Francesca Romana Forlini

I am an architect, educator, researcher, editor, freelance writer and tireless enthusiastic. I work in the fields of architecture and interior design history, theory and criticism, with a personal interest in writing, paper architecture and the editorial world, and an academic interest in cultural sociology, gender studies and critical heritage studies. In specific, I am interested in the role that identity and culture play in the design, use and alteration of architecture. In the past I looked at theoretical implications of demolition, refurbishment, movement and reproduction of cultural heritage (both ordinary, iconic, fixed, and mobile), tackling issues of memory, identity and authenticity at the urban, architectural and individual scales.

I hold a PhD from the Royal College of Art (RCA) that was sponsored by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Scholarship. My thesis, titled From Within: Uncovering Cultural Domesticity, was supervised by Adrian Lahoud, Sam Jacoby and Catherine Ince and looks at the processes of appropriation of domestic interiors through everyday, enculturated practices and ordinary objects. I am Fulbrighter and alumna of the Harvard Graduate School of Design with a Master in Design Studies (MDes) in Critical Conservation, degree with distinction. My MDes thesis titled Field of Objects: The Preservation of the Domestic Condition was supervised by Antoine Picon. I previously studied at the Architectural Association (AA) in London (MPhil Projective Cities), the ENSA Paris-Belleville, and I graduated in Architecture with distinction from Sapienza University, Rome.

I am currently leading the undergraduate (BA) course in “History and Theory of Architecture” and the Post-Graduate course “Discourses and Reflections” at the faculty of Creative Arts of the University of Hertfordshire (UH). I previously led the BA course in “Contextual Studies” at Middlesex University (London). I am also directing the bilingual book series Stanze for Lettera Ventidue Edizioni, I am chief editor at koozArch and I am a freelance journalist for the Giornale dell’Architettura.

I previously worked as visiting lecturer in architecture at Regent’s University and I taught a college-wide course at the RCA on Material Culture and Identity. I was also a researcher at Foster + Partners, a Research Assistant (RA) at the RCA, Teaching and Research Assistant in both Harvard GSD (I worked with Peter G. Rowe, K. Micheal Hays, Charles Waldheim and Mohsen Mostafavi) and Sapienza University. I have been invited as guest critic at the AA, The Bartlett (UCL), RCA, UH and the School of Sustainability (SOS).

During my years at Harvard I collaborated in the foundation of the AIA-awarded (Douglas Haskell Award) journal OBL / QUE specialized in the emerging discipline of Critical Conservation, where I worked as editor and published a critical essay and an interview with the 2021 Pritzker Prize recipient architect Anne Lacaton. Other essays, articles, reviews and short texts have been published in Interiors: Design/Architecture/Culture, Masks, Open Letters, koozArch and AArchitecture. I co-authored an essay published on the official magazine of the Italian Architectural Archives (AAA) that focuses on architect Maurizio Sacripanti, the essay was presented at MaXXI museum in Rome. I am also co-author of the book The Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Palava City (2017) published by the Harvard Graduate School of Design Press.

Education

• Royal College of Art - Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Architecture Jan 2017 - Mar 2022
• Harvard University Graduate School of Design - Master of Design Studies (MDes), Architecture 2015 - 2017
• Architectural Association - Master of Philosophy (MPhil), Taught MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design (Projective Cities) 2014 - 2015
• Sapienza Università di Roma - Laurea Specialistica quinquennale, Architecture 2008 - 2013
• Ecole d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville - Premier Master, Architecture 2011 - 2012

Companies

• Module Leader of the Post-Graduate (MA) course in Design History and Theory University of Hertfordshire (2021)
• Leader of History and Theory of Architecture (BA) University of Hertfordshire (2021)
• Freelance Author Il Giornale dell'Architettura (2021)
• Director Plectica Editrice (2019)
• Module Leader University of Hertfordshire (2020 — 2021)
• Lecturer Middlesex University (2020 — 2020)
• Visiting Lecturer University of Hertfordshire (2018 — 2020)
• Research Assistant Foster + Partners (2018 — 2018)
• Research Assistant Royal College of Art (2018 — 2018)