About me

I am an Italian-born, NYC-based designer with an focus on understanding the Future of Work and the goal of making work environments meaningful platforms for organizations and communities to thrive.
I am currently Associate Professor in Design at Beijing Institute of Technology. as well as co-directing Studio Wé, a workplace design and strategy studio that co-design collaborative environments.

Research areas

• Workplace Design and Innovation spaces
• Relationship between space and collaboration
• Place-making. Design thinking theory and facilitation methods.
• Service and Strategic Design. The shifting role of designers.

Emerging fields of interest and investigation

• City as a service. Participatory urban design and development.
• The Future of Work, socio-technical aspects, policies and future business models for the design industry.

Public speaking and research workshops

Future Workscape, Collaboration Spaces for Knowledge Work
In this talk I presented the first results from my Doctoral Thesis and ongoing research on collaborative work environment “Future Workscape, Collaboration Spaces for Knowledge Work”, in the conference theme “Design for Participation, Tools in public participation: Coproduction,co-design, co-management”. The presentation included theory and methods developed
with design experiments with students during my courses at BIT.
@World Design Summit — Montreal — Oct 2017

Seminar: Design after designing and Redesigning Work
After an academic visit at Metropolitan University of Tokyo, I organized two joint lecture with Dr. Enza Migliore, post-doc researcher in design and innovation, on the role of the designer in contemporary industry and society. The lecture was attended by undergraduate and graduate students of BIT as well as by international students visiting BIT. The lectures and shared studies with Dr. Migliore led to the production of a coauthored paper planned to finish in the first semester of 2019.
@ Beijing Institute of Technology — June 2018

New designer skill set for the future of work What formats should professional-academic research and education explore? How do we structure ‘life prototype’ research experiments across academia and industry? Key questions and activities at Beijing Institute of Technology highlight a new educational approach called ‘Work Design’. Seeking to nurture meaningful designer-researcher engagement with ‘grassroots’ design communities, Work Design addresses the changing role of designers working ‘with’ and ‘within’ organisations, moving beyond the development of product-services to instead help designers become agents of change by reshaping processes, places and mindsets in the work environment.
@ Ico-D — International Council of Design. Platform Meeting, Beijing — Sep 2018

Is the Future of Work designable? We are living in a period of dramatic social changes and rapid technological acceleration. Our places of work are becoming more open and collaborative, human relations and processes more horizontal and less hierarchical. Are we really in control of the way we live and work? How can we be more intentional in the way we design how we work as individuals and organizations? Asking these questions opens up interesting perspectives and approaches on how design can play a role in building future work environments for people and communities to thrive.
@ TEDx Marcianise, Naples, Italy — Oct 2018

Work.Futures workshop. A workshop to design future workplace experiences. Part of a set of research activities to interrogate and design future ways of working.
@ Impact: 2018 Canadian Service Design Conference, Montreal — Nov 2018.

Designing Innovation Spaces. A workshop on how to design spaces to run successful Design Thinking sessions and programs. No matter if in a permanent studio or as an on-site setting for a client, organizing and managing the space we use for Design Thinking, allows the choreography of people, material and facilitation techniques to purposefully host collaborative sessions.
@ Service Design Global Conference 2019, Toronto — Oct 2019

Work. Futures: Speculating Beyond the First Decade of the Co-Working Movement. This talk identifies the principles that inform the design of co-working environments as a new workspace paradigm, connecting them with the social innovation phenomena and movement from which they originated.
@ DesignTO Symposium: A Future without Work, Toronto — Jan 2020

Affiliations and roles

• Associate Professor, Beijing Institute of Technology
• Co-initiator, Service Design Network NYC chapter
• Peer reviewer, Fab14 — Global Fab Lab Conference, 2018.
• Peer reviewer, Academy for Design Innovation Management Conference, 2019.

Bio

2005-2007

I completed a BA in Industrial Design at Università della Campania, Italy, with a thesis on the impact of digital manufacturing on the role of designers and the enabling of new design-driven business models, in partnership with the 3D printing pioneering company Materialise.

2008-2010

I completed an MA in Narrative Environments at Central Saint Martins School of Arts and Design, London, with a thesis on how to apply storytelling and narrative theory in design practice.

2010-2013

I worked as a freelance across London and Italy for product, furniture, eyewear projects and facilitating place-making workshops.

2013–2014

I increasingly shifting my focus on Service Design consultancy, working mainly as co-design facilitator and professional trainer.

2014-2017

I completed a PhD in Design and Innovation at University of Campania, Italy, with a doctoral thesis titled “Future Workscape — collaborative space for knowledge work”

2015 -current

I co-founded Studio Wé with Antonio Starnino in New York City and Montreal. Thanks to a distributed network of collaborators we completed service, strategic and workplace projects in North America, Europe and China, ranging from the financial, startup, consumer good, public and educational sector.

2017–2020

I was appointed Associate Professor in Design at Beijing Institute of Technology, where I teach graduate and undergraduate courses in Industrial Design with a strong focus on Design Thinking and Innovation frameworks, as well as experimenting on the evolution of the built work environment.