Zasliševanje arhitekture [Interrogating Architecture]

Teresa Stoppani is an Italian architect who grew up in the Venezia-Giulia, not far from the Slovene border. After studying in Venice and Florence she continued her career of teaching and research in Great Britain. Her work is focused on architectural history, contemporary architecture and in particular on the role of critical theory in architecture today. She recently participated in the symposium On Power in Architecture, organised by the Igor Zabel Association and Mateja Kurir and held at Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana, where she presented a paper on Manfredo Tafuri. Teresa has recently become Professor of Research in Architecture at London South Bank University, moving there from Leeds Beckett University. The area where London South Bank University is situated is highly typical of the processes currently underway in London and especially south of the Thames. Once a relatively destitute area of the capital, it is now quickly transforming into one of the most expensive areas of the metropolis. Foreign investors, CEOs and students often live a stone’s throw from social housing tenants unsure of how long they will still be permitted to stay and when their estates will be redeveloped by private investors. A very suitable background for our discussion on criticality, gentrification and the understanding of the role of the architect today.