Alessandro is the course director for the MArch Architecture (RIBA pt.2) and L7 Architect Apprenticeship at the Birmingham School of Architecture. He also co-established and leads the Co\\aborative Lab:oratory (Co.LAB) an inter-disciplinary design-research initiative within the school that integrates teaching with contemporary creative practices through live projects, design research and civic agency. Co.LAB has won design awards and international commissions with its transdisciplinary projects.
Alessandro has worked in architecture and research practices in Manchester and London focusing on residential buildings and restoration of prestigious heritage buildings, with further experience in evidence-based design at Space Syntax. He graduated from the Manchester School of Architecture in both architecture and urbanism courses prior to developing his portfolio as an independent artist and designer.
As anviere, a design guise, he has developed a portfolio of site-specific installations, architecture structures and art direction for stage sets, productions or short films… commenting on the subversive qualities of our physical environments.
Alessandro brings his transdisciplinary experience as an academic and researcher, expanding forms of architectural practice, representation and design pedagogy in research themes of architecture & cinema and contemporary material vernacular. It is applied by engaging with the city’s cultural network through an ongoing process of collaborative practice – encouraging students to be entrepreneurial citizens through their design ideas.
As Enterprise Coordinator and STEAMhouse academic lead, Alessandro has instigated innovation projects such as STEAMhouse, Knowledge Quarter and The Climate Literacy Skills Bootcamp. The outcomes of these key projects are transferred to studio teaching and inform University strategies in KEF, external engagement and the creative ecosystem for the city.
Alessandro is part of the RIBA Publishing Educational Committee, peer-reviewer for Charrette Architectural Journal, on the advisory board for Centrala Gallery, and former specialist member on Birmingham City Council’s Design Review Panel.
- MArch Architecture (RIBA Pt.2), course director
- L7 Architect Apprenticeship, co-course director
- Climate Literacy for Sustainable Futures (Skills Bootcamp), course coordinator
- Co\LAB co-founder of live design and research agency
- Peer reviewer for journal Charrette for the Association of Architectural Educators (AAE), 2015 – present.
- Pg Cert Higher Education (2010)
- BArch Architecture RIBA pt.II: (2008)
- MA Architecture + Urbanism: (2007)
- BA (Hons) Architecture RIBA pt.I: (2005)
- Advisory Board Member, Centrala Gallery Advisory Board (2019-present)
- Specialist member, Birmingham Design & Conservation Review Panel – City Planning department (2018 – 2022)
- Fellow, Higher Education Academy FHEA (2012)
- Committee Member, RIBA Education Publication Advisory Committee (2020 – present)
- MArch Architecture, RIBA Part 2 (Course Director).
- BA (Hons) Architecture, RIBA Part 1.
- L7 Architect Integrated Apprenticeship Degree.
Alessandro’s research is predominantly practice based and inherently linked with enterprise and innovation activity within the School of Architecture. Evolving research interests can be categorised in five intertwined themes; contemporary vernacular language of digital-analogue craft processes, curation of architectural narratives, design for communal of production and making, exchanges in the Creative City ecology, and finally, Agency/Entrepreneurialism in the design studio.
More recent research centres around the development of bio-material in architecture and interior work, collaborating with Materiom and STEAMhouse UK to develop new material recipes, conceptual applications and strategic design for production facilities in academia.
Book chapters
- Pedagogy + Production Space: Steam & The City. In: eds. S. Stone, L. Sanderson, Emerging Practices in Architectural Pedagogy, Routledge: New York (2022) ISBN: 9781003174080, Doi: 10.4324/978100317.
- Futuremakers: Play and Festivities in the Park, Architecture and Culture, Taylor & Francis v.7 issue 1. (2018) ISSN: 2050-7836
- RP Architectural Model, VPP Journal, Issue 4, Taylor & Francis, London, (2011) ISBN 978-0-9566643-0-3
Journal papers, articles and features
- From Civic Responsibility to Socio-Spatial Civic Agency: Critiquing the Civic University Movement through live projects. A Columbano and M Jones, AAE Charrette Journal, vol.8 issue 2, Autumn 2022, pp.8-32(25) [URL] ISSN 2054-6718
- Steam & The City. In: ed. G. Cairns. AMPS Proceedings Series 17. Education, Design and Practice, Stevens Institute New York, USA. June (2019). pp.tbc. ISSN 2398-9467
Conferences and seminars
- PIX-ellll OP-eration{s}, AMPS_(In)tangible Heritage(s), University of Kent, June 2022
- Collaboration for Innovative Self-build housing, 16th AHRA Conference: Housing and the City, University of Nottingham, Nov 2020.
- Co\\aborative Conc(re)te.RIP, Architecture Foundation, #100DayStudio, July 2020
- STEAM & The City, Education, Design and Practice Conference, AMPS, Stevens Institute New York, June 2019.
- From Pub To Production Space, Birmingham Design Festival, STEAMhouse, June 2019
- Creating a Culture of Production, Arup Studio and Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, June 2019
- Language of us, April 2018, Centrala, RIBA WM, IA.
- May 2015, Gothic Convention & Exhibition Birmingham City University, Library of Birmingham, Copy Gothic, Experiments in Contemporary Gothic
- Modular Steel Construction, Re-domesticising Steel workshop, ZHAW Switzerland, 2015
- The Studio, the architect, the post-studio, the artist; AAE Conference, University of Sheffield, Sept 2014 https://aaeconference2014.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/aae_proceedings_final.pdf ISBN 978-0-9929705-2-9
- Collaboration is Not a Dirty Word, RIBA Research Matters, London, 2013
Exhibitions, events and displays
- Arena Showcase, (Horror In The Modernist Block), Ikon Gallery, Mar 2023
- Shored, My Ruin(ed) City, Ars Electronia, Linz Austria, Sept 2022
- Collaborative Conc(re)te.RIP, Ars Electronica Garden, Linz Austria Sept 2020
- Collaborative Conc(re)te.RIP, Eastside Projects, May 2019
- Expanded Dining, The Shell Theatre, April 2019
- Futuremakers, mac Birmingham, July-Sept 2017
- LAB Make Do type, Production Show, Eastside Projects, 2017
- UnPublic Works, Eastside Projects, 5 Feb 2016,
- Shun Ito / IDFB Festival Hub art direction, Municipal Bank Birmingham, 2016
- Vault Experiments no.3. Gothic, Library of Birmingham, April 2015,
- Hidden Space Exhibition structure, Curzon Street Station, Birmingham, June 2014
- Flatpack Palais Festival Structure, Custard Factory, Birmingham, March 2013
- Janus I & II, Occupy My Time Gallery, London, 2012
- A Cosier Cell, Police & Thieves, Old Police Station Gallery, London, 2010
- London’s Bridge, London Bridge 800 Festival, RIBA London, 2009
- Together We're Heavy, Stage Production, Cock Tavern Theatre, London 2009
- Ashenden short film, art director and visual documentation, 2009
- Konijn Island, MAS Imagine Coney Exhibition, MAS Urban Centre Gallery, New York, 2009
- Protoype City, British Council (2022). International design collaborations: 1.0 for Coventry City of Culture, and 2.0 for for IABsp, São Paulo, Brazil.
- Brickwerk, (2017-2021). Product design and prototyping of custom special bricks and sustainability process for Ibstock.
- Knowledge Quarter, (2016-2017). Urban masterplan and regional strategy. Consultancy design project. Winner of Urban Design Award 2017.
- Birmingham Open Media (2019) design or gallery and creative studios.
- Dual Works (2018) design for store and workshop, Jewellery Quarter.
- STEAMhouse, (2017) design for makerspace/technical workshops in Birmingham with Eastside Projects and Associated Architects.
- Centrala (2014) design for gallery/event space/café in Birmingham.
