Alessandro Melis is the founding director of Heliopolis 21 Architects and the first Endowed Chair Professor of the New York Institute of Technology. He was the curator of the Italian Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2021, and an ambassador of Italian Design 2022 (Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Previously he was director of the International Cluster for Sustainable Cities, at the University of Portsmouth, of the Postgraduate Engagement at the University of Auckland, and of the TPAI program at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Further, he was honorary fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and visiting professor at Anhalt-Bauhaus Dessau. The relevance of his contribution to research is corroborated by 200+ publications, by as many citations in popular publications and by keynotess at institutions such as the University of Cambridge, MoMA New York, the China Academy of Art, the Italian Institute of Culture in London and New York, The Embassy of Italy in Washington, and TEDx. Monographs on his work include the recent “Heliopolis 21” (Skira, 2022) and “Alessandro Melis. Utopic Real World” (D Editore, 2021).