“ 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 the Greenfield, On Architecture and Greenwashing (Hatje Cantz, 2024), 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 a member of the Advisory Board of House Europe, and a reviewer for the SNSF in the Evaluation panel - Postdoc.Mobility Social sciences.

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-Henderson (she/her/hers),Harvard GSD, is a doctoral student 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.

Kathlyn Kao (she/her/hers), Harvard GSD, is a scientific collaborator at RIOT and co-founder of Paperwork. Her work focuses on questions of immeasurability and intangibility within regimes of land ownership and environmental law. 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.

Nagy Makhlouf (he/him/his), is an architect, writer, teacher, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at RIOT. His recent work includes a doctoral thesis, Home of the Free: The Political Economies of Suburbia in the United States (EPFL, 2025); a contribution to Housing, Micropolitics, and Pedagogies: Designing and Practicing Collectivity (Ruby Press, 2025); and Unearthing Traces: Dismantling Imperialist Entanglements of Archives, Landscapes, and the Built Environment (EPFL Press, 2023). He has also published in the journals Trou Noir, Polygone, and Lundimatin.

Nathalie Marj (she/her/hers) is a graduate assistant 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. She contributed to Beirut Urban Lab’s work and is the marketing director of 961 Collective.

Summer Islam (she/her/hers), AADipl (hons), is a doctoral candidate with the RIOT. Her research explores the potential for a decarbonised 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 which 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.

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 within a charitable foundation and dedicates herself to positively impacting society by providing assistance to those in need and promoting 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).