Italian Architect, Founder of Studio Petteni Marta Petteni

Short CV

Marta is an Italian licensed Architect, educator, and activist. She is the founder of Studio Petteni - a Portland-based practice that merges research, engagement, and design to help address the social-environmental needs of historically marginalized communities in Oregon and worldwide. The firm is built upon Marta's decade-long experience at the intersection of design justice, post-disaster scenarios, climate change, and community resilience, and is in the advancement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

While running her practice, she is also the Co-Director & Project Manager of the AfroFuturism Oasis project, an innovative proposal aimed at converting retiring MAX Trains into safe and healing spaces for Portland’s Black and Brown communities. She has been awarded the 2024 Van Evera Bailey Fellowship from the Architecture Foundation of Oregon to expand this work.

Prior to joining AfroVillage, Marta has worked at Equity Researcher at Opsis Architecture (2021-2023), and as Designer at Portland State University’s Center for Public Interest Design and the Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (2017-2021).

Since 2015, Marta has worked on a variety of research and design-build projects in Italy, Spain, Ecuador, Fiji, and the United States, covering various roles – as a team member of for-profit and nonprofit organizations, as an independent consultant, as an adjunct professor at Portland State University, and as visiting professor at the University of Oregon.

She is fluent in Italian, English, and Spanish. She loves traveling to different places, meeting new cultures, immersing herself in nature and eating a tasty lasagna plate when at home.