"Our built environment carries stories, atmospheres and conventions that leave their mark on us, consciously or unconsciously. In my practice, I am interested in questioning how possibilities and resistance hold potential for social change, and in what way design can contribute to this as a catalyst for transformational processes. I view design as a collaborative tool that connects, reconfigures, sensitizes or questions, and can operate across different formats and scales."

Valerie Rehle works at the intersection of interior design, urban design, research and knowledge transfer, exploring the opportunities and obstacles that built spaces present for social change. Her design practice includes private renovation projects, the '1A Lage' real-world laboratory, the redevelopment of the St Maria Church in Stuttgart, and the Österreichischer Platz experimental site, which she realised as a founding member of the multi-award-winning association Stadtlücken e.V.
She studied at Coburg University of Applied Sciences, the Edinburgh College of Art and Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences. In 2020, she completed her PhD at HafenCity University Hamburg on co-creative strategies for urban design by, and for people, with dementia. She was a research assistant at Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences, where she was responsible for the teaching and research projects 'Forgotten in the City' and 'Life on the Outskirts' in collaboration with the Wüstenrot Foundation. As a consultant at the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, she helped to set up the knowledge platform aimed at revitalising endangered historical buildings. She shares her professional practice and research through publications and teaching roles at various universities. She lives in Munich with her family.