Team
Francesca Berni
She/Her
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at DAStU Politecnico di Milano, Francesca Berni is an architect and PhD architect. Her practice is placed at the intersection of architecture, art and landscape. In 2021, she was an Enel Italian Fellow in Architecture, Urban Design, and Landscape Architecture at the American Academy in Rome. In 2020, she held the Ph.D. title with co-supervised thesis “The Shapes of Water – Discourse around the Architectural Project for a Landscape Reactivation in Fujian Province” (Politecnico di Milano – Shanghai Jiao Tong University). Through Chinese and European cultures, she explores the notion of landscape and its implications and potentialities in the space we dwell. Different media and techniques support her research, setting a dialogue between analog and digital. She works with installations (Streetscapes, Spazi Aperti, NAHR, tack Communities of Tacit Knowledge), writings (Territorio, Industria delle Costruzioni, IIC) and drawings (Domus web, Erbario. Una guida del Selvatico a Milano) encouraging the visitors’/readers’ perception and awareness.
She is also the author of the wall cover of the CALL homepage. The series of drawings stems from the research novissimo landscape®, which started between 2019 and 2021 in occasion of the AAR residency.
Linkedin ORCIDIrene Bianchi
She/Her
Assistant Professor in Urban Planning at DAStU, Politecnico di Milano, where she obtained a PhD in Urban Planning, Design and Policy. Irene previously carried out research activities at the University IUAV of Venice (2014-2015); Berlin Technical University (2016-2017); King’s College London (2018); and the International University of Catalunya (2021). Irene is a member of the Executive Board of the Urban Resilience Research Network and part of the BIARI Alumni Network (Brown University). Her main research interest lies at the intersection between decision theory and (urban) sustainability transition, with a focus on governance dynamics at the interface between “niches” of innovation and experimentation and policy-making processes.
irene.bianchi@polimi.it
Linkedin ORCIDGrazia Concilio
She/Her
Full Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the DAStU Politecnico di Milano, where she works on the theme of digital innovation and transformation of urban contexts. Grazia holds a PhD in “Economic Evaluation for Sustainability” at the University of Naples Federico II. She has carried out research activities at RWTH in Aachen, Germany (1995), at IIASA in Laxenburg, Austria (1998), and at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada (2002). She has been and is a team leader as well as coordinator of several international research projects (VII framework program, Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe). She is the author of several articles and volumes.
grazia.concilio@polimi.it
Linkedin ORCIDValeria Fedeli
She/Her
PhD in Planning and public Policies at IUAV, she is currently Full professor and vice-coordinator of the PhD program in Urban Planning, Policy and Design at Politecnico di Milano, Coordinator of Progetto di Eccellenza Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani, in charge of the foundation of the Competence Center on anti-fragility. Her research interests deal with processes of regional urbanization and related governance challenges, innovation of policies and actors; strategic planning; inter-municipal cooperation; national and EU urban policy and agenda. She has been President of the European Urban Research Association (2021-2017); Member of AESOP Teaching Excellence Board and of the Scientific Board of Urban@it- Centro nazionale di studi per le politiche urbane. During the last ten years, she was project manager of the PRIN 2010 (2012-2015) “Post-metropolitan territories as emergent forms of urban space: coping with sustainability, habitability, and governance”. She has been coordinator of two ESPON EGTC (2019-2021) targeted analysis projects, MISTA and IMAGINE both dedicated to explore processes of socio-economic-spatial and institutional change in large urban regions in EU.
ORCIDMaryam Karimi
She/Her
Assistant Professor (fixed-term) in Urban and Regional Planning at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies. She hold a PhD in Urban Planning, Design, and Policy. Her interdisciplinary research agenda investigates how citizens and cities learn to be smarter and more intelligent towards the direction of inclusivity and sustainability. Her research interest centres on urban innovation, knowledge production, and the use of technologies and their effects on urban policy and social organisations. In her recent role as a coordination team member and researcher for several EU projects, Maryam has actively engaged with the socio-technological dimensions of intelligent cities, experimentation and living laboratories initiative, organisational learning, digital transformation across the public sector and migration studies. Her academic background includes an MSc in Design from the University of Massachusetts and an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado Denver.
maryam.karimi@polimi.it
Linkedin ORCIDTalita Medina
She/Her
Architect and urban planner, works on urban transformation projects on the small and medium scales and collaborates on international research projects exploring design-enabled urban innovation.
Anna Moro
She/Her
Architect and PhD in Urban and Environmental Planning, she is a researcher in urbanism at DAStU Politecnico di Milano, where she teaches Urban Design. Co-founder of a team of architects (gruarchitetti), since 2008 she has developed, both professionally and within the university, various experiences of planning and design at multiple scales, working on general strategies, visions, urban guidelines, masterplans, public space design and agenda. Recent research activities are devoted to exploring an interdisciplinary understanding and co-design of the urban space, at the crossing between architecture, artistic disciplines, first-hand experience and civic involvement in transformation.
Linkedin ORCIDMichelangelo Secchi
He/Him
Postdoctoral researcher at DAStU Politecnico di Milano, with a background in humanities and political sciences, he has been a fellow researcher at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra and has over 15 years of professional experience as consultant for the public sector. His research focuses on the sociotechnical dimensions of digital transformation and the effects of such transformation on local governance and democratic processes.
michelangelo.secchi@polimi.it
Linkedin ORCIDIlaria Tosoni
She/Her
General Manager at CRAFT DAStU. Planner and urban designer. Since 2017 she is a post-doctoral research fellow at Politecnico di Milano. From 2006 to 2013 she worked as research assistant at ETH Zurich, where she also obtained a PHD in Civil Engineering with a dissertation on Spatial strategies and actions design. Her research work embraces methods and instruments for collaborative design processes and socio-technical transition theory. She spent her professional life between academia and public administrations where she worked as a planning consultant.
Linkedin ORCIDIn collaboration with
Giada Casarin
SHE/HER
Research Fellow in Urban Studies at DAStU Politecnico di Milano for the project Città-IN, holding a PhD in Human Geography at the University of Bristol, UK. Giada’s research experience and interests focus on urban inequalities, territorial stigma, and practices of inclusion and participation for the right to the city, starting from the margins and adopting an intersectional approach. Her interests in intersectionality and inclusivity also come from her academic background in Intercultural Mediation (BA) and Languages for International Cooperation and Communication (MA), as well as from her professional experience in the charity sector, EDI, and public engagement.
Linkedin ORCIDElena Acerbi
She/Her
Architect, expert in urban regeneration and design-led community activation. She collaborates on research on interventions in public spaces and planning of guidelines for urban-scale processes.
Daniele Federico
He/Him
Environmental communication expert with a Master’s degree in Science of Communication. He has worked on sustainability projects such as “Contratti di Fiume” with ERSAF Lombardia and Comune di Bergamo climate change adaptation strategy. He is the host of a weekly podcast titled “Che clima fa“.
Linkedin