CreativeMornings/Berlin Interview - Katya Romanova on CREATE & Connection

May’s global theme is CREATE, and our speaker this month is Katya Romanova, a Berlin‑based social designer and co‑founder of the network re:imagine your city.

Ahead of her talk this Friday, we invite you to read our conversation with Katya, where she shares why she is drawn to Berlin’s ever‑changing “in‑between” spaces. Through her work, including her talk on rethinking cemeteries, she invites us to reflect on how cities evolve, to ask ourselves questions how we want to be remembered, and how shared spaces can foster deeper human connection.

1. Katya, this month’s global theme is CREATE. What does the word “create” mean to you personally and in your work?

I enjoy creating spaces for connection and shared experience by mixing different elements together: formats, people, topics. They might seem not related at first and therefore have some surprising tension and angles, like food and death.

Apart from that, I try to make time for spontaneous ideas that feel exciting and joyful. That might be printing T-shirts for friends, organizing a Prosecco river walk, writing short stories, or even starting a podcast.

2. As your practice focuses on urban transformation, what first drew you toward working with communities and “in-between” spaces in cities as Berlin?

Berlin is a city in constant transformation. It often gives me a feeling of a train station where everyone is just passing through (even though so many eventually end up staying here for decades). You slowly learn how to embrace this impermanence and appreciate in-between spaces while they still exist.

In my first audiowalk, explored so-called Brachen / Wastelands in my neighborhood Weißensee: What used to be here? What is happening there now? And what will come next?

This also led me to question if every piece of land should have a clearly defined function. I’m interested in seeing transitional spaces as experimental playgrounds for imagining alternative futures and new forms of collective use. In Berlin, crematoriums become art centers, airports turn into green public spaces, and cemeteries are transformed into community gardens.
https://de.guidemate.com/guide/Brachland-Stadtutopien-in-Weissensee-629a83e81a54616ad39dc8da?selectedGuideLocale=de

3. Lastly, in your CreativeMornings/Berlin talk titled ‘Designing cemeteries as spaces of encounter?’, what conversations and reflections do you hope people will leave with?

With cemeteries as an example, I’d like us to explore how urban spaces can reflect current cultural and societal changes. It’s an invitation to imagine new possibilities and rethink what cemeteries could become.

How do we want to remember — and be remembered? How do we want to connect with others, and how might conversations around death, mourning, and loneliness help facilitate those connections? These are some of the questions I’d like to open up during the talk — and perhaps during your next walk through a Berlin cemetery.

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Interview conducted by Aida Mola from CM/Berlin