Sara Protasoni

Sara Protasoni is a full professor of Landscape Architecture and Head of the PhD program in Architectural Urban Interior Design in the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) of the Politecnico di Milano.

She graduated in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano in 1988. After attending an M/arch 2 programme in the USA at Syracuse University in 1989/90, she obtained a PhD in Urban and Architectural Design in 1997, a Post-Doc Research Grant in 1999 and other research grants between 1999 and 2001.

She is currently in charge of the Landscape Design Studio at the AUIC School of Politecnico di Milano, the M.Sc. in Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Design at the Piacenza Campus, the M.Sc. in Land Landscape Heritage and the M.Sc. in Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Design at the Piacenza Campus, where she is the director of the Summer School LANDSCAPE OF[F] LIMITS, now in its 4th edition. She has taught at the Politecnico di Milano and at the IUAV in Venice. She has taught landscape design in several Masters (M/Arch2).

Since 2002 she has been part of the teaching board of several PhD programmes:
– in Architecture and Urban Design at the Politecnico di Milano (2002-2013);
– in Architecture Built Environment and Construction Engineering _ ABC PhD (2014-2017);
– in Landscape and Environment at the Università La Sapienza in Rome.

She combines teaching with design and theoretical research in landscape architecture. In relation to the new issues on the agenda, her work is based on the assumption that it is important not to lose sight of what are the structures and figures of the spatial imaginary that we, as architects, are called upon to delineate and make fully comprehensible in the context of public debate, with particular attention to the dimension of naturalness, between the individual sphere and the system of collective and public relations. But it is also essential to specify the vocabulary that, in relation to this endeavor, is a fundamental tool for making the disciplinary contribution effective in the context of public debate.

There are four main lines of research.

• The role of landscape architecture in urban regeneration processes, in relation to the environmental, social, cultural and spatial dynamics within the current ecological crisis, where nature now plays a very crucial role in pursuing the goals of sustainable development and the protection of biodiversity.
• Infrastructures and landscapes, with a special focus on energy landscapes (including recent work on Large Scale Photovoltaic Fields, 2020- 2022).
• The question of landscape in the context of the valorization of cultural heritage.
• The design of open spaces in the contemporary city.

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