Eva Franch i Gilabert

In January 2021, Franch became a visiting lecturer at Princeton University School of Architecture.

Following votes of no confidence in her leadership, Franch was fired in July 2020 for "failure to develop and implement a strategy and maintain the confidence of the AA School Community which were specific failures of performance against clear objectives outlined in the original contract of employment." Her dismissal came despite support from academics who wrote an open letter talking of "systemic biases" against women and of sexism, and accusing the AA of using "the pandemic for anti-democratic purposes". Architectural magazine Dezeen reported tutor and alumni views that the failure to investigate allegations of bullying and sexism had damaged both the AA school and the architecture profession, leaving "a cloud over the school". However, a retaliatory open letter from two male AA tutors called the accusation of sexism "grossly uninformed", while other letters accused the AA of mixing the vote on leadership with "systemic issues" relating to its lack of diversity. Franch herself remained silent, her PR consultant saying she could not comment for legal reasons.

Under her tenure the AA gained taught degree awarding powers for the first time in the institution’s history and financial stability, enabling the relaunch of AA Files and the publications department after the institution had closed them due to a financial crisis prior to Franch’s appointment. In autumn 2019, Franch launched the AA Residence, a research and cultural platform to develop new ideas and forms of practice at the intersection of architecture, art, technology, policy and design including the AA Wood Lab and the AA Ground Lab. Franch launched the Experimental Program, the Speculative Studies department as well as a set of changes to ignite cross-programme collaborations around issues of climate and diversity. Franch introduced a series of pedagogical experiments including the Open Tutorials, the Open Seminars and the Architecture in Translation Juries. During her tenure, Franch launched the AA Global Forums, a student care centre, the writing centre, a careers office and a hardship fund to support students and alumni worldwide. She also launched the Expanding Horizons campaign, offering, for the first time, full scholarships across all programmes to deserving students across the globe.

In 2019, while at the helm of the Architectural Association, Franch relaunched AA Files and appointed Maria Sheherazade Giudici as new editor and head of AA Publications and Sacha Lobe/Pentagram as the new head of design. The opening issue, Files 76, presented a glossary of terms relevant to contemporary debate in architecture addressing issues such as environment, care, labour, protocols, and ethics.

Franch was named by the New York Times / T Magazine Spain, architect of the year in 2019, one of the most influential people in London by the Evening Standard in 2018 as well as one of the "New Change Makers" of 2020 by Harper's Bazaar magazine. She received a special citation by the American Institute of Architects in New York for her contribution to the field in 2018 and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia Illustrious Alumni Award in 2019.

In 2018 Franch commissioned "Marching On: the Politics of Performance" by Bryony Roberts and Mabel Wilson presented as part of Performa addressing issues of race and politics. The same year, Franch launched the "New York Architecture Book Fair" in partnership with the New York Public Library, E-Flux, the Cooper Union, GSAPP, Printed Matter and small bookstores throughout New York City.

In March 2018, while at Storefront, Franch was appointed Distinguished Professor of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts.

She was appointed - from a three-strong shortlist - as the first female permanent director of the Architectural Association in London in 2018, succeeding Brett Steele.

Throughout her tenure, Franch expanded Storefont’s footprint in Kenmare Street in SoHo with two additional spaces for operations and the indexing and digitization of the Storefront Archive. The Digital Archive project, directed by Chialin Chow, started in 2015 and was finalized and launched in December 2019.

Franch, together with a curatorial and design team including Ana Miljacki, Ashley Schafer, Natasha Jen, Carlos Minguez Carrasco, Lars Müller, and architects Leong Leong among more than 300 collaborators, was selected by the US State Department to represent the United States at the XIV Venice Architecture Biennale (2014) with the project OfficeUS, an experiment for the making of new histories and global architecture practice.

Publications by Franch include Agenda (Lars Muller, 2014), Atlas (Lars Muller, 2015) and Manual (Lars Muller 2017) as part of OfficeUS.

In 2012, following the Manifesto Series events at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, Franch launched a new publication series with design by Natasha Jen/Pentagram and Lars Muller with the first issue Formless edited by Julian Rose and Garret Ricciardi and Double edited by Serkan Özkaya. Contributors included art and architecture historians Hal Foster, Lucia Allais, Spyridon Papapetros, Alanna Heiss, Yve-Alain Bois, and Ines Weizman, among others.

Franch curated international projects including Borders, the 2011 Think Space biennial concept competition program, and OUT, the 2014 Arquia Proxima biennial competition.

In 2010, Franch became the executive director and chief curator of Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City where she presented more than 30 exhibitions and a series of public events and debates that catalyzed the art and architecture community for almost a decade around spatial issues addressing the relation between politics, representation, and aesthetics. Under her tenure Storefront gained an international presence with a series of innovative curatorial projects and initiatives including the World Wide Storefront, the Storefront International Series, Letters to the Mayor, the Competition of Competitions, and the Storefront TV. In 2018, Franch launched the New York Architecture Book Fair. The  Letters to the Mayor project launched in 2014 invites architects to write letters to their city mayors as a way to open up dialogue about the making of cities and public life. The project has had more than twenty editions globally including New York, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Athens, Taipei, Madrid and Rotterdam.

Franch, who graduated with honors from ETSAB and Princeton, is a first generation student and an advocate for free education. She has received numerous scholarships and awards, including the Reyner Banham Fellowship (2008), the Wortham Fellowship (2009-10), the La Caixa Fellowship (2005-07), a Schloss Solitude Fellowship (2010) and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation and the US State Department.

Franch holds master’s degrees in architecture with honors from both ETSA Barcelona (2003, UPC Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya), and Princeton University (2007). She also studied at the School of Fine Arts and the School of Philosophy in Barcelona/UB, and at TU Delft as part of the European Erasmus Exchange Programme.

Eva Franch i Gilabert (born 10 December 1978 in Ebro Delta) is a Catalan architect, curator, critic and educator based in New York City who works in the fields of contemporary art, architecture, and public space. From 2010 to 2018, she was executive director and chief curator of Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. From 2018 to 2020, Franch was director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. She is currently a visiting lecturer at Princeton University.