Patrizia Mello

Patrizia Mello is Associate Professor at IULM University.

Her work focuses on the theory, history, and criticism of contemporary architecture and industrial design from the late nineteenth century to the present, adopting a multidisciplinary approach to articulate and assess the social implications of design.

She graduated in Architecture from the University of Florence with a historical, critical, theoretical, and literary thesis entitled “The Sound of Things.” She earned her PhD in Architectural Technology at the same university, where she also served as a Researcher in the History of Contemporary Architecture. She is a licensed architect. In addition to her qualification as Associate Professor in GSD 08/CEAR-08, she has also obtained two further qualifications for the same role in GSD 08/CEAR-11 (in 2015—during her tenure as researcher—and in 2020) and one in GSD 08/CEAR-09.
She has taught at several universities, including the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Camerino, the degree course in Industrial Design and the Department of Architecture at the University of Florence, and the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. She has also lectured in various master’s programs (Syracuse University; Kent State University; La Sapienza; Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio; University of Florence; Politecnico di Milano; University of Bologna).
Her research topics have been explored through the organization of conferences, study meetings, exhibitions, and seminars hosted by public institutions (museums and libraries) and universities.
In 1995 she founded and directed, until its closure, IDEA (Industrial Design Electronic Address), one of the first international design websites and the very first in Italy. It served as a space for informed discussion on industrial design, featuring contributions from various disciplinary fields (theory, history, design practice, sociology, philosophy), all sharing a commitment to constant experimentation on the level of “ideas” aimed at developing projects for everyday life.

Among her publications, the following are particularly noteworthy: Digital Ito. New media New Reality, Roma: Vita Nostra Edizioni, 2025; Twentieth Century Architecture and Modernity. Our Past, Our Present, Los Angeles: ORO Editions, 2022; Florence and the Radical Avant-Garde. A Research Seminar, Florence: DIDA press, 2017; Neoavantgarde and Counterculture in Florence. The Radical movement and the protagonists of an international historical change, Florence: Angelo Pontecorboli, 2017; Contemporary Design. Mutations objects environments architectures, Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2008; Ito Digitale. New Media, New Real, Rome: Edilstampa, 2008; Metamorphosis of Space. Annotations on metropolitan becoming, Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2002; The redefined hospital. Comparing solutions and hypotheses. Aart International - Aalto - Colboc - CSPE - Fainsilber - Groupe 6 - Ito - Koolhaas - Le Corbusier - Nouvel - Reichen & Robert - Sottsass - Petre-Souchet - Riboulet - Vasconi - Zublena, Florence: Alinea Editrice, 2000; Spaces of Pathology. Patologia degli spazi (ed.), Milan: Mimesis Edizioni,1999; Progetti in movimento. Philippe Starck, Florence: Festina Lente, 1997.

MAIN AREAS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST:

History, theory, and criticism of contemporary architecture and industrial design
Avant-gardes and neo-avant-gardes of the twentieth century
Radical architecture and industrial design
Project and utopia
Project and the individual
Project and the computer
Project and urban space
Environmental design and communication
Hospital design

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