Tatiana Bodnar is a Human Geography PhD student at Swansea University, which is co-sponsored by Urban Foundry. Her research focuses on the concept of urban acupuncture – a place-based approach to urban regeneration that emphasises small-scale, grassroots interventions to create meaningful and lasting positive change through place activation in South Welsh towns and cities.
She holds an MSc in Sustainable Urban Planning & Design from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden where she helped co-found Fluke – an urban collective interested in playful co-creation and activation of space. Fluke worked on various projects from hosting ‘play walks’ around the city, hosting workshops and play experiences in the public space, and even constructing and organising placemaking initatives, like a temporary illuminating maze on a floating platform in the city centre as part of the Nobel Lights Week festival in the winter.
Tatiana has worked as the Placemaking Project Manager of Hornstulls Marknad, Stockholm’s largest outdoor street food, secondhand, and vintage market during her time with Glad Stad, alongside working on various placemaking projects around the city of Stockholm.
Before moving to Stockholm, Tatiana lived in Washington D.C. Where she worked at various think tanks as a researcher in housing finance and affordable housing policy. Big change!
Alongside her PhD research, she is also working part-time with Urban Foundry on various community engagement projects, including supporting the Future Swansea placemaking strategy through stakeholder engagement in a popup space, as well as supporting the development of green infrastructure projects through our work with Pobl Group, Natural Resources Wales and Swansea Council.