Giovanni Santamaria

Title: Professor
Department: Architecture
Campus: New York City
Areas of Expertise: Architecture and Urban Design
Education Credentials: Ph.D.
Industry Credentials: OAI
Joined New York Tech: 2008
Giovanni Santamaria is an architect and educator. His research focuses on landscape and ecological urbanism which integrates the scale of architecture in a dimension concerning issues not only related to the history of urban settlements, to politics, sociology and technologies but most of all, to the complex ecology of our transforming environments understood through a metabolic approach.
Santamaria earned a Ph.D in Architecture and Urban Design with laude from the Facoltà di Architettura of Politecnico di Milano, after obtaining the degree in Architecture with laude from the I.U.A.V. in Venice, Italy. At Politecnico di Milano he taught Architecture Theory and Urban Design studios while he received postdoctoral research grants and participated in EU-sponsored research projects. He is currently Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Operations at the School of Architecture and Design at New York Institute of Technology, where he has been teaching and coordinating final theses along with several studios and theory courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.
His teaching approach and full commitment towards the growth of his students have shaped a generation of architects and designers who proactively proceeded as agents of change within local and global communities through their academic and professional careers. In the same institution, he has been coordinating summer abroad programs and has been responsible for the International Exchange Agreement with Politecnico di Milano. He curated, organized, and participated in several renowned international symposia, exhibitions, and design competitions receiving prestigious awards global wide for his professional and academic work. He is active in lecturing in Universities between Europe and the U.S.A., and authoring books, book chapters, and essays published by prestigious editors. He has been part of the Post-Sandy Design Committee at AIA NYC, served on several international design juries, and has been member of the Fulbright Committee for several years.
Recent Projects and Research
- Participation to the exhibition "La Citta' dell'Inclusione" (The City of Inclusion). MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome. Title of the work "One City Thousands Narratives."
- Coordination and Participation to the International Design Workshop "M.A.R.I.O.-II: Metropolitan Architecture for Rio de Janeiro-Brazil." The issues in 'Largo do Boticario," between adaptive reuse and water management.
- Co-creator and Coordinator of the International Design Workshops "Metabolism of a City: NYCER (Lab)-New York City East River Laboratory."
- Instructor and lecturer at the International Workshop at MIT, School of Architecture within the "Metro-Lab International Seminar." Re-thinking the future of the Matanza Riouciuelo river basin in Buenos Aires.
- Participation and Presentation at the IALE Seminar (International Association for Landscape Ecology). Paper titled "Anatomy of a Mutating Landscape" Milan, Italy.
- Participation and Presentation at the ACSA Seminar (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture). Paper titled "Merging Thresholds and New Landscapes of Knowledge," Antwerp, Belgium.
Selected Publications
- "Merging Thresholds and New Landscapes of Knowledge" in Practice of Teaching/Teaching of Practice, ACSA (2019).
- "Urban Metabolism and Metropolitan Regions" in Conference Proceeding, S.ARCH (2019).
- "Transforming Territories—A Landscape of In-Tensio-Alities: case studies" in: International Journal of Social Science and Technology, IJSST (2018).
- "Franco Purini and New York: Journey through the Spaces of the Mind" in Paesaggio Urbano #3 (2018).
- CrosScapeS. Urbanized Territories and Integrated Landscapes. Published in "ArcDue Citta," Architettura, Ricerca, Citta (2014).
- Transforming Landscapes versus Resilient Environments. Published in "Questo. This is it." A. Contin, Milan, Politecnica Ed. (2013).
Professional Honors and Awards
- Recipient of the Presidential Engagement Award for Student Engagement by Faculty and Global Education (New York Tech, 2019).
- Certificate of Recognition for "Outstanding contributions to Experiential Education" at New York Tech International and Experiential Education Honors (2018).
- Honorable Mention at the International Design Competition for the New Bocconi Campus in the former area of Centrale del Latte di Milano. Title of the proposal: "Micro environments and Urban Catalysts" (2016).
- Second Prize at the International Design Competition: "Itinerarios Urbanos in Madrid."
- First Prize at the International Design Competition: "Ephemeral Structures in the City of Athens: Open-Air Theatre."
Courses Taught at New York Tech
Undergraduate Program
- AAID 140 Visualization I
- AAID 101 Design Fundamentals I
- AAID 102 Design Fundamentals II
- ARCH 161 Survey History of Architecture I
- ARCH 201 Architectural Design I
- ARCH 202 Architectural Design II
- ARCH 291 Special Studies in Architecture
- ARCH 301 Architectural Design III
- ARCH 302 Architectural Design IV
- ARCH 401 Architectural Design V
- ARCH 402 Architectural Design VI
- ARCH 501 Architectural Design VII
- ARCH 502 Architectural Design VIII
Graduate Program
- ARCH 702 Urban and Regional Design
- ARCH 726 Case studies Urbanism/Sub-Urbanism
Experiential Programs
- Co-creator and Co-coordinator of Summer Programs Abroad in Scandinavia, France, Portugal, Spain and Japan