ABOUT POA

POA was born when some of us participated as volunteers to a construction workshop in Tanzania back in 2018.  After that experience, our vision of architecture and our professions changed for good. This is why we strongly wanted to continue helping Maji Moto’s community with further projects and we decided to establish POA with the aim of being able to help other communities around the world with our work.

We officially constituted as APS (Associazione di Promozione Sociale) in July 2022, but we have never stopped working for the communities since that summer of 2018.

OUR TEAM

POA is a group of 7 women, architects & engineers, who share the same enthusiasm for social design, with a focus on social, economic and environmental sustainability. All of us have backgrounds in social and cooperative activities. As a group, we recognise that participation is key to equitable and sustainable development and we are strongly convinced that architects have a fundamental role to play in the search for solutions that address situations of social, econominc and enviromental disadvantage. 

Maria Chiara Gatti

Engineer & Architect

She studied construction engineering and architecture in Bologna. She is now specialising in historic buildings renovation working for Marco Peroni Ingegneria in Faenza. She carries on also studies related to the culture and dance of different African countries; she completed the Africae Mundi programme created by Katina Genero. 

She started her career in London working on historical buildings. In 2019 moved back in Milano working for two years for the Milan based studio, PIUARCH. She is now working for a London based firm, Tatehindle.

She graduated in a Master in Sustainable and Emergency Architecture in Barcelona and started collaborating for a no for

profit organization based in Lesotho, rise international with she is now collaborating on a research project about sustainable construction materials.

PhD candidate at Politecnico di Milano on the housing issue in the Global South. She attended the Post Degree Master at IUAV of Venice about “Emergency and Resiliance Architecture”. She is now based in Mozambique working for Oikos.

Chiara Liso

Architect

She has been working in the past ten years in the Milan based studio Lombardini22, with the central role of project architect. She carries on also her personal researches on the side.

Daniela Landi

Architect

After several years working for different firms, she joined PR5studio in Milan. The valorisation of the built environment, the preservation of the territory, and the exploration of social and urban dynamics constitute Daniela & PR5’s modus operandi.

Heidi Corti

Architect

She is working in the architecture family business in Valtellina, a mountain village in north of Italy. Before undertaken this path she lived and worked in Milan, where she has also studied and graduated.