Jochen Rabe
Jochen Rabe is a strategic advisor on the economics, governance and systems of cities and territories. Educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, his career has run across three domains rarely held together in a single practice: senior leadership in international engineering consultancy, the operational direction of an applied research institution, and an academic chair in urban resilience and digitalisation. He founded RSUP in 2023, drawing on twenty-five years of work spanning Arup (2007–2011), BuroHappold (2011–2016), a Professorship at the Einstein Center Digital Future and Technical University of Berlin (2016–2022), and the Managing Directorship of the Competence Center for Water Berlin (2020–2023).
His work concerns the economic, institutional, infrastructural and digital systems that shape cities and territories. Current focus areas include water systems and climate adaptation, AI-enabled urban systems and digital twins, and the scaling of digital innovation from pilot applications to operational integration.
He advises federal and state ministries, metropolitan authorities and international institutions on long-term urban positioning, institutional capability, and the design and upscaling of digital solutions in smart city, climate adaptation and infrastructure governance contexts.
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Private Practice
Jochen has devoted his professional life to conceptualising, structuring and managing complex, large-scale transformation processes. Over more than 25 years, he has contributed to regional and metropolitan development strategies, innovation ecosystems and resilience frameworks across diverse international contexts.
He has held senior positions at leading international interdisciplinary engineering consultancies, including Arup and Buro Happold, in both the United Kingdom and Germany. There, he operated at the interface of strategy and delivery, integrating infrastructure systems, environmental performance and economic viability.
From 2020 to 2023, as Managing Director of the Competence Center for Water Berlin (KWB), he advanced strategic responses to water scarcity, climate adaptation and infrastructure resilience. He strengthened the integration of urban water cycles and nature-based solutions within metropolitan planning and led the development and market introduction of digital technologies emerging from applied research, including within EU Green Deal contexts.
Throughout his career, resilience has functioned not as a thematic add-on, but as an enabling framework linking environmental stewardship, economic robustness and institutional capability.
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Academia
Jochen pursued his studies, research and teaching at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, the Einstein Center Digital Future, the Technical University Berlin and ESCP Business School.
His academic and professional work has consistently explored the intersection of cities, nature, governance and technology, with sustainable transformation as the guiding principle. At Oxford, he examined the interfaces between the built and natural environment. At Cambridge, he focused on interdisciplinary management of complex transformation processes.
As Professor for Urban Resilience and Digitalisation, he conducted research and teaching on Smart City strategies, resilience frameworks and institutional responses to rapid structural change. He has lectured at numerous universities, including the Technical University Berlin and ESCP.
Volunteering
Jochen is currently part of the advisory board Urban Reform Kiev, training new urban planners in and after crisis. He has contributed pro bono expertise to institutions including the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Capital City of Berlin, the City of Heidelberg, the Wüstenrot Foundation, the Lusatia Region and Tempelhof Projekt GmbH, among others.