Póvoas

Ana Póvoas is a researcher in social sciences, architecture and urbanism, scientific collaborator at the Sasha Laboratory since May 2019 where she is interested in the springs of space for the development of individuals and societies, through the new paradigm of just urbanism.

Starting from her studies at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (Portugal), then practicing in urban project in London, she completes in 2016 a doctoral thesis at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) on spatial justice. She was awarded the EPFL Prize for the best thesis in Architecture and Urban Sciences. Through her research themes, her productions oriented towards public debate, but also her scientific advice to field actors, Ana Póvoas works with a strong interactivity between original fundamental research and the world of action.

She has carried out research mandates for, among others, the Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecture; the Commissariat général à l’égalité des territoires and the Fondation Jean-Jaurès (France). Her publications include Atlas politique de la France (with Ogier Maitre and Jean-Nicolas Fauchille, ed. Jacques Lévy, Autrement, 2017), Théorie de la justice spatiale (with Jacques Lévy and Jean-Nicolas Fauchille, Odile Jacob, 2018), and “Expliciter la justice spatiale. Les citoyens-habitants, le singulier et l’universel” in Carte d’identités. L’espace au singulier (ed. Jacques Lévy, Yann Calbérac, Olivier Lazzarotti and Michel Lussault, Hermann, 2019).

She has presented her work in about twenty research events in Switzerland, the United States, Portugal, France and Belgium. In 2017, she co-founded the rhizome Chôros, an international research association that aims to be part of the world of knowledge and, simultaneously, immersed in social life, its issues and debates. Ana Póvoas develops activities of research animation and design of innovative services. Her methodological skills include interview surveys, with qualitative and quantitative discourse processing using textometry.

Combining her skills in graphic semiology and her technical know-how as a designer with her interest in space, she is also developing a cartographic activity. The pedagogical project she wishes to carry out aims at incorporating the aspirations of inhabitants into contemporary practices of urbanism, architecture and landscape. She is currently working on the theory and practice of just urbanism, taking it as a model of citizen participation, central to the construction of shared value bases.

She is involved in the scientific observation of the Citizens’ Climate Convention since October 2019.