Rate My Professor Alberto Pugnale

Alberto Pugnale is an Associate Professor (Level D) in Architectural Design at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. He is the Co-Director of the Advanced Digital Design + Fabrication (ADD+F) Hub. He earned his PhD in Architecture and Building Design from the Polytechnic University of Turin in 2009, Master of Science in Architecture (Construction) in 2006, and Bachelor in Architecture Sciences in 2003 from the same university. Prior to his current position, he served as Senior Lecturer from 2016 to 2024 and Lecturer from 2012 to 2016 at the University of Melbourne, and Assistant Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark from 2010 to 2012.

His research focuses on computational design and optimisation workflows, AI-based design methodologies, digital analysis of historical precedents, shell and tensile structures, tensegrity systems, reciprocal structures, and biologically-informed approaches. Pugnale investigates construction innovations and automated fabrication's environmental impacts through prototyping architectural and structural systems that minimize resource use. Key publications include the book Architecture Beyond the Cupola: Inventions and Designs of Dante Bini (2023, co-authored with Alberto Bologna), Deploying FloaTree: computational design-to-construction workflow of a low-tech tensegrity system (2026), FloaTree: a system for making artificial habitat structures informed by AI-generated visual abstractions of large old trees (2024), and Timber gridshells: Numerical simulation, design and construction of a full scale structure (2015). He has received the IASS Hangai Prize (2007), ISI Foundation Lagrange Project scholarship (2008), IASS Tsuboi Award (2023), and first prizes in the IASS Design Competitions (2023, 2024). Pugnale is a member of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) and the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ), reviews for international journals, and serves on the editorial boards of the Nexus Network Journal and International Journal of Space Structures. He has given invited lectures in Italy, France, Switzerland, China, Mexico, and the United States.