ABSTRACT
That’s game changing – that’s not a plant on wheels! (Amica Dall, Assemble)32
Atelier d’architecture autogérée (aaa; Studio for Self-Managed Architecture) is a Paris-based design rm, established in 2001 and led by Doina Petrescu and Constantin Petcou. It operates contingently, setting up temporary collaborations with other architectural rms, artists, art organizations, NGOs, city councils, or universities. Despite a focus on France, its reach is global, and Petrescu’s and Petcou’s anchoring in academia, at the University of Sheeld School of Architecture, provides a direct link to teaching and research. The global, contingent, collaborative and academic aspects of the rm are features shared with many participatory architects, though in aaa they are particularly present. The ECObox (2001-6) and Passage 56 (2006) projects in Paris, in which aaa led locals to appropriate derelict spaces and turn them to community gardens, the stream of publications with which Petrescu and Petcou have been involved (Blundell Jones, Petrescu and Till 2005; AAA and PEPRAV 2007; Petrescu 2007b; Petrescu, Petcou, Awan 2010), and the contribution of the atelier to the Uneven Growth exhibition at the MoMA have been important in positioning aaa at the fore of the participatory movement.
