Sonja Schelbach studied architecture at the universities of Oldenburg and Hamburg. The practical semester she did in an architect´s office in Mooloolaba in Queensland, Australia.

After graduating in 2000 she worked as a freelancer in planning and architectural firms. From 2006 she studied the four-semester master's degree “Restoration of old buildings” at the University of Karlsruhe. The Master Thesis was the conversion of a church in Saarbrücken build in the 1950's.

Afterwards, she was a freelancer in an architectural office and at the Heritage Office Hamburg.

Since February 2009 Sonja Schelbach works at the HCU Hamburg. First as a coordinator in the department of architecture, since April 2010 as a research assistant of Professor Dietrich in the research project USE efficiency and as his Ph.D. student.