“ magnis. Lorem ipsum dolor sic amet.  The university needs teaching labor, despite itself, or as itself, self-identical with and thereby erased by it. It is not teaching that holds this social capacity, but something that produces the not visible other side of teaching, a thinking through the skin of teaching toward a collective orientation to the knowledge object as future project, and a commitment to what we want to call the prophetic organization. But it is teaching that brings us in.  Duis diam netus augue lectus congue elementum mattis mauris ”

Harney, Stefano, and Fred Moten. 2013. The Undercommons : Fugitive Planning & Black Study. Wivenhoe ; New York ; Port Watson: Minor Compositions. pp 27

“Enough. Stop. That's what it's gonna take. Yeah, I know   voting is important yeah right? Yes, but feet on the ground and fists in the air are also important.”

Transcript: Kurt Russo on the People under the Sea [ENCORE] /345.” 2023. For the Wild. August 23, 2023.

Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (she/her/hers) is an architect, urban designer, and Assistant Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). During her time as Assistant Professor of Urban Design at Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she taught studios and seminars, she launched in 2021 the initiative ‘A Global Moratorium on New Construction’ interrogating current protocols of development and urging for a profound reform of planning disciplines to face the climate and social emergency (A Moratorium on New Construction, 2025, Sternberg Press/MIT Press). She directed, managed, and taught the post-graduate Master of Advanced Studies in Urban Design at ETH Zurich from 2014-2019, focusing on migration and urbanism in Mediterranean cities (Marseille, Tangier, Beirut). Malterre-Barthes received a Ph.D. from ETH Zurich on the political economy of commodities in the built environment. She is the editor of the Political Economy of Space series: On Architecture and Work, On Architecture and the Greenfield, On Architecture and Greenwashing (Hatje Cantz, 2024-2025), and the co-author of publications and prize-winning books among which Migrant Marseille: Architectures of Social Segregation and Urban Inclusivity (Parenthèses 2022, Ruby Press, 2020), Eileen Gray: A House under the Sun (Dargaud, 2020, Nobrow, 2019), Some Haunted Spaces in Singapore (Editions Patrick Frey, 2018), Cairo Desert Cities and Housing Cairo: The Informal Response (Ruby Press, 2017, 2016). As a guest professor at TU Berlin (2018-2019), she investigated and challenged the predatorily modus operandi of real estate in the German capital. During her time at ETH Zürich, she co-founded the Parity Group, a militant grassroots collective laboring toward equity in architecture, which received the Meret Oppenheim Prize 2023. Charlotte is an ambassador and member of the Advisory Board of HouseEurope, and a reviewer for the SNSF in the Evaluation panel - Postdoc.Mobility Social sciences. She is the co-founder of OMNIBUS, an urban design and research practice, with Noboru Kawagishi, active since 2009.

Antoine Iweins (he/him/his) is part of the teaching core team at RIOT, graduated in 2022 from architecture at EPFL. He co-taught the (Un)Studio in 2024, an experimental format interrogating institutional and educational formats at EPFL. Engaged in the politics of pedagogies at the university, he has edited with L’Atelier Magazine the issues “Identity” (2021) and “Impact” (2022). His diploma work with Noémie Zurbriggen, in dialogue with associative efforts, has been m(t)aking time space to discuss and act on issues of knowledge legitimacy and its (re)production in architectural culture.

Elif Erez (she/her/hers), Harvard GSD, is a doctoral candidate with RIOT. Her work focuses on centering care and collectivism, and decarbonizing the built environment through policy and infrastructure design enabling repair and reuse. She is originally from Istanbul, Turkey, and has a Bachelors of Architecture from Yale University, a dual Master’s in Architecture and Master’s in Design Studies from Harvard University GSD. She has previously practiced at Studio Gang Architects, and is a co-founder of the repair-centered interdisciplinary design collaborative bags, @bags__collective, based in Querétaro and Istanbul. Her writing has been published in Log, the Harvard Urban Review, and PAIRS.

Flore Guichot (she/her/hers), EPFL, IUAV (Venice), and UPC Barcelona, holds a PhD in urbanism from EPFL. She works at the intersection of practice-oriented research and territorial planning, with mandates across multiple contexts in Europe framed by a socio-ecological transition perspective. Her research explores the relationship between transport and urbanization through the lens of socio-ecological transition, with a particular focus on socio-spatial justice in contemporary development. She is especially interested in the encounter between bottom-up and top-down governance and planning models. She is a research associate at the RIOT and Laboratory of Urban Sociology and part of the Habitat Research Center (HRC) at EPFL, where she also coordinates and lectures for the MAS in Urban and Territorial Design. Her teaching spans both theoretical and studio-based formats.

Jeremy Ratib(he/him) is a scientific collaborator at RIOT. He is a musician and sound artist based in Zürich. His latest album, Backlot Country, draws on his adolescence growing up in Los Angeles, leaning into the influence of American folk and country music while confronting the darker socio-political and cultural undercurrents of early 2000s America that have left an indelible mark on him. The album released last October was recorded together with musicians Robin Girod and Valentin Liechti, with whom he now tours as a trio under the name Jeremy Ratib & The Sunday Cartoons. Alongside his songwriting, Jeremy’s practice extends into sound art and composition, for which he recently completed a CAS in film and theater music at ZHdK, developing sound installations and performing in spaces such as Local.Int in Biel. He is also a co-founder of Hotti, an offspace in Zürich, where he remains an active member of the curatorial team. Jeremy graduated in architecture from ETH Zürich in 2016, and has since contributed to projects including the renovation of the Labör building in Oerlikon — a social center and learning space centered on circular, post-extractive practices and collective design processes.

Kathlyn Kao (she/her/hers), Harvard GSD, is a doctoral candidate at RIOT. Her work focuses on questions of immeasurability and intangibility within regimes of land ownership and environmental law, specifically pertaining to migrant communities. Her thesis, “In the Capital of Absence, I am Longing for___,” supported by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, focuses on the spatial remittance economy of overseas Filipina domestic workers. She has given talks at institutions including Bauhaus-Universität Weimar University, ABK Stuttgart, and ARQ Technológico de Monterrey. Kathlyn received a B. Arch from Cal Poly (SLO) and is a registered architect in New York, USA.

Nathalie Marj (she/her/hers) is a scientific collaborator at RIOT. She received a B.Arch from McGill University and graduated in 2024 with a Master of Architecture from EPFL. Her diploma work aimed to dismantle how sectarianism shapes space and policymaking in Lebanon and suggest protocols for non-sectarian spaces in Beirut’s unbuildable lots. Nathalie is interested in the production and dissemination of urban knowledge and data in the Middle East to allow dwellers to become engaged actors of their built environment.

Summer Islam (she/her/hers), AADipl (hons), is a doctoral candidate with the RIOT. Her research explores the potential for a decarbonized built environment that prioritizes ecosystems over industry. She is also a founding Director of Material Cultures, an architecture and research practice founded to bring together design, material research, and strategic thinking to make meaningful progress towards a post-carbon built environment. Material Cultures recently co-authored Material Reform, a book that assembles a series of essays exploring the cultures, systems, and infrastructures that shape the architectural industry and the destructive ecologies it fosters. Summer has taught architecture at the London Metropolitan University, the Bartlett School of Architecture, and Central St Martins.

Romain Dubettier-Grenier (he/him/his) is a graduate architect of EPFL as of July 2026. Supervised by RIOT, his diploma work investigated the French State's responsibility for the urban, social, and public health consequences of heavy industrialization in the Gulf of Fos, tracing how postwar planning served industrial monopolies at the expense of local residents. His research also critically engaged with archival spaces, examining the ways in which they are inherently biased.

Saira Mohamed (she/her/hers) has worked with EPFL for the past two decades. She has significant experience working in various laboratories throughout her career. At RIOT, she has been a key actor in managing the essential functions, overseeing everything from finances and HR to logistics and travel coordination. She ensures that the lab’s activities run smoothly. Beyond EPFL, Saira volunteers with a charitable foundation and dedicates herself to making a positive impact on society by assisting those in need and promoting the values of solidarity and mutual aid. In this context, she has worked with refugees and people in financial difficulties, providing material and social support. Looking ahead, she plans to extend her involvement to include participation with elderly residents at nursing homes (EMS).

Sylvie Clavel (she/her/hers) has worked with EPFL since 2008. At RIOT, she manages administrative logistics to ensure the MAS-UTD program runs smoothly. Swiss and born in Italy, she is married and the mother of two teenagers. Beyond her professional activities, she has a strong love for nature, sport, and Bretagne, a place particularly close to her heart. She is also passionate about languages and social inclusion, and volunteers as a French teacher for migrants at Lire et Écrire Lausanne.