Stephan is strongly interested in Urban Space and its (sub-)culture. That is why he studied Urban and Regional Planning at the Berlin Institute of Technology (TU Berlin). His wanderlust and particularly his major in "Planning in the International Context" led him to visits for research purposes to Indonesia, Iran and Kazakhstan. Alongside he was working at the German Institute of Urban Affairs and the Federal-Lander-Program "Socially Integrative City" for several years.

While questioning "Why do large-scale projects in architecture and planning struggle so often?" he discovered Design Thinking and the idea of 'solving complex challenges in multidisciplinary teams'. As an alumnus of the HPI School of Design Thinking Stephan tries to combine the methods of Design Thinking with urban planning and development. Since January 2015 he supports the Design Thinking Research Program at the interface of Space, Innovation and Teamwork.