Research

Sustain current transitions of territories (resource management, living styles, housing development, governance, etc.), ensuring their resilience (territorial strategies, mobility, natural landscapes, etc.), and promoting the inclusiveness and quality of inhabited spaces (urban design and requalification, public spaces, environmental values, etc.).

Articulate hypotheses, strengthen knowledge, and develop methods to analyse, understand, and act on territories at local and global level, particularly across borders and towards the Global South.

Investigate the potential of urban metabolism theory and models to advance evidence-based understanding of the relations between urban communities and natural resources.

Analyse the links between the biophysical foundations of socio-economic development, natural capital, and human well-being via ecosystem service and green infrastructure perspectives.

Enhance the design of cities, and of green and blue landscapes, crossing multiple dimensions, and reflecting on scales and tools of representation as a process of production of collective knowledge.

Examine the histories, critical theories, and practices of architecture – intended as the expression of a vision – and of materials, construction technologies, and building equipment, reflecting on the creation and perception of spaces in an urban context.

Define the strategies and tools for a chronological and typological taxonomy – and for the conservation, restoration, renovation and reuse – of the historic built heritage.

Explore the hypotheses on which a contemporary theory of architecture can be founded, building on a constant dialogue with other disciplines, including anthropology, history of art, linguistic, psychoanalysis, and philosophy.

Study the architectural design process, its histories and methods, its complexity (uncertainties, discontinuities, system thinking, etc.), its contextualisation (technical, economic, cultural, sustainability, post-humanism, etc.), its actors (networks of agents, etc.), its representation (perception, mental image, medias, geometry, scale, etc.), and its digitalisation (machine learning, digital culture, etc.).

Analyse the practices and the spaces for living, drawing expertise from spatial and human sciences, and working on methodological, epistemological, and operational interconnections, to address multifaceted contemporary challenges related to housing and learning spaces (typologies, user habits, innovations, etc.), aging and disability, gender and care.

Examine historical and contemporary methods, and promote the advancement of theoretical knowledge and tools, for the design ofarchitectural structures and infrastructures in relation to the requirements of resilience of buildings.

Define new approaches, including the development and application of new digital tools, to sustain the structural performance of built systems, using conventional (concrete, steel, masonry, etc.) and natural materials (wood, earth, etc.).

Characterise the buildings of yesterday, today and tomorrow, sustaining their design, construction, operation and renovation to improve the quality of their indoor and outdoor environment, their energy and environmental performance, the reduction of emissions, and the comfort, health, and well-being of their users.

Promote strategies and tools, including advanced parametric modeling techniques, for the sustainable management of resources(building materials, treatment and reuse of water and waste, circular economy, urban mining, etc.), embracing environmental, social and economic challenges, at different temporal and spatial scales, and within a life-cycle approach.