Biography

I joined the University of Portsmouth in 2017. Prior to moving to Portsmouth School of Architecture, I have been teaching in Italy (La Sapienza) and Albania (Polis University, Tirana). During the last years, I taught Architecture Design Studios mainly focusing on computation and ecology, and Architecture Theory and Criticism. I supervised several Master Diploma Thesis and Ph.D. Dissertations in the International Ph.D. run by Polis and Ferrara Universities. In addition to my being an educator, at Polis I was also in charge of key administrative positions such as the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture Design (since 2012) and the Head the Innovation Factory Research Unit (since 2013).

I have been the curator of the Albanian Pavilion at the XXI Triennale in Milano, Design after Design and the curator of TAW – Tirana Architecture Weeks 2016.

I hold a Ph.D. in Architecture Composition and Theory (University of Rome, La Sapienza) and I have been part of various international architecture competition and projects. In addition, I have been writing for various trade magazines, and contributing with various articles to several books. I am the author of the books ‘Francois Roche Heretical Machinism and Living Architecture of New Territories.com’ published within the IT Revolution book series (Edilstampa, 2014, Italian and English edition) and ‘Mente, corpo, informazione. Per un’agenda dell’Embodiment in architettura’ (Mind, Body, Information. For an Embodiment architectural agenda, Quodlibet, 2016).

Research interests

My main research interest is about the impact of computationalism and radical ecological thought in architecture design. One of the main questions arising from the availability of computational tools within architecture design concerns the nature of the processed information. Although the main emphasis is laid on the digital information, the analog nature of architecture - both in the design process and in architecture experience - can’t be dismissed. Therefore, in my research I try to investigate on the human body as the link between the computational and analog dimensions involved in architecture. I focus on the relation between the human body and the architecture space by involving computational tools in order to identify the intersection between the abstraction of computationalism and the biology of human corporeality. Furthermore, this approach aims at maintaining the role of the human body as a fundamental paradigm for architecture within a broader reality involving both the leaving and the no leaving entities.

I based my research on Cybernetic Sciences and their prompt consequences like Cognitive and Embodied/Radical Embodied Cognitive Sciences, which I tried to study both through the work of American scholars and the European philosophical background. This approach, philosophically known as Embodiment, aims at emphasizing that media and information should be regarded within an Ecological framework, as within an environment the medium is always coupled with the organisms and the artificial artefacts.

Teaching responsibilities

BA3 Architecture Studio

EMArch 2 Thesis Preparation and Thesis Design

EMArch Arche, Unit 420 support

Undergraduate Dissertations support

EMArch Dissertations support

Media Hub Coordinator