Maria Luna Nobile

I am an Associate Professor in Architecture at Umeå School of Architecture, Umeå University, Sweden, since 2019. I am currently Head of Research at the department and chair of the Research Committee. At UMA I lead the research group Designing the Contemporary City, and I am responsible for the architectural design studio 3 “A Laboratory in the City”.
 
My research focuses on the design of the contemporary city across the urban and the architectural scale. The scientific field of competence of my research is architectural and urban design. My research focus on the discipline of urban studies in relation to the many transformations cities are facing, in particular I am interested in the topic of reuse of abandoned areas and buildings and in studying and testing innovative methods for the reading of the current contextual situation and intervening within the existing context. This includes, for example, studies on the use of public spaces though participatory methods and practices. I have also been looking into the role that housing research has played in the development and transformation of dwelling types and residential rooms in Sweden, with a special focus on the interdependency between spatial configuration, tectonics, and material culture. Research methods are related to investigating through practical experiments in the city, case studies observation, qualitative interviews, studies of archival sources, comparative studies on different cities in Europe.
I am currently responsible of the Agreement of research collaboration between Umeå School of Architecture and the University of Naples Federico II. In this framework I conduct research within the research group “The Short Term City. Digital Platforms and Spatial Justice” a Research Project of National Relevance funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, on the effect of turism on the transformation of historical centres.

I am currently member of the EURAU – European Research in architecture and Urbanism Symposium Scientific Committee and I will chair the next EURAU Symposium in Umeå in 2026 on the theme “LATITUDES. Situated reflection on architectural research”.
I graduated as an architect at the University Federico II in Naples, where I also earned my PhD in Urban Studies in 2010. My dissertation “Recintare/Delimitare”, focused on the design of former industrial areas based on urban regeneration processes and focusing on the role of enclosures as a material for the urban composition and the potential of translating a mosaic of enclosures into a textile. The dissertation has been awarded at the University of Parma and at the IUAV in Venice. 
Before coming to Umeå, I was an adjunct professor and postdoctoral researcher at the University Federico II in Naples (2006-2019) and consultant for the Municipality of Naples in the framework of the URBACT Programme and of the UNESCO Project of urban regeneration of Naples historical centre. During this period, I have conducted my research in direct relationship with Municipalities and Schools of Architecture across Europe.
 
In 2024, I published the book Regenerate, Reuse, Reactivate. Strategies for the Contemporary Cities, published in Italian by Edizioni Caracol. The book reflects on the experience within the URBACT programme and on European cities used as case studies. I am currently Editorial director and co-funder of the UOU Scientific Journal in architecture, a peer reviewed scientific journal based on the experience of the University of Universities project, a collaboration among 46 Schools of Architecture in Europe.  As Guest Editor of the first issue, I had the chance to curate “COMMONS” a journal focusing on the notion for urban commons in architecture research and contemporary practices. Recent peer-reviewed publications includes “Kiruna, lost and found: identity and memory in the streetspace of the Arctic town” a chapter in the book Everyday streets: inclusive approaches to understanding and designing streets, UCL press (2023), “Transitory vs permanent: Cultural explorations in Naples’ heritage” in Between Sense of Time and Sense of Place: Designing Heritage Tourism, Lettera Ventidue (2021), or “Global change: actions for the composite cities of Europe” in  Rethinking, reinterpreting and restructuring composite cities, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2017).