atelier d'architecture autogérée: Transgressive Practices for Resilient Urban Agency

Book chapter, 2019

There are obvious needs to find ways of working with contemporary cities that can address and adapt to the many complex societal and urban challenges. The increasingly tangible signs of Climate Change, together with growing economic and social tensions, have put focus on the question of how to develop more sustainable and resilient urban communities. atelier d’architecture autogérée (aaa) “Studio for Self-Managed Architecture” is a research-based architectural practice founded by architects Constantin Petcou and Doina Petrescu in 2001 in Paris to conduct actions and research on participative architecture. The practice of aaa started in 2001 with the realization of a temporary garden made out of recycled materials on a derelict site in La Chapelle in the north of Paris. The project called ECObox was a garden supplemented with mobile facilities. It formed a platform for urban creativity, that subsequently moved several times within the whole neighbourhood catalysing activities and involving different users in the area.