Professor Alessandro Aurigi

Qualifications

I studied Architecture and Urbanism in Florence (Italy) between 1982 and 1989, obtaining a 1st class Laurea in Architecture (110/110) [this is a long integrated degree equivalent to M.Arch in the UK]
I have a PhD in Urban Planning from Newcastle University
I am Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Roles on external bodies

2018 – to date Member of the Peer Review College of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Project

2016 - to date Member of the Peer Review College of the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) UK

Teaching interests

I currently teach in the 'mainstream' architectural design modules at Plymouth, leading the semester 1 design module for year 3 of the BA course.

In the past I have taught in the M.Arch at Plymouth, and led various modules in the Architecture department at Newcastle. These included design studio, but also specialist modules such as 'Architecture in the Information Age', 'The Digital City' and others, more closely associated with my research expertise. At UCL/Bartlett I was teaching in the Planning school modules like 'Planning Skills' and 'Planning Analysis'.

At Newcastle I led two postgraduate programmes: the MSc Digital Architecture and the MSc Architecture.

Apart from my directly research-related interests - urbanism in general and digital urbanism/urban design - my teaching in architecture focuses on three main areas: dealing with urban spaces / urban design; the agency of architecture/space in helping tackling social challenges; and working with students on understanding and shaping a coherent and holistic design process/approach.

Staff serving as external examiners

2016-2020 External examiner, MSc Urban Design and International Planning, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, UK

I have also served as external examiner of PhD degrees, in the UK and abroad (Australia, Finland, South Africa, The Netherlands, and Italy)

Research interests

Research themes I am interested and involved with are:
The digitally-augmented city
Recombinant architecture and planning
Urban Design, public place-making and regeneration in the information age
Design process, methods and approaches, and tools for design thinking (pedagogical research)

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

PhD (Newcastle University) – Rodrigo Jose’ Firmino “Building the Virtual City: The Dilemmas of Integrating Strategies for Urban and Electronic Spaces”, completed August 2004

PhD (Newcastle University) – Xuefeng Wang “Defining the Role of Knowledge in Chinese Contemporary Urban Development” – supervision handed over when I left Newcastle, Xuefeng has since completed

PhD (Newcastle University) – Reham Abdelatif “Computer-Mediated Communication in the Virtual Learning of Urban Design: Can this Enhance Critical Thinking?”, supervision handed over when I left Newcastle, Reham has since completed

PhD (Newcastle University) – Abdelatif El-Allous “Adopting ICT to Atcivate Urban Public Space in the Developing World: the case of Libya”, supervision handed over when I left Newcastle, Abdelatif has since completed

MPhil (University of Plymouth) – Karol Kwiatek – completed 2012

PhD (University of Plymouth) – Eleanor Browne “Social and Commercial Enterprise Interactions: Insights from UK Business Incubators” – completed June 2021

PhD (University of Plymouth) – Gianni Corino “Internet of props. A performative ontology and design framework for the internet of things” – completed May 2017

PhD (University of Plymouth) – Fadwa Barakat “Designing Complexity: Reconstructing the National Symbol of the Jordanian Community” – completed April 2017

PhD (University of Plymouth) – Pamela Varley “Sustainable Digital Neighbourhoods: A Case Study of People, Place and Technology under the Rural Village Condition” – completed January 2019

PhD (University of Plymouth) – Hana Hapiz “Theorising the Embodiment of Materiality and Experience in Man-made Objects from a Design Perspective” – completed May 2019

Grants & contracts

2017-2019 member of the Advisory Group for the project "Smart Cities in the Making: Learning from Milton Keynes" (PI Prof Gillian Rose, Oxford University), funded by the ESRC (£750k)

2015 Co-investigator (PI Prof Simon Marvin, Durham University) ‘Augmented urbanity and smart technologies: how "smart" are our cities becoming?’ ESRC-CONFAP International Network (£50k)

2013-2016 EU Marie Curie Integration Grant (with Dr Katharine Willis) on ‘Sustainable Digital Neighbourhoods’ (£80.7K)

Reports & invited lectures

INVITED KEYNOTE SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

2021 invited keynote: ‘Smart 365 City Conference and Expo’, Expo365 International Fair and Events, Istanbul, Turkey (pre-recorded speech)

2016 invited/funded keynote: ‘ICiTy, Enhancing Places Through Technology’, international conference, University of Malta, Malta (EU COST Action TU1306)

2015 Opening address: Media City 5, international conference, University of Plymouth

2014 invited/funded speech: ‘Conceptualising Cyber-Urban Connections in Asia and the Middle East’, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

2013 invited/funded keynote: ‘Communication and the City’, international conference, University of Leeds and Urban Communication Foundation

2011 invited/funded speech: “Cidades Inovadoras’ (‘Innovative Cities’), international conference, Federacao das Industrias do Estado do Parana, Curitiba, Brazil

2010 Invited address (videoconference) ‘Citta’ 2.0’ (“City 2.0”), international debate within the ‘Social Media Week’, University of Milano, Milan, Italy

2009 Invited/funded keynote: ‘Open Ubiquitous Oulu Seminar’, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

2009 Invited/funded keynote: ‘i-Brussels: Urbanity and Technology’, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium

2008 Invited/funded speech: ‘Future City’, international seminar, Ubiquitous City Research Cluster (Hanbat, Seoul National and other universities), Daejeon, South Korea

2007 Invited/funded keynote: ‘Digital Cities Summit, From Virtual World to Human World’, international conference, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

2005 Invited/funded keynote and conclusions, BRISE (Boosting Regional Information Society Expertise) international workshop, Municipality of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

2005 Workshop chair and keynote, ‘Digital Cities: The Augmented Public Space’, International workshop in conjunction with the Second International Conference on Communities and Technologies, University of Milano, Milan, Italy

2004 ‘La citta’ ed i sistemi territoriali nella societa’ dell’informazione’, international workshop, invited address (videoconference from Newcastle), Regione Piemonte/IRES, Turin, Italy

2003 ‘Digital Cities 3’, invited/funded keynote: international workshop within the ‘Communities and Technologies’ conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2002 ‘Architecture and the Information Society’, invited/funded keynote: Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto, Portugal

2001 ‘Socio-Economic Research and Geographic Information Systems: The Digital City’, invited/funded address, Euresco – European Science Foundation (ESF), Granada, Spain

1999 ‘Digitalcity’, international conference, invited address (videoconference from London), University of Parma, Parma, Italy

Other academic activities

I am regularly invited to review/referee grant applications, papers and book proposals by a variety of funders and publishers. I review research proposals for UKRI through Peer Review College membership, but I have also worked for the Einstein Foundation in Berlin, the REWIRE programme of the European Commission, and publishers like Routledge, MIT Press and Wiley.