In recent decades, cities in the Western world and Asia develop projects and master plans designed by famous architects, working across the world. Urban and architectural scholars, geographers and others approached the issue from specific disciplinary angles or with a narrow scope – one name architect, one building type such as the skyscraper, etc. Moreover the methods that have been used are mostly qualitative. This research aims at developing and testing new mixed qualitative and quantitative methods for the study of  transnational projects, transnational design firms and their implication at the urban level. The work explores three broad questions: what are the recent historical and geographic trajectories of transnational projects? What are the behaviors of the most acknowledged design firms working internationally? What are the strategies of cities using such designers and projects and what are their urban effects and implications?

Principal Investigator: Davide Ponzini

Research team: Maria Antonietta Clerici (Politecnico di Milano), Matteo Poli (Politecnico di Milano), Fabio Manfredini (Politecnico di Milano), Mina Akhavan (Politecnico di Milano), Anita De Franco (Politecnico di Milano), Zachary Jones (Politecnico di Milano), Luca Astorri, Celeste Calzolari.

With support from: Department of architecture and Urban Studies – 2016 FARB fund