Alessandro Armando

Associate Professor
Department of Architecture and Design (DAD)

Profile

Research interests

Architectural design
Architectural design theory
Architectural theory
Teoria del progetto architettoncio, teoria del progetto, teoria della pratica progettuale

Biography

Alessandro Armando, architect and PhD, is Associate Professor at the Department of Architectural and Design (DAD) of the Politecnico di Torino since 2011, where he teaches Architectural and Urban Design. He was also the Coordinator of the Msc Degree Programme “Architecture Construction City” (2018-2021) and since 2016 he has been a member of the Board of the Doctoral programme DASP (“Architecture. History and Project”) at the same Politecnico, and member of the Doctoral Studies in “Architecture and Urban Design”, at the Faculty of Architecture, University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje (UKIM). His current research activity focuses mainly on the theory of architectural design, especially on professional practice and the diagrammatic innovation of design. He is founder and member of the editorial board of “Ardeth” (Architectural Design Theory) magazine; he is member of the advisory board of the series “Architecture” for the publisher Manifestolibri; member of the scientific committee of SCIENZA NUOVA - Italian Institute for Advanced Studies in Torino "Umberto Eco". He was guest editor of “Rivista di Estetica”, 2, 2019 (The Sciences of Future). He has been a lecturer in many national and international universities and institutions (Genoa, Rome, Milan, Venice, Skopje, Zagreb, Lisbon, Kanazawa, Shenzhen, Philadelphia, Guangzhou, Berlin, Beirut, Belgrade, Stockholm, Manchester, Rijeka, Dubrovnik). He has been visiting scholar at the Collège des Humanités at EPFL-Lausanne (February-June 2017). In his professional practice as an architect, he is a partner of the DAR Architettura office (https://www.dar-architettura.com/), with M. Di Robilant and G. Durbiano since 2013. Among his works, the renewal of an 1808 private house in Cambridge MA (Boston) was published on “Domus” and “Architectural Review”. Between 2005 and 2014 he worked as a consultant for the Urban Center Metropolitano (UCM) in Turin, following public processes and projects, working with the City Planning Department on urban design and planning, public communication, and information about the urban transformation.

Scientific branch

ICAR/14 - ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN DESIGN
(Area 0008 - Civil engineering and architecture)

Research topics

  • THEORY OF THE ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT. This line of studies focuses on the consistency of the architectural projects, considered as document systems, which are integrated into formalized administrative bureaucratic procedures, but also as symbolic components of collective representations that are the subject of controversy and exchanges within the contexts of public discussion. The research work involves international partners, especially in Manchester, Berlin, Belgrade and Rijeka and started to have its systematic reference with the publication of the volume "Teoria del progetto architettonico". Dai disegni agli effetti" (Carocci, 2017). The foundation of the magazine "Ardeth" in 2018, today a class A magazine (http://www.ardeth.eu/), constituted a crucial step to define a field of international level discussions on the problem of architectural design, as an object of scientific research, and as a place of intersections between many different disciplines. The collective work, conducted with international colleagues, researchers and PhD students of the DASP, has investigated above all the possibility of describing the project action in its development, making use of the methodological contributions from the Actor-Network Theory and from the field of Science and Technology Studies, as well as through diagrams and maps, whose coding and syntax is itself a research topic (https://www.teoriadelprogetto.com/). Main publications on this topic: - A. Armando, G. Durbiano (2017), "Teoria del progetto architettonico. Dai disegni agli effetti", Roma: Carocci - M. Bonino, E. Bruno, A. Armando, G. Durbiano (2022), "The Story of a Section. Designing the Shougang Oxygen Factory", Berlin: Oro Editions - A. Armando, M. Bonino, F. Frassoldati (2015), "Watersheds. A Narrative of urban recycle", Guangzhou: Sandu Publishing Co. - Magazine "Ardeth" (http://www.ardeth.eu/magazine/) since 2018

Skills

ERC sectors

SH7_7 - Cities; urban, regional and rural studies
SH5_6 - History of art and architecture, arts-based research

SDG

Goal 4: Quality education
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Awards and Honors

  • Koos Bosma Prize in Planning History Innovation conferred by International Planning History Society (IPHS), Netherlands (2022)

Fellowships

Editorial boards

  • RIVISTA DI ESTETICA (2023-2024), Guest Editor of magazine or editorial series
  • LAND (2023-2024), Guest Editor of magazine or editorial series
  • KHOREIN (2022-), Scientific Committee member
  • Architettura e critica del presente (2020-), Scientific Committee member
  • RIVISTA DI ESTETICA (2019), Guest Editor of magazine or editorial series
  • ARDETH (2017-), Editorial board member
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Conferences

  • City Street 5 - Lisbon (12/10/2022-15/10/2022), Program committee

Other research or teaching roles outside Politecnico

  • Visiting Researcher, presso University of Manchester (21/1/2023-18/2/2023)
  • Visiting Researcher, presso Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (20/2/2017-20/6/2017)

Research networks

Teaching

Collegi of the PhD programmes

  • ARCHITETTURA. STORIA E PROGETTO, 2022/2023 (39. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
  • ARCHITETTURA. STORIA E PROGETTO, 2021/2022 (38. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
  • ARCHITETTURA. STORIA E PROGETTO, 2020/2021 (37. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
  • ARCHITETTURA. STORIA E PROGETTO, 2019/2020 (36. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
  • ARCHITETTURA. STORIA E PROGETTO, 2018/2019 (35. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
  • ARCHITETTURA. STORIA E PROGETTO, 2017/2018 (34. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
  • ARCHITETTURA. STORIA E PROGETTO, 2016/2017 (33. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
MostraNascondi collegi passati

Collegi of the degree programmes

Teachings

PhD

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Master of Science

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Bachelor of Science

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Research

Research fields

Laboratories

Supervised PhD students

Publications

Selected publications View all publications in Porto@Iris

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