Toma' Berlanda

Toma' Berlanda's picture

Full Professor
Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST)

Profile

Research interests

African
Environmental technology
Global south
Justice
Post colonial
War ruin

Biography

Tomà Berlanda is an architect, urbanist, and scholar with extensive international academic and professional experience. Born in Venice, he currently serves as Full Professor of Architecture and Technology at the Politecnico di Torino, following academic appointments in Switzerland, the United States, Rwanda, and South Africa. In the latter, he served as Full Professor of Architecture (2015–23) and Director of the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics (2015–18) at the University of Cape Town, where he is now an Honorary Research Associate (2023–). He is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the African Futures Institute (2020–) and an Editorial Contributor to The Architectural Review (2020–).

Scientific branch

CEAR-08/C - Technological and Environmental Design of Architecture
(Area 0008 - Civil engineering and architecture)

Skills

ERC sectors

SH7_7 - Cities; urban, regional and rural studies
PE8_3 - Civil engineering, architecture, offshore construction, lightweight construction, geotechnics
SH6_10 - Colonial and post-colonial history
SH7_6 - Environmental and climate change, societal impact and policy

SDG

Goal 4: Quality education
Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation
Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Goal 15: Life on land
Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Fellowships

Editorial boards

  • THE JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE (2022-2025), Editorial board member
  • FOLIO (2018-), Editorial board member

Other research or teaching roles outside Politecnico

  • Professore a contratto, presso University of Cape Town
  • Professore a contratto, presso Cornell University (1/1/2012-31/5/2012)
  • Professore a contratto, presso Kigali Institute of Science and Technology - KIST (1/1/2011-30/5/2013)
  • Professore a contratto, presso Syracuse University (15/8/2009-14/5/2010)

Teaching

Collegi of the PhD programmes

  • URBAN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 2025/2026 (41. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO
  • ARCHITETTURA. STORIA E PROGETTO, 2025/2026 (41. ciclo)
    Politecnico di TORINO

Collegi of the degree programmes

Teachings

PhD

Master of Science

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Bachelor of Science

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Other activities and projects related to teaching

Berlanda’s teaching is grounded in the conviction that architectural education plays a critical role in shaping society’s capacity to respond to spatial, environmental, and political transformation. He adopts a design-research model in which students and instructors participate in a shared inquiry; studio briefs are framed as open-ended research problems, fostering critical reflection anchored in research questions rather than individual positions.

His curriculum is explicitly pluralistic, exposing students to diverse geographies and forms of spatial production. He emphasizes experiential learning that is theoretically rigorous yet contextually grounded, treating design as a critical mode of inquiry rather than a purely instrumental skill. Utilizing case studies and mixed media, he encourages students to interrogate established assumptions within the discipline.

This pedagogical focus addresses the Global South as a key site for examining sovereignty, dispossession, and collective spatial practices. Experience in contexts of scarce resources informs an approach that links theoretical inquiry with site-specific investigation and tectonic

Research

Other activities and projects related to research

Berlanda’s work operates at the intersection of topography, land, social engagement, and community-based building practices. His research and design practice interrogate questions of justice, environment, and construction across the Global South, with particular attention to contested territories.


Extended periods of living and working in Sub Saharan Africa have shaped research trajectories focused on settlement models, urbanization, and spatial justice. Through his collaborative practices—ASA Studio (Kigali, 2012–14) and a studio.space (Cape Town, 2018–23)—he has produced internationally recognised design work, including schools, early childhood development centres, and health facilities.


His current scholarship engages critically with land, sovereignty, and spatial practices, examining how architecture intersects with histories of dispossession and control while exploring alternative spatial imaginaries grounded in commonality, care, and collective use. Overall, his research seeks to articulate how spatial disciplines can respond to the conditions of the Anthropocene, foregrounding land as a central site of struggle and possibility.


Berlanda is the author of Architectural Topographies (Routledge, 2014) and Interpreting Kigali, Rwanda: Architectural Inquiries and Prospects for a Developing African City (with Korydon H. Smith, 2018), which received a 2019 Great Places Award (Honourable Mention) from the Environmental Design Research Association. Most recently, he edited Architecture of Commonality: Grounds for Hope (Architangle, 2024) and co-authored Palestina. Architettura e Genocidio (with Camillo Boano, LetteraVentidue, 2026).

Publications

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