Team

We are a diverse group of designers, architects, researchers, educators, writers, organisers and activists from different corners of the world all dedicated to building AoA together.  Team members include Alastair Fuad-Luke, Anja-Lisa Hirscher, Gaspar Mostafa, Katharina Moebus, Malin Bäckman, Melissa Harrison, and Nicholas Torretta (short bios see below). Together, we oversee day to day activities, management and strategic operations.

Alastair Fuad-Luke (UK/PT), is author of Design Activism and The Ecodesign Handbook, a sustainable design educator and activist based in Porto and, currently, Professor Auxilliar Convidado, University of Aveiro, Portugal.

Anja-Lisa Hirscher (DE), graphic designer, researcher and workshop facilitator at Make{able} workshops. Interested in participatory design, the sharing economy and alternative business models. She is currently enrolled as a doctoral student at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland and starting to work as a research assistant at University of Ulm, Germany.  

Gaspar Mostafa (ARG/SWE), graphic designer and user-experience designer, interested in data-driven design and sustainability. He is currently finishing his Master’s in Creative Sustainability at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland and about to start working as a UX designer for Vattenfall in Stockholm, Sweden.

Katharina Moebus (DE/FIN) is an interdisciplinary designer working at the crossroads of design, research, art, and activism. Her research interests include the commons, community economies, DIY-culture, neighbourhood participation, and peer-to-peer pedagogy. Currently, she is a PhD-candidate at the University of Sheffield School of Architecture and chairwoman of AoA.

Malin Bäckman (FIN) is a designer and researcher, based in Cardiff, UK.

Melissa Harrison (NZ/DE) is an architect, writer, and activist based in Berlin. Currently, she is a PhD-candidate at NTUA in Athens researching the role of urban commoning, as a translocal movement, in renegotiating the production of space. She is interested in challenging the post-political reign of the architecture profession and architectural education to imagine alternative ways of making space, cities, and societies, from the ground-up by engaged citizens exercising their ‘right to the city’.

Nicholas Torretta
(BR/SWE) 
has gathered experience as researcher, teacher and designer for sustainability, grassroots movements and solidarity economy projects though several Universities, NGOs and organizations in Brazil, Finland and Sweden. Nicholas has an MA in Sustainability (Aalto University, Helsinki – Finland) where he carried research on “upscaling grassroots movements towards sustainability” for which he mapped local grassroots movements in order to create possible pathways for progressing towards sustainable ways of urban living. Currently, Nicholas is Design Research Intern at the Interactive Institute Swedish ICT and second chairman of AoA.