Maria Minic
Contact
- Email: k2120721@kingston.ac.uk
- Location: Kingston School of Art, Knights Park
- Faculty: Kingston School of Art
- School: School of Arts
- Department: Department of Architecture and Landscape
Research project: Who are Cities For? Informal tactics and co-operative strategies challenging the housing crisis
Abstract
Drawing on participatory action research in Belgrade, supported by CDA partner Ministarstvo Prostora, and in London, my doctoral project explores how alternative housing solutions organized informally by citizens and more formally by civil society can challenge the current housing crisis.
The primary body of my research focuses on the city of Belgrade and emerging housing solutions that confront investors' urbanism: informal tactics and citizens' self-initiative in city building, and cooperative strategies carried out by civil society. Case study analysis through an innovative mixed methods approach will produce a morpho- typological atlas describing housing construction processes, citizens' participation, and their impact on the physical city environment.
By cross-referencing the case of Belgrade to London's established participatory framework, my research will critically assess the transferability and scalability of Belgrade's informal and cooperative models.
My project addresses wider questions about: who is going to live in cities? Who are cities for?
- Research degree: PhD
- Title of project: Who are Cities For? Informal tactics and co-operative strategies challenging the housing crisis
- Research supervisor: Dr Christoph Lueder
- Other research supervisor: Dr Bill Balaskas
Biography
I am an architect and doctoral researcher at Kingston School of Art.
During and after my architectural studies, my main interest has been in the processes that lead to housing production and in the democratization of city making.
In 2020 I graduated with a Master's degree in Architecture at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Switzerland. My dissertation explored the social, political and cultural causes of informal construction in Belgrade, Serbia, through a mixed methods approach.
Since 2020 I have worked as an independent architect on various competitions in the field of public space design and tactical urbanism combined with cultural programming. I have collaborated with Homers on innovative self-initiated co-housing projects and with Homes4All on the development of a diffuse social housing model in Turin, Italy.
I am interested in working at the intersection between research and practice, seeking continuous translation of knowledge from ideas to their testing.
Areas of research interest
- Housing crisis
- Participation in city making
- Right to the city
- Alternative housing solutions to the real estate market
- Informal construction
- Co-operative housing
- "Global North" and "Global South"
- Belgrade, Serbia
- Innovative mixed methods approach
- Participatory Action Research
Qualifications
- MSc in Architecture, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Università della Svizzera Italiana
- BSc in Architecture, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Università della Svizzera Italiana
Funding or awards received
- AHRC TECHNE Collaborative Doctorate Award (CDA)