Marcella Del Signore

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Marcella Del Signore is an architect, urbanist, educator, scholar, and the principal of X-Topia, a design-research practice that explores the intersection of architecture and urbanism with technology and the public, social and cultural realm. She is an associate professor and director of the Master of Science in Architecture, Urban and Regional Design at NYIT School of Architecture and Design. Her research focuses on interscalar design approaches that engage the notion of socio-technical systems through computation, prototyping, material and fabricated assemblies, data-driven protocols, and adaptive environments. Her work investigates architecture, environments, and cities not as isolated entities but as part of an extended field mediated through the discursive application of technology. In her design practice, she has built a wide array of urban interventions and small-scale prototypes recognized through publications, grants, and awards. She holds a Master of Architecture from Sapienza University in Rome and a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University.

She has published a wide array of refereed papers, articles, and book chapters and is the co-author of Urban Machines: Public Space in a Digital Culture (LISTLab, 2018; OROEditions, 2020; with G. Riether) that explores how information and communication technologies have radically changed the way we inhabit and operate in the urban space. She is also the co-editor of the book Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design (2020, Routledge) that presents a comprehensive overview of current design processes that rely on the input of data and use of computational design strategies, and their relationship to an array of outputs, with a focus on urban ecologies, emerging materials, robotic agents, adaptive fields, and virtual constructs. In 2018, she co-edited (with P. Anzalone and A. J. Wit) "Recalibration: On Imprecision and Infidelity" paper and project proceedings published during the 2018 ACADIA (Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture) Conference where she served as technical co-chair and part of the ACADIA board of directors from 2016-18. Also, in 2017, she co-edited the book 7 Strategies for Urbanism (University of Trento, 2017; with V. Cribari) that explores operative strategies for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches in urban design.

She has taught and collaborated with academic institutions in Europe and the United States, including Tulane University, Barnard College at Columbia University, the Architectural Association, Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IaaC), University of Waterloo, LSU School of Architecture, National Italian Institute of Architecture, and the University of Trento. At Tulane University, she taught in the School of Architecture and served as director of the Rome study abroad program, and in 2016 was appointed as the Kylene and Brad Beers SE Endowed Professor at the Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking.

She has operated nationally and internationally through an extended network of partners, institutions and sponsors that have supported her work, and has received several awards and recognitions including the 2019 Presidential Engagement Award for Integration of Technology at New York Tech, Broad+Water and Duncan Plaza Competition, first prize (with C. Roser; 2016–2018), the American Architecture Prize, Gold Prize for "Helix" at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (with G. Morando, E. Del Signore; 2016), the eVolo_VModern, third prize for "Helix" (with G. Morando, E. Del Signore; 2015), Berlin Design Week, first prize for "Helix" (with G. Morando, E. Del Signore; 2015), the Urban Urge Award (with M. El Khafif; 2014), the AIA New Orleans, USGBC Excellence in Sustainability Award: Projects of Note for "Coded Space" and "Helix" (with C. Roser, G. Morando, E. Del Signore; 2014), and the Young Italian Talent in Architecture and Design by the Italian Ministry (2010), among others.

She is a licensed architect and has practiced in Rome, New Orleans, and New York. In New York, she worked at Eisenman Architects and Richard Meier & Partners. She co-curated the "Data and Matter" exhibition at the European Cultural Center during the 2018 Architecture Venice Biennale, and is currently invited to exhibit at the 17th Architecture Venice Biennale in 2021.

Recent Projects/Research

• DATA & MATTER exhibition at the European Cultural Center during the 2018 Architecture Venice Biennale (with N. Diniz and F. Melendez).
• VectorFLOW: responsive urban prototype for Duncan Plaza, New Orleans (with C. Roser Gray).
• DATAField: place making intervention designed to raise awareness through data feedbacks of the water network of the city of New Orleans (with C. Roser Gray).
• URBAN SYNCOPATION: performative skin and infrastructural device that as a responsive dynamic interface collects, transcodes, and re-transmits the collective 'heartbeat' of downtown Toronto (with. I. Berman, M. El Khafif, S. Beites).
• RIFT: prototype for interior environments exhibited at the Milan Design Week (with G. Morando, E. Del Signore).
• CODED Space: master plan for dismissed infrastructures, New Orleans (with C. Roser Gray, G. Morando).
• HELIX: prototype for interior environments exhibited at the Milan Design Week (with G. Morando, E. Del Signore).
• pneuSENSE: Data + Urban/Social Ecologies, Installation, Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York (with IaaC).
• iLOUNGE: urban Intervention, prototype; Northern Spark, Minneapolis, MN; Zero1 Biennial, San Jose, CA (with M. El Khafif).
• PARKING for PEOPLE: urban prototype exhibited at the Milan Design Week (with G. Morando, E. Del Signore).

Selected Publications

BOOKS

• Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design, ed. Marcella Del Signore, Frank Melendez, Nancy Diniz. Routledge, New York, 2020.
• Urban Machines: Public Space in a Digital Culture, Marcella Del Signore and Gernot Riether. LISTLab, Barcelona, 2018; ORO Editions, San Francisco, 2020.
• "Recalibration: On imprecision and infidelity" Paper Proceedings, ed. Marcella Del Signore, Andrew John Wit, Phillip Anzalone, Association of Computer Aided Design in Architecture Conference (ACADIA). Mexico City. IngramSpark.
• "Recalibration: On imprecision and infidelity" Project Catalog, ed. Marcella Del Signore, Andrew John Wit, Phillip Anzalone, Association of Computer Aided Design in Architecture Conference (ACADIA). Mexico City. IngramSpark.
• 7 Strategies for Urbanism, ed. Marcella Del Signore and Vincenzo Cribari. University of Trento Press, Trento.

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters, Journal Articles, and Papers

• Del Signore, M., Berman, I., El Khafif, M., Beites, S., "Urban Syncopation: Rematerializing the Sensorial City" in Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design, ed. Del Signore, M., Diniz, N., Melendez, F. New York: Routledge, pp.41–49. (2020)
• Del Signore, M., Roser Gray, C., "DataField: Data Infrastructure through Water Ecologies" in Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design, ed. Del Signore, M., Diniz, N., Melendez, F. New York: Routledge, pp.70–79. (2020)
• Del Signore, M., Diniz, N., Melendez, F. "Information Matters" in Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design, ed. Del Signore, M., Diniz, N., Melendez, F. New York: Routledge, pp.7–14. (2020)
• Del Signore, M., Diniz, N., Melendez, F. "Data and Computation" in Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design, ed. Del Signore, M., Diniz, N., Melendez, F. New York: Routledge, pp.15–26. (2020)
• Del Signore, M., Diniz, N., Melendez, F. "Data and Visualization" in Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design, ed. Del Signore, M., Diniz, N., Melendez, F. New York: Routledge, pp.27–36. (2020)
• Del Signore, M., Roser Gray, C., "Learning from New Orleans: the construction of Resilient strategies for Urban Ecosystems " in Architecture and Resilience: an Interdisciplinary Dialogue, ed. Trogal, K., Bauman, I., Lawrence, R., Petrescu, D. London: Routledge, pp.237–250. (2019)
• Del Signore, M., Wit, A.J., Anzalone, P. "Computational Infidelities " in Recalibration: On imprecision and infidelity, , Conference Proceedings of the 2018 ACADIA conference, ed. Del Signore, M., Wit, A.J., Anzalone, P. IngramSpark, pp.16–17. (2018)
• Del Signore, M., Wit, A.J., Anzalone, P. "Notes on Imprecision and Infidelity" in Recalibration: On imprecision and infidelity, Conference Proceedings of the 2018 ACADIA conference, ed. Del Signore, M., Wit, A.J., Anzalone, P. IngramSpark, pp.240–241. (2018)
• Del Signore, M., Wit, A.J., Anzalone, P. "Imprecision in Materials + Production" in Recalibration: On imprecision and infidelity, Conference Proceedings of the 2018 ACADIA conference, ed. Del Signore, M., Wit, A.J., Anzalone, P. IngramSpark, pp.240–241. (2018)
• Del Signore, M., Wit, A.J., Anzalone, P. "Recalibrating computational process and material and production systems" in Recalibration: On imprecision and infidelity, Project Catalog for the 2018 ACADIA conference, ed. Del Signore, M., Wit, A.J., Anzalone, P. IngramSpark, pp.10–11. (2018)
• Del Signore, M., Roser Gray, C. "DATAField: Strategies for Technological Resilience through Urban Prototyping" in "Intersections" Conference Proceedings, ACSA-AIA, New York. (2018)
• Del Signore, M., Riether, G. "Hacking Urban Space: the Agency of the Open Source City" in Shaping New Knowledges, ACSA 104th Annual Meeting Conference Proceedings, Seattle. (2016)
• Del Signore, M., "Collective shared Intelligence and Open Source models in Design practice" in R.E.D.S – Resilient Ecological Design Strategies Monograph. Research 03- Flowing Knowledge, ListLab, pp.200–204.(2016)
• Del Signore, M., El Khafif, M. "Allographic Urbanism: from Guerrilla to Open Source " in Flows and Disruptions, 102 ACSA Conference Paper Proceedings, Miami. (2014)
• Del Signore, M., "Responsive Prototypes: Urban Machines as a Framework for the Digital City" in Journal of Literature and Art Studies, Vol. 2, No. 8, David Publishing Company. pp.808–813. (2012)

Professional Honors and Awards

• Presidential Engagement Award: Integration of Technology for Enhancement of Student Learning, New York Tech 2019
• 1st prize, Duncan Plaza Competition, VectorFlow, New Orleans (with C. Roser Gray)
• American Architecture Prize , Gold Prize – Helix, "Other Interior" Design Category, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
• 3rd Prize, eVolo_VModern – Helix (with G. Morando, E. Del Signore)
• 1st Prize, Berlin Design Week – Helix (with G. Morando, E. Del Signore)
• AIA – American Institute of Architects – New Orleans, USGBC Excellence in Sustainability Award: Projects of Note-Coded Space and Helix (with C. Roser Gray)
• Urban Urge Award, Instant (PLAY)ground (with M. El Khafif)
• Young Italian Talent Award in Architecture and Design, Ministry of Development and Youth National Agency

Courses Taught at New York Tech

• ARCH 801: M.ARCH Design Studio
• ARCH 101: Design Fundamentals I Studio
• AAID 140: Visualization I
• AAID 240: Visualization II
• ARCH 340: Visualization III

Contact Information

• mdelsign@nyit.edu