I am a Research Fellow at the Bartlett School of Planning / UCL working with Prof. Matthew Carmona at the URBAN MAESTO international research project, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. For more info see: www.urbanmaestro.org 

Whitin URBAN MAESTRO, my research is focused on the ‘soft power’ approaches of urban design governance, where I became aware of the growing importance that this phenomenon is taking in European and global contexts, including in large and medium cities across the EU.

The opportunity to participate as researcher in the URBAN MAESTRO project, which gathers a small consortium comprised of UN-Habitat, UCL and Brussels City Architect (BMA), allowed me to develop a deeper knowledge on architecture and urban design governance across Europe in two ways:

• the development of a European Survey on informal tools of design governance provided me a transversal view of current practices across Europe and a diverse range of innovative examples of informal tools at national and local level;

• the co-organization of international workshops with policy experts and officials in different European cities allowed me to consolidate a European-wide network of key stakeholders in the governance of urban design.