Discussants

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ART, ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN
Bologna, Italy, 25-27 June 2014

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Philip Crowther

Associate Professor, he is Head of Architecture in the School of Design at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Philip’s research focuses on design for disassembly in an architectural context. He has studied the life cycle of buildings and the sustainable reuse of building materials. Through his research, Philip developed principles of Design for Disassembly (DfD) and theoretical models for environmentally sustainable construction. Philip is also researching in design education and the development of creativity. He is interested in the ways that creativity can be fostered and assessed within a university teaching environment. He is currently involved in a longitudinal study examining the predictors of academic success amongst 300 architecture and design students. Philip is a member of the ‘Art, Design and Creative Education’ Tier 4 research group at QUT.

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Simone Garagnani

Graduated in Architectural Engineering (University of Bologna, Italy, 2004), he developed a Ph.D. research in Building and Territorial Engineering entitled: “Digital Models and Design Archives - Integrated systems aimed to architectural documentation” (University of Bologna, 2010).

He is currently associate Post-PhD researcher at the Department of Architecture, University of Bologna (Silab laboratory). In 2012 he has been appointed as a Visiting Scholar at the EECS department of UC Berkeley (USA) in order to improve his skills in laser scanning survey and digital modeling. He was researcher at the Interdepartmental Center for Industrial Research (CIRI) in Bologna, developing software and db methodologies BIM-related (2012-2014). Since March 2014 he is Research Unit Coordinator in the FIR (Future in Research) project entitled “Kainua. Restituire, percepire, divulgare l'assente. Tecnologie transmediali per la città etrusca di Marzabotto”, funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Research and University. At the School of Engineering and Architecture, University of Bologna he teaches Drawing, Survey, Virtual Modeling and Computer Graphics. He is also owner of an engineering professional practice in Bologna, collaborating with several architectural and engineering firms all over Italy, developing three-dimensional analysis models, virtual CAD settings and renderings.

Maria Hadjisoteriou

Associate Professor in the Architecture Department at the University of Nicosia. She was born in Nicosia, studied architecture in the National Technical University in Athens where received her diploma in architecture and she was awarded the “Monbusho” Japanese Scholarship for her postgraduate and master studies (Japan Mie University).  In parallel to her academic involvement, Maria is a practicing architect involved with projects in different scales, from installations to urban regeneration projects. She participated in a number of competitions in Cyprus and abroad, where she was awarded with a number of prizes, including the first prize of the Town Hall of Athienou, 2nd prize of the urban project “the development of the historical centre of Agia Fila” and Europan 9 (European urban competition) «runner up» prize for the entry “sub-terra supra-terra” in the city of Clermont-Ferrand. Maria was a co-author of the project ‘Easylove’ representing Cyprus in the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008. Current research interests include the threshold between the public/private, designing for the user and the importance of perception in the design process. Maria’s work and research is highly influenced by her experience in Japan – eastern culture and perception. 

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Min Jay Kang

Associate Professor at the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University. His research and practice focuses on dialectics in cultural landscape, creative sustainability, identity politics and “artivism” representation of landscape in arts and literature, urban design, and landscape narratives. His most recent projects include a comprehensive survey and planning for Taipei’s cultural landscape, interpretation and construction of landscape narratives for a waterfront settlement, and action planning for the Treasure Hill squatters in Taipei’s Gong Guan district.

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Miquel Marti

Bachelor with Honours at Sciences Po Paris (1999), Postgraduate Master in Urban Planning and Design at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya (2003), Ph.D. in Urbanism by the Polytechnic University of Catalunya (2004). He is professor at the Department of Urbanism and Urban Planning (DUOT) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain. Between 2005 and 2009 he was Member of the Educational Board of the European Consortium in Urbanism (constituted by the Technological University of Delft, the Polytechnic University of Catalunya, the Catholic University of Leuven and the University Institute of Architecture in Venice). His research and teaching activities are related to contemporary public and collective space experiences (design, management, policies and significance). He developed his work at Tongji University (Shanghai) and University of Tokyo (February – July 2010), Harvard University. (January / July – August 2004) and Brown University, USA (August 1998 – November 1998).

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Angela Petrou

BA(Hons) Kingston, PGDip(SBU), she is an Assistant Professor in the Architecture Department at the University of Nicosia. She completed her architecture degree, post graduate diploma and professional (RIBA Part III) examinations in London, where she was born and lived until 2001.

Practice work has involved an extensive range of projects and scales, both in London and Nicosia, including; Competitions, Independent practice, Project Management and Interdisciplinary design Collaborations. She began teaching design studio at Kingston University in 1996 and Southbank University in London. She subsequently taught as adjunct faculty in the urban design studio at the University of Cyprus from 2006, joining the University of Nicosia in 2010. 

Research interests are focused on the definition of public space and public activities, particularly in how maps define public spatial relationships.  Research work tries to identify data exploration as a process over data presentation as a product. 

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Darko Radovic

He is a Professor of Architecture and Urban design at Keio University, and Visiting Professor at United Nations University IAS. He has taught, researched and practised architecture and urbanism in Europe, Australia and Asia, and held senior academic positions at the University of Belgrade, University of Melbourne, University of Tokyo, United Nations University and Keio University (current). His interests are at the intersections between environmental and cultural sustainability, measurable and non-measurable qualities of architectural and urban space, complex interface conditions between public - private realms. Since 2011, at Keio he heads a major international, interdisciplinary research project Measuring the non-Measurable, which focuses at the finest qualitative nuances of spatial experience – at scales ranging from broadest urban to smallest architectural details. He has published in English, Serbo-Croatian, Japanese, Korean and Thai. Darko’s books include “Green City” (2005, Routledge/UNSW Press; with Low, Gleeson, Green); “Urbophilia” (2007, University of Belgrade, PAPS); “Cross-Cultural Urban Design” (2007, Routledge, with Bull, Boontharm, Parin); “Another Tokyo” (2008, University of Tokyo, ichii Shobou); “eco-urbanity” (2009, Routledge); and the “Measuring the non-Measurable” research edition (Tokyo: flick Studio and IKI), including: “small Tokyo” (2011, ed. with Boontharm), “The Split Case: Density, Intensity, Resilience” (2012; ed. with Boontharm, Kuma, Grgić); “Intensities in Ten Cities” (ed., 2013), “Tokyo dérive: In Search of Urban Intensities” (ed., 2013), “Subjectivity in Explorations of the Urban: the Scream, the Shadow and the Mirror” (2014), and “In the Search of Urban Quality” (with Boontharm, 2014).

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Estanislau Roca Blanch

Degree in architecture (1973), PhD (1993) with “Cum Laude” qualification, unanimously. He currently teaches at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona (ETSAB), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain. He is Professor of urban planning and design at the Department of Urbanism and Regional Planning. In 2011 he received the Quality Award in Teaching. He is the author of “Montjuic, the mountain of the city” (1995) and of many other books. He also works as a consultant and urban planner and public space designer for public administrations, mainly in Spain. He won the First prize in the competition for the architectural and urban development of the City of Justice in Barcelona (2002) and l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, awarded with the 2010 RIBA Award and the 2010 World Architecture Festival Award - Civic and community, in collaboration with David Chipperfield and b720 Architecture. Triennial Award for the best research in Science of Architecture “Lluis Domenech i Muntaner” (1996), by the Catalan Studies Institute. Medal of Honor of the international prize “Europa nostra” (1995) for the intervention in the vaults of the Roman circus in Tarragona.

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Miriam Roure

She is a research fellow at MIT’s Senseable City Lab, an architect interested in the creative application of technology within the built environment. Miriam holds degrees from Harvard University (MArchII) and Cornell University (BArch). In 2009, she joined the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, where she worked as part of their creative think tank division, on projects that demanded applied architectural thinking, within and beyond built form. At Harvard, she explored the overlaps between design and technology, which led her to intern at Continuum Innovation in 2012 and to organize the first Harvard xDesign Conference in 2013.

Miriam’s work has been published in A+U, FRAME, Harvard Publications, Dezeen, Archinect and other online platforms. She has received several awards including the Goldwin Sans Medal at Cornell, Dean’s List, and Full Scholarship by the Polytechnic University of Catalunya. Miriam has been an architecture guest critic at MIT, BAC, Cornell and Harvard University.

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Rania Sassine

Rania Sassine is an architect, graduated for “ALBA” (Academie Libanaise des Beaux-arts). She has a master in Urban design from the University of “La Sapienza” in Rome. She is a senior lecturer at ALBA university for a course on “Public spaces: Importance and Diversity” for the 3rd year Architecture students as an Introduction to Urbanism. She worked as an architect since 1998. She is currently a consultant on Urbanism after having been a Senior Urban designer (Head of the Master planning Unit) in Solidere International working intensively on large-scale urban projects and mostly on affordable housing in the Arab world. She wrote a book called “Virées Citadines: deux douzaines de villes”, about twenty-four imaginary cities reminiscent of Italo Calvino “Invisible cities”.

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Stefano Serafini

Philosopher and Psychologist with a background as medievalist, Stefano Serafini is a researcher in the field of Epistemology, with a special interest in Intentionality and Form. He devoted 10 years to the study of Evolution and self-organization, and has carried on an original research on the origins of Semitic alphabets, together with geneticist Giuseppe Sermonti.

Founder member and director of the research of the International Society of Biourbanism, he’s Visiting Lecturer at University of Tomks (Russia).

Former managing editor of the Angelicum University Press (Rome), his works have been edited in several reviews, such as “Angelicum, Bioarchitettura, Jazyk y Kultura, Rassegna Italiana di Linguistica Applicata, Biology Forum”. He is the editor of the series “Studi” by the Medieval Studies Center of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. Among his publications: “Vita quaerens intellectum. Tommaso d’Aquino e ricerca filosofica”, the Italian edition of Antonio Lima-de-Faria, “Evolution without Selection. Form and Function by Autoevolution”.

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Claudio Sgarbi

Philosophiae Doctor (University of Pennsylvania), Master of Science (University of Pennsylvania),  Dottore in Architettura (Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia), is a practicing architect and a research professor. He has been practicing in Italy where he has also been working as a technical director for different building firms. He has been lecturing in several universities in Canada, Europe and United States. His major fields of theoretical research concern the image and the role of the architect in the postindustrial society, the relation between neurosciences and architecture, the building technologies and the relevance of architectural history in our contemporary debate.
He graduated in 1982 from the University of Venice (IUAV) under the supervision of Professor Vittorio Gregotti. His Ph.D. Dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania (1993)  was supervised by Professors Joseph Rykwert, Marco Frascari and David Leatherbarrow and concerned the discovery of a Renaissance Vitruvian Manuscript from Ferrara. He has published several articles and essays and a book:  Vtruvio Ferrarese. “De architectura”: la prima versione illustrata, (Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, 2004) and his recent discoveries on the Vitruvian manuscript from Ferrara are in course of publication. He is working also on a book with the title Misconceptions. The Infertile Belly of the Architect.  He is currently teaching Advanced Building Systems, Design Studio and History/Theory of Architecture at Carleton University (Master Program in Architecture) and is coordinator and instructor of the Directed Studies Abroad  Program in Bologna (Italy). As a designer he has been participating at several competitions throughout  the world and has been involved in several artistic researches and experiences.

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