Dr Simone Ferracina is the founding director of Exaptive Design Office (EDO) and a Senior Lecturer in Architectural Ecologies at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), the University of Edinburgh. His research and teaching investigate the technical infrastructures, theories, and methodological approaches required to move architectural discourse and practice beyond extraction, ecocide, and environmental injustice; and to challenge narrow disciplinary and economic understandings of authorship, habitation, use, and value. He is interested in the conceptualisation, production, and circulation of building materials, with a particular focus on reuse and repurposing.
His monograph Ecologies of Inception: Design Potentials on a Warming Planet (Routledge 2022) begins from the tabula rasa as a figure of potentiality to develop a philosophy of design grounded on acts of reclamation and care. Other key publications include Œ Case Files Vol.1, the first in a series of books on experimental and transdisciplinary design research (punctum books 2021), several chapters in edited volumes, and the co-edited Unconventional Computing: Design Methods for Adaptive Architecture (Riverside Architectural, 2013). His projects and writings have been published in Volume; 306090; Thresholds; Kerb; Continent; Palgrave Communications; The Architectural Review; Inflexions: A Journal of Research Creation; Architecture Design Theory (Ardeth); and Vesper: Journal of Architecture, Arts, and Theory; among others. He sometimes writes book reviews for Landscape Research, and has peer-reviewed papers for Architecture and Culture; Open Philosophy; Drawing Matter Journal; She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics and Innovation; the Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism; Edinburgh Architecture Research (EAR); and Architecture Design Theory (Ardeth).
Simone holds a Diploma of Architect (USI AAM 2003) and a PhD in Philosophy, Art & Critical Thought (EGS 2020). His work has been exhibited and presented internationally, including the Design Council’s Design for Planet Festival, the V&A, the Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities, the Low Carbon Design Institute, Genova BeDesign Week, the Venice Art Biennale, NYU Gallatin, the Trondheim Biennale, and the Tallinn Architecture Biennale.
At ESALA, he is the Programme Director for the Master of Architecture, and co-convenes ESALA Climate Action, a student and staff group aiming to promote dynamic responses to the climate emergency in the School’s pedagogies, operations, research, and community practices. Prior to joining ESALA, he was a researcher in Living Architecture at Newcastle University and, for over a decade, a project manager and project architect at Richard Meier & Partners Architects in New York City, with award-winning projects in Italy, Czech Republic, and Taiwan.