Team and partners

Research team

Corelia Baibarac (EcoDA research fellow) is a qualified Part 3 architect with a PhD in Sustainable Development (Trinity College Dublin). Her doctoral research focused on platforms for enhancing civic participation in urban planning (a prototype digital platform was developed as part of Interactivos 2012, a MediaLab Madrid initiative, organised in collaboration with science Gallery Dublin).

Prior to working at the University of Sheffield, she gained valuable practical experience in the public planning sector in London. Her research is concerned with how the concept of ‘collaborative production’ of cities could be implemented in practice. This focuses on the terms of the tools, processes and governance frameworks that could lead to more inclusive and equitable cities, both for their inhabitants and for the environment.

Doina Petrescu (EcoDA supervisor) is a Professor of Architecture and Design Activism, and Head or Research, at Sheffield School of Architecture. She trained as an architect at the University of Architecture and Urban Design Ion Mincu (UAIM) in Bucharest and obtained her PhD in Women Studies at University Paris 8.

Prior to her appointment at the University of Sheffield, Doina held positions at UAIM Bucharest, Iowa University, EA Grenoble, ENSBA Lyon and EA Paris-Malaquais. Her cross-disciplinary research addresses outstanding questions in architecture and urban planning, focusing on issues of civic participation and gender, and the relations between coproduction and resilience.

She is the co-founder of Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée in Paris (urbantactics.org) and one of the initiators of the R-Urban strategy for resilient urban regeneration (r-urban.net).

Practitioners and community partners

Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée (studio for self-managed architecture / AAA) – the EcoDA partner practice in Paris. AAA participants included: Constantin Petcou, Camille Morin, Thibaud Joffraud and Anna-Laura Bourgignon.

The EcoDA collaboration focused on the R-Urban project initiated by AAA in 2011, in the Paris suburb of Colombes. R-Urban aims to create a network of ‘civic hubs’. These consist of resident-run facilities that form local ecological cycles and engage local residents in everyday eco-civic practices. Digital tools were prototyped in relation to one such hub, Agrocité.

Community partners in Paris included the core group of local residents managing Agrocité (Lyne Soba, Cathrine Bahague, Benoît Wulveryck, Françoise Prévot, Marie-Claudine Duong, Catherine Van Thao, Raymone Lacan) and R-Urban network collaborators (Bendicht Weber, Frank Faucheux, and Pascale Meker).

Public Works – the EcoDA partner practice in London. Public Works participants included: Andreas Lang, Tom Dobson and Andy Belfield.

The EcoDA collaboration involved a number of Public Works projects which are located in different parts of London. The projects experiment with locally-relevant eco-civic practices: R-Urban Wick (an adaptation of the R-Urban model), Loughborough Junction Farm, The Old Tidemill Gardens and Roman Road Market. Digital tools were prototyped as part of a Live Project with students from Sheffield School of Architecture. Further tools were developed after subsequent meta-analysis of possibilities for creating exchanges between the local sites.

Community partners in London included Public Works collaborators from R-Urban Wick (Rokiah Yaman, Antonio Angelov, Noel Cottrell, Lawrence Mohammed), Loughborough Junction Farm / LJF (Anthea Masey), Old Tidemill Gardens / OTG (Owen Hodgkinson, Ella Perkins) and Roman Road (Tabitha Stapely).

studioBasar – the EcoDA partner practice in Bucharest. StudioBasar participants included: Alex Axinte and Cristi Borcan.

The EcoDA collaboration extended to one of studioBasar’s partner institutions, Bucharest Municipal Library network (BMB), who are exploring opportunities for reinventing local libraries as community hubs. Digital tools were prototyped in relation to one of their joint projects, BiblioLAB.

Community partners in Bucharest included Bucharest Municipal Library staff (Anca Ivan, Marilena Chirita, Carmen Scopian, Daniel Ciobanu, Gabriela Toma, Gina Roman, Liliana Radu, Mihaela Dragomir, Anca Rapeanu), together with representatives of a number of local organisations: NGOs (Resource Centre for Public Participation / CeRe, Komunitas, Greenitiative), a contemporary arts organisation (Tranzit) and the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism (Tudor Elian, Ana-Maria Toni).

Collaborators

Phil Langley (EcoDA technology adviser) is an architect and computational designer based in London. Phil’s PhD research is concerned with developing critical approaches to technology. He is particularly interested in software that is used specifically in architecture and more generally in spatial practice.

As part of his work, Phil has developed a number of prototype software tools that address the ways in which software mediates design. His project ‘@simulationBot’ is one such example, in which a ‘twitter bot’ has been used to act as a ‘digital companion’ during of co-production and design. Phil is currently completing his PhD at SSoA.

Harriet Francis was graduating the Masters of Architecture (MArch) programme at SSoA. Harriet contributed to the EcoDA Paris residency in the role of assistant, preparing for, and participating in, the co-design workshops with the local residents running Agrocité, at R-Urban Colombes.

Eleni Ravanis was a final year Geography student at the University of Sheffield. Eleni contributed to the EcoDA International Symposium in the role of assistant in the production of the event.

Zak Nicoll was graduating the MArch programme at SSoA. Zak contributed to the design and development of the EcoDA research website and the platform portal.

Other contributors

The EcoDA platform has also been shaped by:

Contributions of the SSoA live project students

• • Issi Chamberlayne

  • Eva Chee

  • Asia Cydzik

  • Daniel Li

  • Cherry Poon

  • Emma Seaton

  • Kah Kiat Sham

  • Niki Sole

  • Luna Wu

  • Yoti Zhang

The participants to the EcoDA Symposium

Speakers and workshop moderators:

• • Sara Borgströmm

  • Enric Senabre Hidalgo

  • Ileana Apostol

  • Frédéric Sultan

  • Tom Dobson

  • Andreas Lang

  • Alex Axinte

  • Rokiah Yaman

  • Constantin Petcou

  • Isabel Carlisle

  • Joost Beunderman

  • Nicolas Fonty

SSoA PhD students:

• • • Katharina Moebus

    • Aya Musmar

    • Amr Yaghi

    • Xiang Ren

SSoA staff:

• • • Cheryl Armitage

    • Ralph Mackinder

    • Christie Harrison