Matilde Cassani

Architectural Association School of Architecture (London, UK)

Weinberg Fellow in Architectural History and Preservation

Sacred spaces in profane buildings

2022-2023: Fall

Matilde Cassani studied Architecture at Politecnico di Milano and UPC, Universidade Politecnica de Catalunya, in Barcelona. She holds a PhD in Spatial planning and Urban Development at Politecnico di Milano. She worked for GTZ, German Technical Cooperation, in Sri Lanka, where she developed research on the post-tsunami reconstruction process. She was a consultant for the World Bank in Malawi, and she’s currently a practicing architect at Matilde Cassani Studio.

Her practice deals with the spatial implications of cultural pluralism in the contemporary Western city. Fundamental themes of her research activity concern cultural difference as a generative model of building design and public space; religious differences in the contemporary city and their spatial implications (temporary places of worship, celebrations, pilgrimage sites); the relationship between public space and superdiversity in the contemporary European city.

Her works have been showcased in many cultural institutions, art galleries and were published in several magazines. She has been a resident fellow at “Akademie Schloss Solitude” in Stuttgart and at the “Headlands Center for the Arts” in San Francisco. The long-term research project “Sacred spaces in profane buildings” has been exhibited, among others, in a solo show at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. She designed the National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain at the XIII Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012, and she was part of the XIV Venice Architecture Biennale with the piece "A Celebration Day”, acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She was involved in the Chicago Architecture Triennale, Oslo Triennale and Manifesta12 and the XVII Architecture Biennale. She has taught and lectured in many international universities, and she currently teaches at NABA, and at the Architectural Association in London working with Unit 11.