- Architectural Humanities
About me
I am a historian of architecture. I first studied in Rome, where I completed a BSc in Architecture and an MSc in Urban Design in 2009 and 2013, respectively. Later, I moved to London, where I obtained an MA in Architectural History in 2017, followed by a PhD in the History and Theory of Architecture and Urbanism in 2023, both at the Bartlett School of Architecture – UCL. I have taught at various universities, including Roma Tre, Camerino, UCL, Westminster, Syracuse, Greenwich, as well as the Rome Programmes of Cornell and Virginia Tech.
Teaching
At the University of Westminster, I serve as the module leader for ‘Cultural Context 1’, a first-year survey that examines the history of architecture within its social and material context; furthermore, I supervise MArch dissertations under the seminar title ‘Architecture and Capitalist Development’, and I tutor students in 'Cultural Context 2'.
At the Bartlett School of Architecture, I contribute as one of the tutors for ‘Historical and Cultural Developments of Cities and their Architecture’, which introduces first-year students to the global history of architecture and the specificity of London’s building context.
At Syracuse University, I teach ‘Genealogies of the City’, a third-year undergraduate module that explores the legacy of housing and planning throughout the modern history of European cities.
Research
My research examines the relationship between architecture and capitalism.
During my PhD, I explored the work of Marxist architecture groups in West Berlin from 1963 to 1977, investigating their critique of the welfare-state housing model, as well as the social-democratic and anarchic alternatives proposed by grassroots movements. Currently, I am working on three papers that delve deeper into this critique, which targeted, in particular, flagship social housing estates, urban grassroots campaigns, moderate architects unions, and the role of architects’ agency within these processes.
My research is grounded in the method of historical materialism, which views architecture as both a material and ideological expression of underlying social-economic structures. Further exploration of this relationship forms the basis of my ongoing architectural and theoretical inquiries.
Previously, my research centred on the effects of housing regeneration on legal and illegal housing in the outskirts of Rome; the political contributions of Superstudio to the 'radical' architecture movement of the 1970s; the progressive pedagogies of Oswald Mathias Ungers’, focusing on the contributions of his teaching assistants during his time in West Berlin.