Swimming pools present a unique architectural condition in which users experience space through movement, immersion, and an upward-oriented field of vision. Despite this, the roof is often treated primarily as a technical necessity rather than as an architectural element capable of shaping spatial experience.

This graduation project explores how the roof can function as the primary organizing element in swimming pool architecture. The project proposes a new public swimming pool in Milan, Italy, that redefines it as an active part of the surrounding urban fabric.

Rather than developing the building from its plan, the design is led by the roof. Its geometry organizes circulation, structures the program, defines spatial hierarchy, controls daylight, and accommodates the environmental systems required for a swimming facility. At the same time, the roof establishes a strong architectural identity, connecting the swimmer's experience with the building's presence in the city.

By positioning the roof as the starting point of the design process, the project demonstrates how a single architectural element can operate at the urban, architectural, experiential, and technical scales simultaneously. The proposal argues for an alternative approach to swimming pool architecture in which the roof becomes not only an enclosure, but the principal organizer of space and user experience.
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This graduation project investigates how architectural flow can reconnect the opera house with the city. Situated on the site of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the project understands opera not only as a performance, but as a civic and temporal journey. Historically, the opera house was a place of encounter, visibility and collective presence. Today, this role is often reduced to the evening performance, while opera and ballet receive less attention within contemporary everyday life.

The proposal reimagines the opera and ballet house as an active civic actor: a building that supports public life before, around and beyond the performance. This is necessary to place opera and ballet back within contemporary society, not by weakening their rituals, but by making them more visible, accessible and meaningful in daily urban life. Spaces for arrival, waiting, learning, observing and gathering extend the institution’s social role into the rhythm of the city.

Strongly situated in the Milanese context, the project translates the city’s restrained refinement, layered and rich interiors and palazzo-like sequences into a contemporary cultural building. Through curated flows through foyers, voids and dramaturgical public routes, the building gradually guides people from the city toward the performance moment. ... Read more

The growth of e-commerce has increased pressure on urban logistics systems and parcel carriers, resulting in congestion, emissions, and growing demands for last-mile delivery infrastructure. This master thesis explores how contemporary major railway stations, such as a reimagined Milano Centrale, can contribute to sustainable urban freight networks by combining passenger transport and logistics within a single architectural intervention.

Using Milano Centrale as a case study, the project reimagines the station as a hybrid passenger and parcel hub within a car free Milan in 2050. Railway platforms are relocated underground, creating a public urban plaza at ground level, while a new elevated structure accommodates parcel handling and distribution. Goods arriving by rail are transferred to carbon-neutral (MEV) delivery vehicles for last-mile distribution throughout the city.

By integrating logistics infrastructure into one of Italy’s most important transportation nodes, the project proposes a new station typology that combines mobility, logistics, and public space. Last Mile Milano demonstrates how railway stations can play an active role in creating more efficient, sustainable, and car free cities.
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Libraries have historically been designed around a simple challenge: the storage and preservation of knowledge. Today, however, the digitisation of information, the rise of the internet and, more recently, the public availability of AI have fundamentally transformed the way we access knowledge. The challenge is no longer access itself, but rather the ability to navigate the abundance of information available. At the same time, knowledge has become increasingly commercialised and fragmented across archives, institutions, private collections and digital platforms, often remaining inaccessible to broader public audiences. These developments raise questions about the contemporary role of the library and its relevance within the city.

This graduation project investigates how the contemporary library can be designed as a civic interface for navigating knowledge in an age of informational abundance. This project explores the library not as a repository of information, but as an active mediator between people, knowledge, institutions and the city.
The project is situated at Porta Volta in Milan, a historic gateway into the city. The proposal is composed of three architectural elements: the landscape, the vitrine and the machine. Together they support processes of knowledge exchange and knowledge production. At the core of the building is a visible archive and retrieval system that connects physical collections, digital resources and expert knowledge, making the hidden infrastructure of knowledge accessible to the public.

The project proposes the library as a double interface: between people and increasingly complex knowledge systems, and between fragmented knowledge collections and public engagement. By making the processes behind knowledge visible, the library is redefined as a civic infrastructure for navigating, interpreting and sharing knowledge. ... Read more

Villa Prada: Sculpting Time is a proposal for a new sculpture museum on the current site of the Fondazione Prada for the client Prada in Milan. The project explores how architecture can give visitors more freedom in the way they experience a collection. Rather than following a fixed route, visitors can move through the museum in different ways and create their own connections between classical and contemporary sculpture=non-linear. Inspired by the idea of a villa, the design combines galleries, terraces, and a sculpture garden into one continuous experience. Through multiple routes and visual connections, the museum becomes a place that encourages exploration, discovery, and personal interpretation. ... Read more

This report tries to lay out the base to redefine airport terminals as a civic and urban space rather than an isolated infrastructure element next to a city. By using an exercise of designing a new airport in place of Milan’s Linate Airport, it explores the possibilities of a new airport typology in which commercial and social functions are relocated to a publicly accessible landside space, transforming the airport from a closed, transactional environment into an open urban destination. Inspired by the Milanese piazzas, the landslide becomes a place of gathering for both travelers and residents, erasing the existing boundaries between airport infrastructure and Milan. The research also investigates how the development of electric aircraft, and its decrease in noise pollution, enables closer urban integration. The project is based on the principles of cultural integration, inclusivity, and spatial efficiency. ... Read more

The research explores the spatial and conceptual disconnect between human-centered spaces and train-centered infrastructure. It focuses on how architectural design can recalibrate the station environment so that trains are not isolated or hidden from the spatial experience but instead become visible and integrated elements of a broader urban and civic framework. Traditional station designs tend to compartmentalize functions, platforms for trains, halls for people, resulting in a fragmented spatial narrative. The design instead seeks to reconfigure the station hall as a shared domain, where the train enters into a human-scaled space rather than the reverse. In this way, the station transforms from a neutral transit shell into an inhabited and expressive civic environment.

Trains are brought visually and physically closer to users by treating the platform area not as a peripheral utility but as part of the main spatial continuum of the station. The design allows trains to enter the hall, not through concealed corridors but through an open and legible structure where their movement becomes part of the spatial experience. This strategy evokes the historical role of the station as a place of wander and fascination with machines, restoring a degree of spectacle and engagement lost in the contemporary functionalist approach.

The design creates a space where trains are present but do not dominate, where movement does not erase the possibility of pause, and where the public realm reclaims its place within a transit environment. ... Read more

This book has been developed during the Complex Projects Graduation Studio, as part of the master track of Architecture at TU Delft. The studio reflects on the theme of Bodies and Buildings, examining the dynamic relationship between the human body and the built environment. Within this studio, students are challenged to design a ‘one-of-a-kind’ building in Milan (a large-scale, complex building unique in the city).

This particular book presents the design of an airport that focuses on reducing the stress experienced in a terminal and provides the most pleasant passenger experience possible. The project focuses on how architectural design can influence human emotions and contributes to the ongoing discussion of transforming air travel into a pleasant and relaxing experience. Extra attention is paid to researching ways to design a mobility hub, spaces for crowds and flows of people with the goal of creating an airport that is intuitive and easy to navigate. ... Read more

How did theatres shift from city stages to hidden spaces? Despite opera’s historical role as a socially cohesive art form, it has shifted toward exclusivity over centuries, detaching from everyday public life. This study examines La Scala as a case for rethinking opera house design to contribute to the social accessibility and cultural relevance of opera in contemporary society. Drawing on historical analysis, architectural theory, and case studies of contemporary theatres, the research proposes spatial strategies to transform the opera house into an inclusive cultural venue. By reimagining the opera house layout and exploring new audience-stage relationships, this project aims to position La Scala as an open, accessible site, fostering dialogue and engagement within the society. The study culminates in a design brief for a new opera house for La Scala, integrating opera in the modern sociocultural dynamics and addressing the role of opera within the city. ... Read more

This book has been developed as part of the graduation studio Complex Projects, a studio within the master track Architecture at TU Delft. The central theme of the studio is Bodies and Buildings, which explores the dynamic relationship between the human body and the built environment. Within this context, students are challenged to design a ‘one-off building’ (Large-scale, complex buildings of which only one exists in the city) located in Milan, as indicated on the map.

This particular book focuses on the design of a public library, approached as more than just a space for books. The project investigates how architectural design can actively stimulate social interaction, turning the library into a vibrant, inclusive urban space. Emphasis is placed on the role of the library as an urban ‘living room’, a place that fosters connection, comfort, and a sense of belonging in the city.
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This graduation project investigates how architecture can redefine the role of the hospital as a civic building that cares equally for its staff and patients. Developed within the graduation studio Complex Projects at TU Delft, and aligned with the studio’s theme Bodies and Buildings, the project examines how the built environment impacts physical, mental, and emotional well-being — particularly of healthcare workers operating under systemic strain.

The design proposes a staff-centric hospital situated in Milan’s Quadronno district, responding to the city’s dense urban fabric while integrating new green public spaces. The building’s concept is grounded in three spatial strategies: efficient internal flows, access to daylight and outdoor spaces, and the central positioning of staff areas as the heart of the facility. The result is an empathetic and legible architectural framework that supports recovery, resilience, and dignity for both staff and patients.

By prioritizing staff well-being through architectural clarity and spatial generosity, the project challenges the prevailing efficiency-driven models of healthcare design and suggests a more balanced and humane alternative. ... Read more

The ‘Territory on Trial’ project investigates the spatial and territorial dynamics within courthouse architecture, focusing on the courtroom as a microcosm of broader struggles over power, access, and control. The courthouse, as both a civic and judicial institution, encapsulates a fundamental tension between authority and public openness. Within the courtroom, these tensions are made spatially explicit: it is the only space where all key actors are simultaneously present, each negotiating their own form of territorial control. The courtroom therewith operates as a condensed reflection of the courthouse at large, revealing how architecture mediates authority, visibility, and participation. Historically, the courthouse was not always an enclosed symbol of state power but a civic space of openness and dialogue. In ancient societies, justice was dispensed in public settings under trees or in open-air assemblies where the presence of the community was essential to the legitimacy of the process. The Athenians and medieval Europeans alike practiced law in spaces where nature, symbolized by the tree, stood as a marker of wisdom, stability, and impartiality. These open-air courts embodied transparency and collective accountability, ensuring that justice was both seen and shared. Over time, however, as legal systems became more specialized, the spaces of justice grew increasingly formalised and hierarchical. The modern courthouse, with its monumental facades, elevated benches, and rigid circulation, reflects a shift toward spatial segregation and control, reinforcing power structures through architectural means.

This thesis critically examines how such architectural hierarchies shape behaviour, social interaction, and perceptions of justice. It explores the ways in which spatial design can either sustain or subvert authority, asking what it means for a public building especially one so symbolically charged as a courthouse to be genuinely open and democratic. This continuing tension between ideals of accessibility and the practical imperatives of security and order lies at the heart of the inquiry. Drawing on case studies, theoretical frameworks, and spatial analysis, the research investigates how architectural form, scale, and materiality influence civic experience and shape the perception of justice. It questions whether the courthouse can evolve beyond its traditional typology to become a civic space of participation and engagement one that reflects not only authority, but also empathy and inclusivity. Within the context of Milan, with its layered legal traditions and increasingly diverse urban fabric, this thesis positions the courthouse as a lens through which to reconsider how architecture can embody the principles of equity, transparency, and public trust.

Ultimately, the project seeks to contribute to a broader understanding of how spatial design influences civic life and the social meaning of justice, offering new perspectives on how public institutions can balance dignity with openness, and authority with accessibility. ... Read more

The world faces an increasing demand for humanitarian assistance. The amount of people in need has more than doubled in the past 5 years, totalling 339 million in 2023 (Development Initiatives, 2023). Airports have a vital importance in the immediate response during humanitarian relief operations. In order to comport such operations, airports are required to absorb a certain surge capacity. Nevertheless, the existing guidelines for the design of spaces dedicated to humanitarian relief operations in airports are still incipient, with an apparent lack of involvement of the participation of professionals related to the architectural field. The aim of this project is to explore space planning innovation that can enhance the efficiency of humanitarian relief operations drawing inspiration from design principles of crisis architecture. Moreover, the design strives to demonstrate how the industrial aesthetics characteristic of logistics architecture can be effectively applied beyond this specific typology. ... Read more

By 2030, healthcare is expected to shift its focus toward harnessing the human body’s regenerative abilities to cure and eradicate chronic and genetic diseases, while enabling total recovery from severe accidents. As science and the healthcare industry transition from a “treat and repair” model to a “regenerate and restore” paradigm, hospital architecture will evolve to support the advancements in regenerative medicine.

This project is a deep exploration into the intersection of regenerative medicine and hospital architecture. It envisions a highly specialized hospital designed to treat patients by eradicating genetic and chronic diseases. The overarching idea of regeneration plays a central role in shaping the hospital’s program, site, and architectural design. This approach ensures that the hospital is tailored to meet the specific needs of human regeneration, aligning with cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs. The project integrates the four fundamental components of healthcare and regeneration under one roof: care, production, administration, and diagnosis/analysis, along with long-term storage facilities. This collaborative model creates a cohesive environment optimized for the process of regeneration. Simultaneously, the design prioritizes creating a sanctuary for patients and staff, while reimagining hospitals as vibrant, open public spaces that integrate seamlessly with the urban fabric and natural environment.

Ultimately, this project serves as a vision for how hospitals of the future can become not only centers of medical excellence but also community hubs that foster connection, healing, and innovation. ... Read more

With the help of information technology, people can not only store the massive knowledge formed over thousands of years in various network databases but also present the process of knowledge production in different spaces at the same time. At this time, education will present a new ecology that can be learned everywhere and all the time. The physical boundaries of peer communication, work, and learning become blurred or even disappear completely, and the fluidity of educational space arises at a historic moment. It can be seen from recent experience that the traditional model of space and ownership (space owned by colleges and departments) is changing to a more diversified and flexible shared space. Success depends not only on the type of space provided but also on how to connect different types of space through circulation and create interactive activities.

This project, Google Computer Science Faculty, based on Google's plans and ambitions to enter the higher education market, tries to create fluidity in the next generation of educational spaces by focusing on the design of circulation areas. ... Read more

Since the dawn of civilization, the architecture of power has been a means to symbolize societies´ beliefs. The parliament building is itself a great example. It has been used to project to nations images, associations, messages, and ideals. These buildings often embody a sense of oppression, intimidation, security, and protection. The Reichstag building in Berlin symbolized the German Unification in 1871; the National Congress in Brasilia symbolized the country´s economic
progress in the 1950s; the European Parliament in Strasbourg symbolized the openness and democracy of the newly created European Union in the 1990s. If we believe that our buildings shape us - as Winston Churchill once said - what parliament are we seeking now? What comes next?

The ambition of this project is to reflect on the powerful symbolism of the parliament as a tool for an emergent and extremely relevant global challenge: sustainability. ... Read more

Euroterminal Berlin is an international high-speed terminal located in Südkreuz, Berlin. The design explores the impact of digitalization on the typology of train stations and subsequently its users. ... Read more

The Messe Performance Cube, complements the cultural heart of the Messe Berlin exhibition grounds, situated next to one of the busiest transportation nodes of Berlin. It is a centre for a wide range of performing arts and stands among the global frontrunners in the field of innovative theatre experience. The Cube transcends the traditional organization of theatre buildings, adopting a new approach in its design and layout. The design pushes the boundaries of performance spaces, resulting in a robust structure that can accommodate countless forms of performances. Due to its versatile design, the Messe Performance Cube extends beyond the confines of music, theatre or spectacle. It can also serve as a space for exhibitions, events, festivals and studios and can be played by artists and curators as an everchanging instrument. ... Read more

The importance of air quality, especially humidity, temperature and CO2 levels, makes for the implementation of primarily mechanical ventilation techniques in modern-day swimming pools. Because it is believed that mechanically ventilated buildings have more accessible climate control abilities (Lévesque, 2015). However, with today’s climate change problems and an enhanced focus on energy sufficient building techniques, as well as the Covid pandemic, some claim that the inclusion of natural ventilation systems into our building systems could have significant advantages for designing environmental conscious buildings as well as safer and healthier buildings in regards to the spread of future airborne viruses (Allard, 1998; Zarandi, 2006; Bhagat, 2020). Therefore, this research aims to explore which natural ventilation techniques could be implemented into the design of modern-day swimming pools whilst still maintaining modern-day user comfort in regards to air quality levels (humidity, temperature and CO2 levels). ... Read more