About
I have been registered as an architect in Italy since 1997 and I received a PhD from the University of Naples 'Federico II' in 2004. I have held fellowships at the British Library (London), the Centre for Architecture Andrea Palladio (Vicenza), the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research, and the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art (London). I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and a Marie Curie International Fellowship from the European Commission at the University of Cambridge. My research draws on a theoretical background that connects architecture and the visual arts, with a particular focus on how design strategies shape cultural, social, and urban dynamics.
Since 2013, I have taught at the Liverpool School of Architecture (LSA), where my research informs the teaching of both architectural history and theory, as well as the design studio. I serve as Programme Director of the Master of Architecture, Co-Director of the Centre for Architecture and the Visual Arts, REF2029 Lead for 'People Culture and Environment' and North West Doctoral Consortium Lead for Visual Art and Design. I am a faculty member of the British School at Rome, acting as a juror for the Giles Worsley Fellowship and the Rome Scholarship in Architecture; I serve on research assessment panels for the European Commission and I am a member of the Italian Agency for the Assessment of Research. Since 2016, I convene the annual Colin Rowe Lecture Series at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London.
I devise design briefs in dialogue with cultural stakeholders, to inform their decision-making: in Liverpool, collaborations include the Bluecoat Arts Centre, Tate of the North, and Liverpool City Council, exemplified by the documentary produced for the Tate, Playing Around the Docks. In 2024, the final year Master students I supervised won an RIBA award for “one of the best design projects produced worldwide”, The Consumption of Landscape.
I have published extensively in peer reviewed journals and I have authored/edited eight books: Melchior Lorck (with Erik Fischer) was nominated book of the year in the Times Literary Supplement. I direct Lund Humphries' Architectural Photographers series; my latest book, co-authored with Martino Stierli, concerns Hélène Binet (London, 2024). As guest editor of the international journal Casabella (n. 964) I curated an issue on James Stirling, a University of Liverpool alumnus, to celebrate the centenary of his birth (1924–2024). I am regularly invited to lecture worldwide, with recent engagements at the Triennale in Milan (2025), the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2024), the Zaha Hadid Foundation and the Architectural Association in London (2024).
At the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, I organised the international conference 'Still Architecture' and the exhibition Cambridge in Concrete (with François Penz). Curatorial works include the exhibition Rome in the Photographs Collection of the RIBA (Rome, Vittoriano, 2018), which attracted over 200,000 visitors. In 2021-22 Stirling, Wilford and Associates was displayed at the Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool and, between 2022 and 2023, traveled to Rome (Pantheon), Milan (Board of Architects), London (Sir John Soane Museum), and Dublin (Irish Architectural Archive).
I conceived and led the international competition to design the new LSA, involving staff and students at every stage of the process. The contest culminated in the appointment of the Irish firm O'Donnell and Tuomey; the building is currently under construction.
Prizes or Honours
- Academic Career Award (Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", 1997)
Funded Fellowships
- Educational Programme Grant (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2012)
- Marie Curie Research Fellowship (European Commission, 7th Framework Program, 2010)
- J.B. Harley Fellowship (British Library, National Archives and Royal Geographical Society, 2007)
- Italian National Research Council (CNR) (2005 - present)
- International PhD Scholarship (Italian Ministry of University, MIUR, 2000 - 2004)
- Fellowship (Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, Vicenza, 2000)