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

I am an architect born in Venice, with extensive international academic and professional experience. Since 2023 I am Full Professor of Architectural Technology at the Politecnico di Torino, after having served as Professor of Architecture at the University of Cape Town (2015-23). I am a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the African Futures Institute (2020–) and an Editorial Contributor to The Architectural Review (2020–). My teaching, research, and design practice focus on questions of justice, environment, construction, ground, and land across geographies of the Global South, with particular attention to contested territories and conflicts over land in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. More recently, my work has engaged critically with land, sovereignty, and spatial practices in Palestine, examining how architecture intersects with histories of dispossession, control, and resistance. Through collaborative practices—ASA Studio (Kigali, 2012–14) and a studio.space (Cape Town, 2018–2023) I have produced internationally recognised design work in Eastern and Southern Africa, including schools, early childhood development centres, and health facilities. I am the author of Architectural Topographies (Routledge, 2014) and Interpreting Kigali, Rwanda: Architectural Inquiries and Prospects for a Developing African City (with Korydon H. Smith, University of Arkansas Press, 2018), as well as numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. I am also the editor of Architecture of Commonality: Grounds for Hope (Architangle, 2024).

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

My 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. I emphasise experiential learning that is both theoretically rigorous and contextually grounded, with design understood as a critical mode of inquiry rather than a purely instrumental skill.

Curriculum content is conceptually rich and explicitly pluralistic, exposing students to diverse geographies, histories, and forms of spatial production. Particular attention is given to land, ground, and territoriality as central architectural concerns. In recent years, my teaching has increasingly engaged with contested landscapes and conflicts over land in the Global South and the Middle East, including pedagogical work that addresses Palestine as a key site for examining sovereignty, dispossession, spatial control, and collective spatial practices.

I structure learning environments through case studies and the interactive use of mixed media, encouraging students to interrogate established assumptions within architecture and the design disciplines. Experience in contexts of scarce or limited resources informs an approach that links theoretical inquiry with site-specific investigation, guiding students to develop proposals that are both analytically rigorous and grounded in local material and social conditions.

More broadly, I adopt a design-research model of teaching in which both students and instructor participate in a shared inquiry. Studio briefs are framed as open-ended research problems, fostering collective responsibility, critical reflection, and critique anchored in research questions rather than individual positions.

Research

Other activities and projects related to research

I am an architect, urbanist, and scholar working at the intersection of topography, land, social engagement, and community-based building practices. My research operates across scholarly publications, exhibitions, and built work, resulting in productive overlaps between research, design practice, and teaching.

Extended periods of living and working in Sub-Saharan Africa have shaped several research trajectories focused on settlement models, urbanisation, and spatial justice. More recently, my research has centred on land as a material, political, and legal construct, with a particular focus on Palestine. This work examines how architectural and territorial practices are implicated in regimes of land control and fragmentation, while also exploring alternative spatial imaginaries grounded in commonality, care, and collective use.

I have contributed to international research collaborations, served on editorial boards, and participated in externally funded research projects supported by institutions such as DAAD and the European Union. My research on Rwanda’s urban development culminated in the publication of Interpreting Kigali, Rwanda, co-authored with Korydon H. Smith. The book was the first in English to address Kigali’s urban history and future and received a 2019 Great Places Award (Honourable Mention) from the Environmental Design Research Association.

Overall, my current research seeks to articulate how architecture and spatial disciplines can respond critically to the conditions of the Anthropocene, foregrounding land as a central site of struggle, responsibility, and possibility across different cultural and geopolitical contexts.

Publications

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