Doina Petrescu and Constantin Petcou | Co-producing the City

Doina Petrescu and Constantin Petcou from atelier d’architecture autogérée (“aaa”), revisit the notion of co-production in the context of their recent participatory projects in Paris  (www.urbantactics.org). They will speak about the tools, spaces and agencies needed for citizens to co-produce their cities in times of crisis and austerity and about the (political) role of architects in facilitating such processes. These ideas have been developed also in their recent contribution to the MoMA exhibition ‘Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities’ (11.22.14– 05.10.15)

Constantin Petcou is a Paris-based architect whose work stresses the intersection between architecture, urbanism, service design and semiotics.  He is co-founder together with Doina Petrescu of atelier d’architecture autogérée (aaa), a professional organization which conducts actions and research on participatory urbanism and architecture which involve local residents in self-managing projects in their neighborhood, engaging in social and ecological practices, and initiating resilient networks.  aaa has been laureate of Zumtobel Prize for Sustainability and Humanity 2012, recipient of the Curry Stone Design Prize 2011, the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2010, and the Prix Grand Public des Architectures contemporaines en Métropole Parisienne 2010,  and has been a finalist at the  EIB Social Innovation Tournement 2014.

Doina Petrescu is Professor of Architecture and Design Activism at the University of Sheffield. Her cross-disciplinary research addresses outstanding questions in architecture and urban planning, focusing on issues of civic participation and gender and the relations between co-production and resilience. She is the editor of Altering Practices: Feminist Politics and Poetics of Space (2007) and co-editor of The Social (Re)Production of Architecture (2015), Architecture and Participation (2005), Urban Act (2007), Agency: Working with Uncertain Architectures (2009), and Trans-Local-Act: Cultural Practices Within and Across (2010).

Recognized as global change makers operating at the intersection of design and service, Petcou and Petrescu were included in the 2012 Public Interest Design list which maps the top 100 global leaders of the ‘future  of  a ground-breaking movement.’ They are Visiting Professor and Critic at the Harvard GSD (2014-2015).