Sofia Leoni

Ph.D. candidate in Urban And Regional Development , 38^th cycle (2022-2025)
Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST)

sofia.leoni@polito.it

Profile

PhD

Thesis title

The Rural Reinvention. Emerging Taobao Villages and the Infrastructural Modification of the Invisible China

Research topic

The Rural Reinvention. Emerging Taobao Villages and the Infrastructural Modification of the Invisible China.

Tutors

Keywords

Urban studies

Spatial planning

Landscape

Biography

Sofia Leoni is an architect and a Ph.D. Candidate in Urban and Regional Development at the Politecnico di Torino, where she has been part of the China Room research group since 2022. She holds both a Master of Architecture (M.Arch.) and a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) from the Politecnico di Torino, as well as a second Master of Architecture (M.Arch.) from Tsinghua University in Beijing. Her academic journey also includes periods of study at La Cambre-Horta, Faculty of Architecture, Université Libre de Bruxelles; Shenzhen University in China; and Brown University in the United States. During her academic journey, she actively participated in different architecture competitions, various teaching activities, and curatorial design projects. Her research interests focus on urban and rural restructuring processes in contexts of marginality and transition, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of technological innovation, infrastructure, and socio-spatial transformations. She combines approaches from the environmental humanities with infrastructural thinking and conducts methodological studies on human-soil and capitalist relations from a spatial perspective.

Awards and Honors

Best paper under 40, SIU - Società Italiana degli Urbanisti - Conferenza Nazionale SIU "Nuove ecologie territoriali. Coabitare mondi che cambiano”, Napoli, 12-14 giugno 2024. Sessione 07/ Infrastrutture (2024)

Teaching

Teachings

Master of Science

Urban design (Studio) (modulo di Urban planning and design). A.A. 2024/25, PIANIFICAZIONE URBANISTICA E TERRITORIALE. Collaboratore del corso
Architecture, society and territory A (modulo di Urban planning). A.A. 2023/24, ARCHITETTURA PER LA SOSTENIBILITA'. Collaboratore del corso
Architettura e spazio urbano (modulo di Urbanistica). A.A. 2023/24, ARCHITETTURA COSTRUZIONE CITTA'. Collaboratore del corso

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Publications

PoliTO co-authors

Latest publications View all publications in Porto@Iris

Leoni, Sofia (2026)
Rural spaces of digital labour: Taobao villages and new cycles between tradition and platformisation. In: Made in China Journal, vol. 10, pp. 108-117
Contributo su Rivista
Leoni, Sofia (2024)
Infrastrutture Umane. Il villaggio rurale di Junpucun. In: Nuove ecologie territoriali. Coabitare mondi che cambiano, Napoli, 12-14 giugno 2024
Contributo in Atti di Convegno (Proceeding)
Leoni, Sofia (2024)
Critical Review: Pierre Bélanger, Landscape as Infrastructure: A Base Primer, Routledge, 2017; Charles Waldheim, Technical Lands: A Critical Primer, Jovis, 2023. In: ARDETH, vol. Energy Landscapes. ISSN 2532-6457
Contributo su Rivista
Leoni, Sofia (2024)
Manualetto, l’effimero che anima Ravenna. In: IL GIORNALE DELL'ARCHITETTURA. ISSN 2284-1369
Contributo su Rivista
Leoni, Sofia (2023)
Contatti ed Effetti: Chinatowns come dispositivi di relazioni. In: Atti della XXV Conferenza Nazionale SIU. ISBN: 978-88-99237-43-1
Contributo in Atti di Convegno (Proceeding)