Alessandro Zambelli

Biography

Architect (UK), educator, writer and critic, Alessandro (Alex) Zambelli is Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design. In his previous role at the Portsmouth School of Architecture in the UK, he was Associate Professor and the School’s research co-lead. As Chair of his faculty’s ethics committee Alex developed a keen interest in the ethics of art and design research.

Alex’s research follows two broad strands:

1. The Commons, common land and urban green space generally: with a team from various UK universities supported by key ‘open space’ NGOs, Alex was a Co-Investigator on a 3-year AHRC-funded project, Wastes and Strays: The Past, Present and Future of English Urban Commons. Emerging from this a co-authored book English Urban Commons: The Past, Present and Future of Green Spaces (Routledge) was published in early 2024. A guest edited Journal of Architecture Special Issue; Architectural Agency and the Commons also came out in May 2023. Alex’s current commons research seeks to understand the commons in Australian and First Nations contexts.
2. Alex’s long-standing work at the intersections between architecture, archaeology and anthropology, particularly in relation to drawing, resulted first in a PhD from the Bartlett, UCL, and later a single-authored book on the same subject: ‘Scandalous Space: between architecture and archaeology’ (Baunach: AADR Spurbuchverlag, 2019) Bridging the these two broad research interests Alex co-led the Portsmouth School of Architecture’s recent hosting of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) Annual International Conference 2023 – Situated Ecologies of Care – and will co edit both a book (Routledge Critiques series) as well as a Special Issue of Architecture and Culture Journal emerging from this event, both due in 2025.

In 2000 Alex co-founded Bates Zambelli Architects in London with Sherry Bates which he ran with Sherry until 2013.

A member of the Architectural Humanities Research Association, Alex is also associate editor of its allied journal, Architecture and Culture (Taylor and Francis).