Massimo Santanicchia is an architect, professor, and Head of the Department in architecture at the Iceland University of the Arts. Massimo’s work focuses on architectural education by posing the questions: What are the politics of your design, and what is the design of your politics? In his research, Massimo draws upon literature on justice, citizenship, feminism, post-humanism, and cosmopolitanism to rethink architectural education and its practice in the Icelandic context and beyond.

Massimo has been developing the concept of Cosmopolitan Citizenship Architecture Education (CCAE), an educational model that will generate renewed understanding of designers’ roles and responsibilities towards our shared social and ecological environment. CCAE aims to use the design process as an instrument for care and the betterment of the world.

Massimo holds an MArch from Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia; an MA in Housing and Urbanism from the Architectural Association, School of Architecture in London; an MSc in Regional Urban Planning Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science; and a PhD in Cultural Studies and Education and Diversity from the University of Iceland.