Irina Davidovici
Curriculum vitae
PD Dr. Irina Davidovici is the Director of the gta Archives since 1 January 2022. She is a trained architect and historian, having obtained her doctorate in history and philosophy of architecture at the University of Cambridge in 2008 and her Habilitation at ETH Zurich in 2020. She led the gta Doctoral Programme in the History and Theory of Architecture from 2019 to 2021. Her doctoral thesis on German-Swiss architecture in the 1980s and 1990s received the RIBA President's Research Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in 2009. Her Habilitation thesis 'Collective Grounds: Housing Estates in the European City, 1865–1934', made possible by the SNF Marie Heim-Vögtlin Fellowship (2014–2016), focused on the urban integration of early housing estates in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Vienna. Her research straddles housing studies, the history of housing cooperatives, and Swiss architecture.
Davidovici has held positions as visiting professor at EPFL Lausanne (2020–2021), Harvard GSD Richard Rogers Fellow (2018), gta Postdoctoral Fellow (2016–2017), SNF Marie Heim-Vögtlin Fellow (2014–2016) at ETH Zurich, and senior lecturer at Kingston University, London (2008–2013). She is the author of Forms of Practice. German-Swiss Architecture 1980–2000 (2012, 2nd expanded edition 2018) and editor of Colquhounery. Alan Colquhoun from Bricolage to Myth (2015). Her articles were published in AA Files, The Journal of Architecture, OASE, ARCH+, Casabella, Joehlo and Project Journal. Her book The Autonomy of Theory: Ticino Architecture and Its Critical Reception (gta Publishers, Zurich) will be published in 2023, and Common Grounds: A Comparative History of Early Housing Estates in Europe (Triest Publishers, Zurich) in 2024.
Davidovici has held positions as visiting professor at EPFL Lausanne (2020–2021), Harvard GSD Richard Rogers Fellow (2018), gta Postdoctoral Fellow (2016–2017), SNF Marie Heim-Vögtlin Fellow (2014–2016) at ETH Zurich, and senior lecturer at Kingston University, London (2008–2013). She is the author of Forms of Practice. German-Swiss Architecture 1980–2000 (2012, 2nd expanded edition 2018) and editor of Colquhounery. Alan Colquhoun from Bricolage to Myth (2015). Her articles were published in AA Files, The Journal of Architecture, OASE, ARCH+, Casabella, Joehlo and Project Journal. Her book The Autonomy of Theory: Ticino Architecture and Its Critical Reception (gta Publishers, Zurich) will be published in 2023, and Common Grounds: A Comparative History of Early Housing Estates in Europe (Triest Publishers, Zurich) in 2024.
