing in Nairobi. AHRC Research Network Filming Energy (FERN) project used participatory film-making to understand women's lived experience in low-income housing in India and South Africa. AHRC IAA project Community Engagement Workshops on Energy and Housing in Nairobi looked at clean cooking and energy transitions in informal settlements and 'After SUNRISE' project community solar energy in rural India. She is interested in socially engaged research practice through collaborative research projects, in partnerships with 'non-traditional' research partners like international NGOs, national and local policy makers, and artists. 

At Cambridge, Professor Sunikka-Blank co-convenes the inter-disciplinary Global Energy Nexus in Urban Settlements/GENUS research group across Geography, Engineering, Architecture and Judge Business School. At the Department she co-leads Behaviour and Building Performance/BBP group with international research students, and Community Design Research Group/CDRG at the CRASSH.

Before coming to Cambridge she worked on environmental impact assessment projects and research in Finland and the Netherlands. She has held Visiting Professorship at Keio University in Japan and Visiting Researcher posts at Aalto University in Helsinki and Erasmus University in Rotterdam. She regularly collaborates with inter-disciplinary networks beyond Cambridge, looking at challenges such as urban densification and low cost housing and the adaptation of solar technologies in marginalised communities, focusing on the perspectives of women, and the question of energy poverty in the UK.

She has authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications and her research on understanding domestic energy demand and conceptualisation of the 'prebound effect' has directly informed housing and thermal retrofit policies. She is currently working on a related project with Cambridge City Council examining how residents perceive energy-efficient, high-performance homes and how complex heating systems can be improved. She contributes to international policy debates, including through the British Academy COP26 Policy Briefing on Cities and Energy Transitions, policy work on climate-resilient urban rental housing in Nairobi and contributions to council housing design guidelines.

Her work was presented in BBCArts 'Animated Thinking' series showing how today’s slums in India and how the transition to high-rise flats has adversely and radically affected the lives of women. A distinctive feature of her work is the integration of artistic and visual methods, including film and exhibitions, as tools for research, civic engagement and policy impact, including collaborations with artists.

Professor Sunikka-Blank teaches the Sustainable Cities course, now being developed into a book, and works closely with the University’s Estates team on Case Studies course that enables students to engage directly with live building projects. She is interested in developing research training in architectural education. She is a registered architect and an elected member of the Research and Education Committee of the Association of Finnish Architects/SAFA, the Editorial Board of Buildings&Cities journal and Create Cambridge board member.

Professor Sunikka-Blank is Director of Studies and Fellow in Architecture in Churchill College.

Teaching

Professor Sunikka-Blank is the Chair of Examiners for the Master of Architecture (MArch) programme and serves as an Internal Examiner for the Part III professional qualification course. She lectures on the third-year undergraduate courses Sustainable Cities and Advanced Studies in Construction, Technology and Environmental Design.