In this short interview, Doina Petrescu gives her testimonial about the feminist pedagogy at SSoA, the approach at the time she starts teaching there and how it has changed until now, her memories, and the legacy it had in her career. Towards the end of the interview, Doina tells us how she imagines a future feminist school of architecture and in what stage SSoA is.
Doina Petrescu is a Professor of Architecture and Design Activism at the University of Sheffield. Her research concerns issues of urban resilience in relation with urban commons, co-production, feminism and politics of space. Her publications include Architecture and Resilience (2018), The Social (re)Production of Architecture (2017), Learn to Act (2017), R-Urban Act: A Participative Strategy of Urban Resilience (2015), Agency: Working with Uncertain Architectures (2009), Trans-Local Act: Cultural Politics Within and Beyond (2009), Altering Practices: Feminist Politics and Poetics of Space (2007), Urban/ACT: A Handbook for Alternative Practice (2007) and Architecture and Participation (2005).
Petrescu is also co-founder, together with Constantin Petcou, of atelier d’architecture autogérée (aaa), a collective platform which conducts explorations, actions and research concerning participative architecture, resilience and cities co-produced transformation. Recent projects include WikiVillage Factory in Paris and R-Urban, a participative strategy for local resilience in the Parisian Region. These projects have received international recognition and numerous awards across the years including the Building4Humanity Resilient Design Competition (2018), The Innovation in Politics Award for Ecology (2017) Zumtobel Award (2012), Curry Stone Prize (2011) and the European Public Space Prize (2010).