Patti Anahory is an architect and a designer with a masters in architecture from Princeton University and an undergraduate degree in architecture from Boston Architectural College. In 2000 she became the second woman in 113 years to win the prestigious Rotch Travelling Scholarship, and the first winner of the design competition to travel to sub-Saharan Africa. From 2009 to 2012 she served as the founding director of CIDLOT, an emerging multidisciplinary applied research centre at the University of Cape Verde which addresses dynamics of settlement, urban growth and development. In 2011 she co-founded xu:collective, an interdisciplinary art collective, now a professional practice, to promote a critical understanding of urban dynamics, architecture, and environmental and intermedia studies. Anahory’s latest collaborations, with film-maker and web developer César Schofield Cardoso, are Storia [na] Lugar / [un]grounding narratives, a platform for participatory media and mapping projects developed through direct engagement with communities in marginalised contexts; and [parenthesis], a space for creative experimentation and cross-disciplinary dialogue.