POLITTICO VISITING FELLOW 2021/2022

Luben Dimcheff is Assistant Professor at Cornell University AAP and the principal of Dimcheff Studio, a creative consulting practice based in New York City. As principal at Dimcheff Studio, he oversees design work built internationally, including in Rio de Janeiro and Mumbai, with current residential and cultural projects in Cayuga Heights, NY, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Karachi and Modica, Sicily. In addition to his practice, Dimcheff is dedicated to academic work and has taught extensively in the realm of Architectural design, analytical representation and drawing.

Dimcheff is the coauthor of Model Perspectives | Structure, Architecture and Culture (Routledge, 2017); he has lectured on initiation Design pedagogy, Design Empathy and Cultivated Intuition, most recently at the 2019 International ACSA/EAAE Teachers Conference, hosted by the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Dimcheff received his professional degree in Architecture from Cornell and graduated with honors from the Art Institute of Seattle, where he studied Fashion and Interior design. He was born and grew up in Bulgaria, where he studied at the Romain Rolland School.

Luben Dimcheff is currently a Spring 2022 Visiting Fellow at the Università di Pisa.

His contributions to Polit(t)ico:

Franco Purini, architect, theorist and draftsman, is ware professor in architecture design at Facoltà di Architettura dell’Università di Roma “Sapienza”. Member of the dell'Accademia Nazionale di San Luca and of the Accademia delle Arti e del Disegno di Firenze, curator of the Padiglione Italiano alla X Mostra Internazionale di Architettura di Venezia, and author of many books, among which L’Architettura didattica (1980), Luogo e Progetto (1981), Comporre l’Architettura (2000), La misura italiana dell’architettura (2008). Since 1966 he practices as an architect with Laura Thermes. In 2013 he received from the Presidenza della Repubblica Italiana the Diploma di Benemerito della Scuola, della Cultura e dell’Arte. In 2016 he receive the Medaglia d’Oro alla Carriera from the Triennale di Milano.

His contribution to Polit(t)tico:

Sylvia Lavin is Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture at the School of Architecture, Princeton University. She is a leading figure in contemporary architecture debate, known for her research and curatorial work and critical contributions to contemporary architecture and design. She recently curated the exhibition Architecture Itself and Other Postmodernists Myths at the Canadian Center for Architecture.

Her contribution to Polit(t)tico:

Luca Molinari, architect and critic, is the director of the M9 - Museo del ’900 editorial director of the magazine Platform. Architecture and Design. He’s curator of the Padiglione Italiano at the XII Mostra Internazionale di Architettura di Venezia, he’s full professor in architecture theory at l’Università degli Studi della Campania “LuigiVanvitelli”.

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Alejandro Zaera Polo established Foreign Office Architects in 1993 in London. He started AZPML as a legacy practice of FOA after its dissolution in 2011.Besides his professional practice, Alejandro was the Dean of the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam and Princeton School of Architecture. He has been Visiting Professor at Yale, Columbia, and UCLA and was a Unit Master at the Architectural Association in London.

His contribution to Polit(t)tico:

Andrew Leach is Professor of Architecture and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Architecture, at the University of Sydney. His books include Manfredo Tafuri (2007), The Baroque in Architectural Culture, 1880-1980, and Crisis on Crisis. Or Tafuri on Mannerism (2018) among others. He is editor-in-chief of Architectural Theory Review. Among his current projects is a book provisionally entitled Unstylish Style, on the mid-twentieth-century historiography of mannerism.

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Maria Luisa Frisa, critic and fashion curator, is a professor and the director of the course degree in Design della moda e Arti multimediali at Venice IUAV. She’s the president of MISA  Associazione Italiana degli Studi di Moda and director of Marsilio Editori della Collana Mode, dedicated to fashion design. She curated many exhibitions and books, among them (con Stefano Tonchi) Walter Albini e il suo tempo. L’immaginazione al potere (Marsilio, 2010); Una nuova moda italiana (Marsilio, 2011); (con Marco Ricchetti) Il bello e il buono. Le ragioni della moda sostenibile (Marsilio, 2011); Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland (Marsilio, 2012).

Her contribution to Polit(t)tico:

Since 1990 Paolo Zermani is full professor in architecture design at “Università di Firenze”, and from 2015 he’s been teaching at the “Accademia di architettura della Svizzera italiana in Mendrisio”. He’s a member of the “Accademia di San Luca”, he’s also co-founder on the symposiums on the “Identità dell'architettura italiana”. In 1991 the Japanese magazine A+U published a monographic issue on his works. In 2016 the German magazine Bauwelt has done the same. In 2003, the “Casa del Mantegna in Mantova” and The Space gallery in NYC dedicated exhibitions on his works. He wrote Ignazio Gardella (1991) and Paolo Zermani: costruzioni e progetti, Electa (1999). Among his works, there are the Teatrino di Varano (1983-85); the Tempio di cremazione di Parma (2009); and the restoration of the Castello di Novara (2016).

His contribution to Polit(t)tico:

Tiffany Lynn Hunt received her PhD from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia in May 2020. Her current projects include a number of edited anthologies: Mannerist Architecture: a critical fortune with Matthew Critchley, Maniera and Mannerisms Today: a Paradigm of Cinquecento Art with Chiara Franceschini, and Devotio Maniera: The Mannerist Altarpiece in Italy circa 1550. 

Her contribution to Polit(t)tico:

With Barbara Hoidn, Wilfried Wang is the founder of Hoidn Wang Partner in Berlin. Since 2002, he is O'Neil Ford Centennial Professor in Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin.Wang is founding co-editor with Nadir Tharani of 9H Magazine; co-director with Ricky Burdett of the 9H Gallery; Director of the German Architecture Museum. He taught at the Polytechnic of North London, University College London, ETH Zürich, Städelschule, Harvard University, and the Universidad de Navarra, and he is the author and editor of various architectural mono- and topographs.

His contribution to Polit(t)tico: