Dr Manfredo Manfredini
PhD, MSc
Dr. Manfredo Manfredini is a Director and Associate Professor at The University of Auckland, New Zealand; Doctoral Professor at Shanghai University, China; Honorary Professor at Hunan University, China; and Co-Director of the Urban Design Hub of the University of Auckland. He studied architecture and urban planning at Politecnico di Milano, La Sapienza University, Rome, and Technical University, Berlin. His core area of expertise in comparative (conjunctural) urbanism and critical architectural design focuses on the contemporary transformation of spatial production processes. Working at the intersection of architecture and urban design, his research integrates methods and practice that combine cultural approaches with digitally advanced components (eg big data analytics). His leadership in research and teaching has been widely recognised internationally. As an educator, he taught courses at globally leading tertiary institutions (eg Tsinghua University Beijing, Milan Technical University and The City University of New York) and gave lectures at leading global universities (eg University of Stuttgart, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Parsons School of Design). As a researcher, he produced a large number of publications (100+ papers), was invited as exhibitor at major international events (e.g., 2013 and 2019 Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in Shenzhen and Hong Kong and 2017 Rome Biennale of Public Space) and delivered presentations and keynote talks at premier international conferences (e.g., United Nations Habitat 3 Conference and 9th China Housing Congress). As a designer, he worked on projects at multiple scales and different geographic areas. He received major awards, such as the first prize at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and worked as consultant for large public administrations, such as Lombardy housing Agency, and private organisation, such as LVMH, Christian Dior and Kenzo. Distinctive of both his academic and professional career are his co-creative collaborations with prominent educators and designers, such as Andrea Branzi (Archizoom), Mauro Staccioli (Brera Fine Arts College, Milan), Bruno Munari and Colin Fournier (The Bartlett – UCL and Archigram).
Research interests:
- Public space and urban commons design, history, theory and criticism
- Architecture and urbanism theory and design
- Affordable and social housing history, theory and practice
- Contemporary architecture and urbanism history and criticism
- Sustainable development
- Education in architecture
Research Projects:
Urban relational informatics: transdisciplinary studies of fundamental social infrastructure, public space and urban commons of the multiscalar and recombinant “planetary urbanisation” age.
Co-creative spatial design: collaborative research on emerging spatialities in our progressively mediatised, translocalised and transcultural society that engage with speculative approaches and augmented reality spatialisations.
