The PhD in Architecture Theory Construction originates from a process of revision and reorganization of the previous doctoral programs in Theory and Project, Landscape and Environment and Architecture and Construction of the City (active until the 41st cycle), from which it inherits—while integrating, expanding, and updating—their scientific objectives and the structure of the educational offer.
The program is part of the Doctoral School in Design Sciences, to which it belongs together with the PhD in Architecture Theories Construction, contributing to the definition of an integrated system that brings together different design disciplines and ensures a multidisciplinary third-level education. This is also grounded in shared teaching activities and applied research among the programs within the School.
Scientific Framework and Goals
The PhD in Architecture Theories Construction takes as its field of research the relationships between theoretical elaboration, spatial thinking, and design experimentation, investigated at the urban scale, at the scale of architecture, interiors, components of the built environment, and the assessment of impacts on the territory. The project, in its cultural, technical, and theoretical dimensions, assumes an operational role in analyzing and interpreting collective needs and environmental, social, and economic effects. The thematic areas are addressed through a multidisciplinary perspective, made possible by the plurality of skills and knowledge represented within the Board of Professors.
The critical and operational tools of investigation are articulated in research through three key words:
Architecture: as a complex, multiscalar, and process-based discipline, an adaptive and strategic driver of transformations in contemporary space. Within a perspective in which architecture is not only technical performance or service, nor merely formal production, the PhD promotes research—both experimental and critical—aimed at defining a body of knowledge capable of governing the design of space as a plural and multifaceted dimension, marked by conflicts of use, inequalities, and demands for accessibility and social inclusion. Within the PhD, space is therefore not only the outcome of design, but an active critical and cultural device, capable of producing and transmitting meanings to architectural, territorial, and settlement phenomena, and of acting on the forms and effects of thresholds between public and private, domestic and collective, open and closed. At the same time, as a cultural product, architectural space is subject to the pressures of specific historical, social, and geographical conditions that influence and shape the ways, languages, and forms through which it is designed and transformed.
Theories: as the set of critical and interpretative elaborations through which architecture is examined in its various dimensions: symbolic, political, historical, economic, and figurative. Theories do not constitute abstract knowledge detached from design; rather, they contribute to deconstructing analytical thinking and building a layered and dialectical understanding, especially in contexts of increasing political, environmental, social, and climatic fragility, which require innovative tools to support decision-making and design action. Theories consider architecture as both a material and immaterial infrastructure, also engaging with the consequences of the age of anthropization, understood as a historical condition in which the intensification of human action on the planet imposes a critical rethinking of the relationship between territories, resources, and forms of dwelling. In a historical moment marked by radical digitalization, theories also interrogate contemporary devices for the production, mediation, and transmission of architecture, with particular attention to virtual environments, generative tools, and processes of representation, simulation, and evaluation.
Construction: as the theoretical and operational domain in which architecture engages with the material conditions of its realization, investigating the relationships between the generative and the implementation dimensions of architectural design. In an evolutionary perspective, construction is not reduced to a purely technical dimension but contributes to a critical understanding of the design process, defining a body of knowledge capable of connecting theoretical elaboration with practices of realization. The study of technological culture, reuse, and evaluative tools supporting design choices converges toward an ecological vision of dwelling aimed at defining innovative operational practices and models of co-generation between anthropized environments and the natural world. Construction culture also helps to define operational strategies and tools for critically interpreting transformations of existing heritage and its management, through practices of care, reuse, and rewriting. In this perspective, the PhD identifies the critical transformation of the existing, together with the production of the new, as a privileged field of contemporary design research.
Academic Board and Internationalization
The PhD Academic Board is composed by faculty members belonging to the disciplines of Architectural and Urban Design, Interior Architecture, History of Architecture and Drawing, Aesthetics, Technological and Environmental Design, and Appraisal and Evaluation. The Board elects a coordinator, who appoints a deputy coordinator. The Board is the decision-making body and operates by simple majority. The PhD strengthens its national and international positioning through research networks, external faculty, visiting scholars, joint supervision arrangements, and collaborations with foreign universities. In this direction, particular importance is given to engagement with the European and Mediterranean context, which recognizes Rome and Italy as a privileged critical observatory of contemporary transformations, processes of spatial and cultural hybridization, and tensions between heritage, design, and change.
Research Areas
The three terms that define the program also establish the broad frameworks of the research areas promoted by the PhD in Architecture, Theories, Construction, in a perspective of continuous exchange and dialogue among these three modes of knowledge in architecture. In a perspective where theories and construction practices converge into a systemic vision of design, the thematic areas express diversified, interconnected, and methodologically interacting forms of knowledge.
Particular attention is devoted to design contexts, understood in their political-economic, socio-cultural, and physical-spatial dimensions; to transformations of existing heritage; to historical and genealogical knowledge; to specific morphological and formal analyses of architectural and urban phenomena; to visual cultures and new media; to the material ecologies of construction; and to decision-making and evaluation processes.
Educational goals
The PhD in Architecture Theories Construction trains researchers capable of integrating theoretical-critical and applied dimensions—combining skills from different disciplinary fields—and engaging with architectural design at its various scales. It develops advanced competencies in the critical reading and transformation of contemporary space, in the use of experimental and collaborative research methods, and in the adoption of theoretical, evaluative, and operational tools for architectural design. The training path aims to expand the tools of architectural knowledge and encourages the development of critical instruments to address the growing complexity of contemporary cultural and environmental scenarios.
Research dissemination
The ATC PhD programme, in addition to its educational activities, promotes the development of doctoral candidates’ careers and the transfer of knowledge.
This is achieved: through seminars, fostering active exchange among doctoral candidates and the publication of results in both print and digital formats; through workshops, involving institutions, territorial governance bodies and communities, in line with the Third Mission and public engagement initiatives promoted by Sapienza.
The dissemination of research work is supported through the circulation of calls and assistance in the preparation of papers and book contributions, with the support of the Academic Board members.
The results of the educational activities and experimental design work of the PhD program in ARCHITECTURE THEORIES CONSTRUCTION take the form of editorial outputs, which will be published in a newly established ATC Doctorate series. This series will bring together the legacy of the collections “Tracce” (LetteraVentidue, from the PhD in Theories and Design), “ET” (LetteraVentidue, from the PhD in Landscape and Environment), and “sul Costruire” (Il Poligrafo, from the PhD in Architecture and City Construction), which showcased the best doctoral work from the previous programs.
The best doctoral theses are published in the DiAP PRINT DOTTORATO series by Quodlibet. The agreement with the publisher enhances national and international dissemination of the volumes, including online distribution, promoting reviews, presentations, and participation in publishing fairs. All volumes are also available as PDF e-books.
Each essay available as a PDF e-book is assigned a DOI code through mEDRA, a standard that ensures the persistent identification of digital objects and their associated metadata.
The publisher also undertakes to provide the digital version for deposit in the Research Registry (IRIS System), granting the Department open access rights with a 12-month embargo period after publication.
Career Opportunities
Career opportunities include highly qualified roles within public administrations, cultural institutions, universities, and international research organizations, contributing to the definition of new modes of intervention at different scales, with a concrete impact on processes of spatial and societal transformation.
PhD graduates in Architecture Theories Construction may also work in the architectural profession with a high degree of awareness, addressing complex processes involving the interplay between design, public policies, and large-scale urban transformation strategies.
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