I am an Urban Designer with a background in architecture and urban design. I studied Sustainable Architecture (BSc and MSc) at the Politecnico of Milan, where I graduated with distinction in 2016 and achieved the National Professional Qualification. Subsequently, I attended a MRes in Inter-disciplinary Urban Design at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL London, achieving the maximum grade with a dissertation on coworking spaces and attachment dynamics at the urban level in 2018.

Since then, I grounded a deep interest on new working spaces dynamics and the role of those spaces on the urban transformation. In fact, since September 2019 I am an ESRC-funded MPhil/PhD student at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and STSM Grantee at the DAStU Politecnico of Milan (Italy) within the COST Action CA18214 European-funded project “The geography of new working spaces and impact on the periphery”. My research topic focuses on resilient or community-led coworking spaces by examining the location patterns of coworking spaces and their urban effects at the neighbourhood scale, exploring their role in the socioeconomic development of neglected or semi-peripherical areas both in terms of urban spaces and social practices.

Focussing on resilient or community-led coworking spaces, the research’s aims are fourfold: i) to critically examine the coworking location patterns and their urban dynamics on the context; ii) to explore the transformative effects that coworking spaces may have on a specific neighbourhood; iii) exploring their role in the socio-economic development of neglected or semi-peripherical areas in terms of urban spaces; iv) unpacking social practices and relationship with the local community to boost enterprise and community development.

Along with the research, my carrier has been complemented by teaching and research positions at Politecnico of Milan, the Bartlett School of Planning UCL, and the London South Bank University, as well as active participation in parallel activities, such as roles as a researcher for the Hackney Council, and the Civic Design Group for the South Kilburn Community Plan, as well as urban design consultant for independent companies such as AR Urbanism (London, UK) and Lauro Sacchetti Associati (Reggio Emilia, IT), gaining more experience in designing and implementing qualitative methodologies in placemaking strategies, human-centred approach and community engagement.

For those reasons, I strongly believe Yale University will open-up my research perspectives, enhancing my personal and academic development. Moreover, the specific purpose of my visit will be to share and disseminate the first outcomes of my research, to learn approaches and innovative methodologies, as well as to boost academic exchange of knowledge among a larger community of researchers.