the Collective

The Urban Commons Research Collective (UCRC) is a group of scholars, practitioners, and activists dedicated to the theory and practice of urban commons. The collective is interested in researching urban commons as open organizational systems capable of addressing urgent contemporary challenges - such as resilience, climate change, and social inequality - in the multiple worlds we engage with.

The story of the UCRC started in 2018 at Sheffield School of Architecture and Landscape with a series of conversations among researchers interested in a non-extractive and reflective practice engaged with, in and for urban commoning processes. Based on the wide range of experiences provided by the collective members' situated practices, companions and allies, we have conducted seminars and workshops at the University of Sheffield, Central Saint Martins, London Metropolitan University and AHRA 2023 Conference. In 2022 we published the Urban Commons Handbook and are currently working on an open archive and publications concerned with the translation and articulation of urban commoning practices from a pluriversal perspective.

Members

Alex Axinte is an architect, educator, and researcher based in Bucharest, working to enact intermediary spaces for community activation through participative design and engaged education.

Ana Méndez de Andés is an urban researcher and practitioner based in Madrid, working the intersection between urban commoning and new democratic institutions, urban planning methodology and feminist politics.

Beatrice De Carli is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture and Landscape, University of Sheffield and a Managing Associate at Architecture Sans Frontières UK (ASF-UK).

Doina Petrescu is Professor of Architecture and Design Activism at the School of Architecture and Landscape, University of Sheffield and co-founder of atelier d’architecture autogérée (AAA).

Emre Akbil is an architect, urbanist and educator working with minoritarian and commons based pedagogies and spatial practices.

Esra Can is an architect, educator, and researcher operating between the UK and Cyprus. Her work focuses on weaving feminist and critical spatial practices into socio-spatial justice initiatives that cultivate collective agency.

Jakleen Al-Dalal'a is a trained architect, educator, and researcher based in the UK and Jordan, focusing on urban justice, activism, bottom-up planning, and feminist and decolonial approaches to city-making.

Katharina Moebus is a feminist designer, organiser, and researcher who works at the intersection of socio-politically engaged design, radical pedagogy, and do-it-together (DIT) making.

Lara Scharf is an architect, educator, and researcher based in the UK and Cyprus, focusing on the role of spatial practice in contexts of urban conflict through the theoretical and activist lens of radical imagination.

Maria Alexandrescu is a landscape architect, researcher, and educator interested in situated urbanised natures as common grounds for reimagining and reclaiming the right to life in the city.

Melissa Harrison is a Berlin-based researcher working transversally across socio-political urban justice, critical spatial practice, and transformative pedagogies.

Teresa Tourvas is an architect, activist and researcher working between Cyprus and the UK. Her work focuses on the role of interstitial and in-between spaces as reparative sites in contested contexts.

Thomas Moore is a Manchester based spatial designer, educator, and researcher focusing on civic pedagogy through embedded practice with Urban Rooms and Urban Living Labs.

Our Situated Practices