About us

Francesca Cognetti is an Associate Professor of Planning and Urban Policies at the Politecnico di Milano and the Rector’s Delegate to Public Engagement. Her teaching and research concentrate on public/social housing and social inequalities. She coordinates field labs and action research in deprived neighbourhoods.

Stefano Pontiggia is a Post-doc research fellow in Anthropology at Politecnico di Milano. His inquiries focus on power-related issues, state institutions, migration, political asylum. He has carried out ethnographic research in Italy and Tunisia.

Martin Broz has a PhD in Regional Planning. He explored issues related to social housing and urban growth in Milan and Barcelona. He is experienced in teaching and he presently works in the programming and monitoring of social responsibility projects at the Politecnico di Milano.

Ida Castelnuovo has a PhD in Regional Planning and a post-doc experience dealing with participatory processes, local governance, urban decision-making and public engagement of university. She is a project manager at Polisocial, the social responsibility programme of Politecnico di Milano.

Beatrice De Carli is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Design at London Metropolitan University, and an Associate at Architecture Sans Frontières–UK. Her research and teaching employ a collaborative, design-based approach to address issues of equity, diversity and inclusion in the production of urban space.

Markus Bader is an architect and Professor of Architecture and Building Planning at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). He is a member of the Berlin Council of Arts. He is among the initiators of the “Haus der Statistik” and co-author of renowned artworks involving public space, urban commons and marginal populations.

Viviana d’Auria is an architect, urbanist and Assistant Professor in International Urbanism at the Department of Architecture, KU Leuven. Exploring “practiced” architecture is an integral part of her research, within a more general interest in the trans-cultural construction of cities and their contested spaces.

Katharina Rohde is an urban practitioner with research and teaching commitments at KU Leuven (where she finalised her PhD) and UdK Berlin. She works on an international scale focusing on spatial, social and economic inequalities and the enactment of ‘survivalist’ habitat strategies by urban actors.

Giorgio Baracco is a jurist and post graduate in International Relations. As programme coordinator of Refugees Welcome Italia, his objective is to combine social innovation with digital transformation and economic sustainability through a cooperative and sharing approach.

Lucia Oggioni is service designer at Refugees Welcome Italia. She is competent in the development of projects from analysis up to implementation. As a professional, she strongly believes in the power of design as a tool for discovering new ways of doing things and help people’s lives.

Lucia Caistor-Arendar is a freelance urbanist and is the convener of the Resilience by Design programme at Architecture Sans Frontières UK. She is the lead Researcher of DESINC LIVE project on behalf of ASF-UK.

Rowan Mackay is an urban designer with a background in participatory planning and project management. He is Project Lead at Community Led Housing London and has lectured at various universities. Rowan is an Associate of ASF UK.

Anton Schünemann is a graduate of Bauhaus-University Weimar and has worked for several cultural foundations and media agencies. Since 2014 he is the programme coordinator of S27 – Art and Education, where he has been responsible for the development of various projects with/for refugees.

Vera Fritsche is a state-recognised social worker with an educational background in landscape architecture. She is experienced in child and youth welfare and in socio-cultural projects. Since 2016 she is the pedagogical director of S27.