Cristina Murphy
Details
| First Name | Cristina |
| Last Name | Murphy |
| Nickname | Critje |
| Website | |
| Where do you work or study? | MSU / SA+P, Virginia Tech at WAAC, Blue Print Cafe, and XCOOP |
| What do you do? | Cristina, a registered architect in The Netherlands, brings together academic research and community practice. As co-founder of XCOOP and Blue Print Cafe, and an Associate Professor with tenure at Morgan State University, she also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Virginia Tech while pursuing her PhD. Her architectural career began at OMA Rotterdam, and has since evolved to focus on addressing social and urban inequality. Through Blue Print Cafe, she explores how community spaces can nurture lasting connections between people and place, applying Placekeeping principles to strengthen neighborhood bonds. Her research examines participatory approaches to urban revitalization, with particular attention to temporary interventions in downtown areas. |
| Where do you live? | Baltimore and Rotterdam depending on the season… |
What Brings You Here?
| How do you like to engage your environment? | I do: as a designer of the built environment I have no other way but to engage, widly. |
| What ecological concerns weigh on you the most? | Resources scarcity and ways to design + build in a cyrcular manner. |
| What does ecological design mean to you? | Design and build with and for the ecosystem as a whole. |
| What would you recommend reading on radical ecological futures? | In my study, the following are eye-openers into injustices in the built (ecological) envionment: 1. The Color of Law-A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America-Richard Rothstein; 2. Not in My Neighborhood. How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City – Antero Pietila; 3. How to Kill a City – Gentrification Inequality and the Fight for the Neighborhood by Peter Moskowitz |
| What kinds of projects would you like to get involved with? | Post-Pandemic Urban Design |
| What mediums do you like to work with? | Many: drafting tools, presentation tools, pictures/images and videos. |
| What kinds of people would you like to collaborate with? | Social behaviorist and realtors |
| What's one idea you'd like to figure out with others? | Reconnect segregated communities |
| What else should we know about you? | Most of time I feel like Don Quichotte…. |
| What would you like to see this community become? | An open source toolbox of resources to make this world a better place. |