Françoise Fromonot

Françoise Fromonot is an architect and critic based in Paris, currently Professor (Design, History and Theory) at the ENSA Paris-Belleville. A former contributing editor to l’Architecture d’Aujourd'hui (Paris), joint editor of le visiteur (Paris), she was a founding member of the Paris-based architecture journal criticat, a selection of articles from the first ten issues, Yours critically, appeared in English in 2016.

She is the author of numerous monographs and essays on contemporary architecture, including Glenn Murcutt-Buildings and Projects (1995/2003), Jørn Utzon and the Sydney Opera House (1999) – both recipients of the “Architecture book of the year” award from the French Architecture Academy, Paris. Her interest in urban design and its socio-political implications led her to write a critical account of the latest competition for the renovation of central Paris, in two volumes: La Campagne des Halles - Les Nouveaux malheurs de Paris (2005) and La Comédie des Halles – Intrigue et mise en scène, in 2019. She recently edited a monograph on the large-scale projects of French landscape architect Michel Desvigne (Transforming Landscapes, 2020) and is now preparing for MIT Press a collection of essay which will propose a fresh, “detective” interpretation of some famous modern buildings.