I am a registered architect, educator, and qualitative researcher in the field of architecture and built environment, a scholar of public space.
My research focuses on the concealed dynamic between cultural and communicative memory as constructed through active life in urban shared environments. It explores how the understanding and interpretation of experiences obtained through public engagement define our identities and conception of who we are. I aim to understand how storytelling, as our primal way of being in the world, is related to our perception of the surrounding physicality of architecture, how one facilitates the other, constantly transforming our identities in the historical present. My work considers the multifaceted character of the phrase being free in public space by looking through the lens of Hannah Arendt's thought. In particular, it examines how spaces of public appearance can facilitate a sense of deep meaning and purpose only if are able to secure the agency for all to act and speak freely in it. As such, my work spans multiple academic fields including social psychology, social anthropology, history, cultural heritage studies, media studies, and political sciences. It engages with multiple theoretical approaches and various methodologies.
The purpose of my work, as an architect and as a scholar, is to stand against the ethical and moral corruption of the profession, the exploitation of the term "design," and the banalization of the design act itself up to the point of self-cancellation, which has led us so far down the path of devastation of our natural environments and all life on Earth. I call for the ethics of care to become the leading methodology of the practice, a framework that will integrate and constitute all aspects of our work. To quote Hannah Arendt:
“What I propose, therefore, is very simple: it is nothing more than to think what we are doing.”
I obtained a PhD in Human and Community Development at West Virginia University, USA, and a Master of Architecture degree at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. In my previous role, I worked as a Research Fellow/Associate at Mind Lab, Deakin University, where I investigated the relationship between designed architectural environments, storytelling, and collective memory through the application of technology. Currently, I work as a consultant/researcher in the innovative community development consultancy Storytelling in Public Space, dedicated to projects involving the application and optimization of digital technologies in public city spaces.