2
3 4 5
Slum redevelopment in Buenos Aires, AR
From paper factory to university in Maastricht, NL
Installations creating atmospheres in Delft, NL
Mixed-use redevelopment in Eindhoven, NL
Solar Decathlon competition in Wuppertal, DE
Digital craftsmanship on reclaimed wood in Kyoto, JP
m.angelini@student.tudelft.nl marianna.angelini@me.com
linkedin profile (link)
I am Marianna Angelini, an Italian graduate student in architecture, based in The Netherlands. I obtained my Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture, Urbanism, and Building Sciences from Eindhoven University of Technology and simultaneously participated in a 3-year student competition. After completing the first year of my Master’s Degree in Architecture at Delft University of Technology, I enriched my graduate program with an exchange semester in Japan at Kyoto Institute of Technology, followed by an internship at Shigeru Ban Architects in Tokyo. I am currently undergoing the final year at TU Delft, expecting to graduate in summer 2025.
In my free time I enjoy traveling to cities and nature, visiting exhibitions and doing sports, especially running.
Management (time, risk, workload, people), Long-term and detailed planning (individual and team)
Leadership, Proactiveness, Determination, Mediation Empathy.
Writing (academic), Story-making, Concept development.
Communication, Public Speaking, Public and Professional Relations.
Italian (native)
English (C1, daily use)
Dutch (A1, no certificate)
Japanese (beginner)
BIM modeling
Archicad Revit
2D digital drawing
AutoCAD
3D modeling
Rhinoceros Sketchup
Graphic design
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Indesign
Rendering
Enscape, Cinema4D, Lumion, Photoshop
Video editing
Premiere Pro
2023-2024
Exchange program - Master of Science in Architecture, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, JP
Master of Science in Architecture, Delft University of Technology, Delft, NL
Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, NL
Architectural Intern at Shigeru Ban Architects Tokyo Office, Japan
Exhibition curator TU Delft, Netherlands
Architectural Assistant to Studio Angelini for the concept & preliminary design of 3V Sigma redevelopment project Mozzo, Italy
Board member, Communications Manager, Spokesperson and builder in student team VIRTUe Eindhoven, Netherlands
Teaching assistant (student monitor) for Multidisciplinary Bachelor project TU Eindhoven
Hand drawing teaching assistant for Bachelor hand drawing course TU Eindhoven
Student mentor to first-year Bachelor students TU Eindhoven
Workshop in Tokyo (JP) with AA London Visiting School
Contribution to Dutch Design Week 2021
University study association committee
International stage exchange with Varala college, Tampere (Finland)
Student representative in high school council
04.202306.2023
Based on on-site analysis of Buenos Aires’ Barrio Ricciardelli, a problematic slum, this project presents a toolkit for regenerating high-density neighborhoods
The goal is to upgrade living conditions while preserving existing qualities. Leveraging socio-economic and spatial aspects, the acupunctural urban strategy acts as catalysts for change in the barrio.
The project involves carving out volumes, adding to existing structures, and utilizing unused roof space for communal activities and living
This architectural approach comprises access galleries, housing, and communal roofs, providing all dwellings with essential services and infrastructure for domestic and social activities. These interventions aim to be adopted by residents, blending with the visual language of the barrio and resulting in a diverse roofscape that reflects the regenerated community’s daily life.
In Buenos Aires, particularly in urban areas like Barrio Ricciardelli, public space serves as a vital extension of residents’ tiny and poorly conditioned homes.
The exceptional density, continually increasing, leaves inhabitants with limited access to their cramped apartments, and narrow 1-meter-wide alleys dominate the streets, devoid of daylight. Despite the vibrant commercial and social activities, there is a lack of safe communal spaces for such interactions.
The challenge is to restructure a sense of belonging from individual plots to a community and propose interventions that respect existing social dynamics and the architectural language of the neighborhood, all while improving living conditions for everyone.
Existing condition of manzanas chosen for urban intervention
Future condition of manzanas after urban intervention
Synthetis drawing of urban interventions (in collaboration with Rens van Poppel)
Galleries are introduced for all residents to access the top-up dwellings and to the communal roofs. They provide accessible , cost-effective and open circulation, as well as centralised water and electricity installations
They also become a network of balconies that residents can appropriate, smoothening the transition between private and public.
Existing buildings are topped up with an additional story hosting either one family or two couples. The same modules can be stacked into an apartment building, with one empty story above the couple apartments to give the possibility of incremental expansion.
Safe spaces for domestic and social activities. Some host communal kitchens and laundry, others playgrounds, gym areas and asado spaces.
To ensure that these shared spaces are meaningful to the residents, the commmunal facilities on roofs are mixed and clustered, connected through a network of stairs
To cater for the growing density of the Barrio, new buildings concentrate the three ingredients in one unit. Rather than standing out as a modern higher rise apartment block, this new building matches the language of the existing and allows for incrementality within its structure.
2 X INCREMENTAL SPACE COMMUNAL KITCHEN & LAUNDRY
2 X COUPLE APARTMENTS
1 X FAMILY APARTMENT
1 X FAMILY APARTMENT
2 X INCREMENTAL SPACE
2 X COUPLE APARTMENTS
COVERED MARKET
PLUG -IN GALLERY FOR ACCESS & WET CORE
CONNECTION TO OTHER ROOFS
2
1 x COUPLE APARTMENT
Site intervention: Ground level plan
From paper factory to university in Maastricht, NL
I graduated from TU Eindhoven with my Bachelor End Project, where literary research on craftsmanship influenced my design proposal for a University of Arts and Crafts in Maastricht, Netherlands.
The proposal envisions the redevelopment of a 44000 m2 industrial plot, formerly occupied by the SAPPI Maastricht paper factory. Situated on the river Maas waterfront, this historically significant location holds potential as a revitalized hub for culture and youth. My focus was on creating an educational environment to transmit the tacit knowledge of craftsmanship to new generations.
Craftsmanship’s hands-on, iterative learning process doesn’t align easily with typical university frameworks. To support this, the proposed campus prioritizes (semi-)public spaces, facilities, and rooms to encourage discussion, collaboration, and creative ideation. The Sappi terrain development emphasizes facilitating the creative learning process, conceptually organized into three areas reflecting key moments in the learning curve: thinking, making, and performing
The subsequent pages detail the campus masterplan, with a more in-depth design proposal completed for the Conservatorium building.
Site axonometry with program distribution
The program distribution is guided by three activities: think, make, perform. The “think” zone houses offices, lecture halls, and study rooms, while the “make” zone encompasses the art and architecture schools. The “perform” zone accommodates the theatre and Conservatorium schools.
Façade designs reflect these activities with an interplay of transparencies.
All buildings share a similar organization tailored to specific functions and morphologies. A centrally placed vertical connection element is consistent in every building. Terraced volumes and subtle horizontal shifts in larger northern buildings aim to create a human-scale environment. These shifts serve as activity nodes, sightlines, and connections inside and outside the buildings.
Site axonometry with circulation axes and reused buildings
At the masterplan level, orthogonal axes interconnect buildings across the entire plot, featuring an indoor-outdoor dynamic utilizing existing structures. Among the puzzle of existing interconnected buildings, two with distinct heritage characteristics were preserved and repurposed: one serves as a gallery, facilitating circulation between adjacent structures, and the other functions as the campus food hall.
The plan emphasizes the interaction between the art school and the architecture school, along with the integration of outdoor and indoor streets and a central square. For the existing longitudinal building, the goal was to recreate the ambiance of a ‘craftsmen’s city’, evoking streets filled with craftsman shops and workshops where work and social life seamlessly merge.
Addressing program distribution, light, and circulation in extensive buildings, my focus was on creating spatial connections to enhance discussion and collaboration. Terracing intermitted atriums facilitates visual connections between floors.
The Conservatorium building extends toward the waterfront, projecting an overhang covering an outdoor exhibition area and ground-floor cafeteria, following the shape of the main auditorium. A connection to the waterfront is established on multiple levels, with framed views and the main auditorium opening up toward the river. Internal windows on the third floor serve as seating and workspaces, connecting the auditorium with the interior.
The facade design follows the interior functions, featuring a curtain wall revealing performative rooms and an aged wooden facade concealing private study and rehearsal rooms.
Conservatorium Section Diagram
Conservatorium: West-East perspective Section
Waterfront by the conservatoroium overhang
Combination drawing of conservatorium detail
Installations creating atmospheres in Delft, NL
09.202201.2023
In our brief or extended moments in a space, we sense its atmosphere, shaped not just by aesthetics but by all five senses. Designing atmospheres is crucial for our well-being, influencing reactions, decisions, and mental health. I’m particularly intrigued by domestic atmospheres, exploring what makes a space feel like home and how to find moments of rest in our urban lives.
In a studio at TU Delft, part of the “Methods of Analysis and Imagination” group, we delved into creating spatial atmospheres using language and physical models. Through group and individual work, I explored the power of language and diverse model forms to foster literary and spatial imagination. The focus was on studying, designing, and producing domestic atmospheres within TU Delft’s architecture faculty building.
The studio comprised four workshops, blending literary and wood-crafting techniques to explore the senses. The culmination was a 1:1 wooden installation, a quiet room in the faculty, offering a domestic atmosphere through sensory stimulation. In the following pages, I showcase explorative works from the studio, including the final installation.
In collaboration with Christopher Clarkson and Maja Liro
Sounds, whether soothing or irritating, play a central role in our daily lives, narrating stories of our activities in spaces we call home. Despite being often overlooked in design, sound can shape a space’s character, sometimes inescapably (Böhme, 2017).
Studying the remembered, actual, and imaginary sounds of domestic environments through written definitions and site studies informed the design of an acoustic installation integrated into the Architecture faculty. The installation, named “osmosis,” highlights acoustic thresholds, particularly the transition between a quiet rear access and a noisy student pub. A curtain of alternating soft and hard wooden pieces acts as a membrane, acoustically reacting to people passing through it. Inspired by the sound of string curtains in southern European homes, this installation draws attention to the changing intensity in the flow of people between different acoustic environments.
Conceptual sketches: process of “acoustic osmosis” and sound produced from colliding of soft and hard wood
the process by which molecules (people) of a solvent (built environment) tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one.
2.
the changing concentration of people over time on both sides of a threshold, which consists of a sequence of permeable architectural layers, including: an entryway and a veil of floating wooden pieces.
the experience of passing from a peaceful acoustic environment to a tumultuous one (the brouhaha of bouwpub) through a membrane which generates a transitory chime, drawing the focus of the passenger to the moment of entering or exiting a space.
In collaboration with Babette van Tilborg
In this workshop, I delved into the essence of everyday domestic living through exploring the presence, touch, feel, colors, function, and emotional connection with objects and materials. Using narrative collages and writings, I gave these materials a voice, combined with a focus on wood crafting. Drawing inspiration from human anatomy and movement, I took on the challenge of making plywood flexible to create a surreal kit for cooperative cooking in narrow Dutch student kitchens.
Cooperative cooking unfolds like a dance, guided by recipes describing coordinated movements in a surreal recipe book. The crafted wooden kit features flexible belts and joints, achieved by laminating plywood with fabric to create wearable belts accommodating various body types. Additionally, connectors inspired by human joints were designed to facilitate diverse movements
This workshop encouraged a shift in perspective toward the objects in our domestic environment, urging consideration in design and creation for movement on a human scale.
In collaboration with A. Suso, A. Lachman, B. van Tilborg, C. Clarkson, S. Beltifa, S. Verwey.
Having explored domestic atmospheres through literary and crafting techniques, I took on the collaborative challenge of creating a full-scale wooden structure that invites people to enter and experience a domestic atmosphere. This installation, named “den,” blends sounds, textures, light, and smells to construct an intimate space that evokes the familiarity of home. Designed collaboratively, it explores perception, resemblances, and body movements, pushing the limits of hands-on wood crafting by limiting the connectors to wood.
Den, defined as “a secluded place designed to provide a moment of domesticity”, is located on top of the large auditorium staircase in the main event hall of the faculty building. Users, as depicted in the narrative, escape daily overwhelm by reaching this metaphorical den—a fragile but safe tent on a mountain plateau. It’s a simple, soothing place permeated by the scent of burned earth and sanded wood, offering a shelter to feel at home anywhere.
sometimes i get distracted, I get overwhelmed, by the way people walk by the way people talk, stressed discussions out loud by the smell of coffee all around by the rain falling down
sometimes i get sidetracked by my own thoughts by my own fog i get lost within myself and i surrender to the things i cannot understand i walk
sometimes i take a left sometimes a right sometimes i even go back to where i was before but i carry on
here i am in the midst of this orange reaching up heavy breathing last stumbling steps not a remedy but shelter
i take a moment I crawl in and remember… shelter from weight or whatever i need shelter for i claim my spot for a moment it is all mine an invented home, a kind of tent to sieve my thoughts and to distill them to the essential here is my invitation to you to experience the den to be present with yourself and with all the things you hear, feel, smell and see.
09.202001.2021
Mixed-use redevelopment in Eindhoven, NL
In collaboration with F. Meeuwse, L. Diederen, M. Urban, R. Veld, T. Bindels.
In my third-year Bachelor’s first-semester multidisciplinary project, I focused on the redevelopment of the Microlab building, a former Philips TV factory in Eindhoven. This design proposal continues the phased revitalization of the historically industrial Philips site, Strijp-S. Based on th collaboration of various disciplines in the Built Environment (each represented by one student in the group), including architecture, urbanism, structural design, building physics, and real estate, the project addresses aspects like climate neutrality, materials, affordability, and viability.
To align with the district’s creative and innovative character, the project introduces a cultural heart in the West Wing of Microlab, connecting it with a low-rise residential building for young workers. The public facility and residential building are linked by an elevated walkway, opening onto a shopping street, public square, and park with open-air exhibitions. The project aims to make art and innovation appealing, connecting cultural hotspots with a human-scale residential neighborhood.
The following pages present the design proposal for both the Microlab renovation and the residential addition, with the final pages showcasing my study on an apartment interior in relation to the facade.
The historical industrial building’s renovation involves opening the west facade as a longitudinal atrium to connect with the public square and the elevated street linking to the residential building. This transformation also introduces more light into the central part of the wing, with a new timber construction integrated into the existing concrete and steel structure, blending old and new.
The ground floor of the renovated building features a covered shopping square, hosting retail, while the first floor accommodates a design museum, interactive workshops, and a local food market. The latter is seamlessly integrated into the open circulation space, offering visitors a transition experience from the raw concrete structure to the existing steel frames and finally the light timber structure of the extended floor.
Microlab combination drawing
A low-rise apartment complex on the south side of Microlab acts as a transitional element between the densifying Strijp-S district and the historical Philips Dorp row houses. Following modularity and prefabrication principles, the building features a glulam timber structure on a 5m x 5m grid. The layout includes 50m2, 75m2, and 100m2 apartment typologies for rent, with internal gardens breaking up long corridors, introducing more light and shared green spaces spanning two floors.
While ground floor apartments on the south side resemble traditional Dutch row houses and are set for sale, those on the north side open to a new shopping street connecting the mix-use redevelopment. An elevated street further links the renovated Microlab and the new apartment block.
Apartment typologies: 50m2, 75m2 and 100m2
From the group design, my individual research focused on creating a human-scale environment for residents in a modular apartment building. During lockdown, I explored the facade’s impact on apartment life through model making at home.
The final floorplan, guided by the relationship between interior and facade, follows the “furniture as layout” principle. This design incorporates smart storage, a central installation core, and an open space with seamlessly flowing rooms. Alternating hard and soft edges, like wooden panels, greenery, and curtains, add depth to the simple facade, achieving a balance between connection to the surroundings and maintained privacy.
in Wuppertal, Germany
CRAFTSMANSHIP ON RECLAIMED WOOD in Kyoto, Japan
During my Bachelor’s at TU Eindhoven, I actively participated in a 3-year multidisciplinary student team project focused on designing, building, and operating a real-scale sustainable housing unit powered by solar energy. This project was part of the Solar Decathlon, the largest global building competition for universities.
Within the student-run team that grew from 15 to 70+ members, I served as the Communications Manager and spokesperson, overseeing concept integration and storytelling Additionally, I contributed hands-on experience to the construction of the house. We participated in the 2022 European edition of the Solar Decathlon in Wuppertal, Germany (postponed from 2021 due to COVID-19). Emphasizing sustainable energy transitions in urban contexts, the competition focused on revitalizing building stock to reduce carbon footprints. Our House Demonstration Unit, along with those of fifteen teams worldwide, was constructed, disassembled, transported, and reassembled in an exhibition living lab. Competing in 10 contests, including energy performance, affordability, viability, and communication, we proudly secured 2nd place overall
Project video available via this link
Aftermovie of construction and opening event
During my exchange semester at Kyoto Institute of Technology, I joined an experimental studio focusing on adaptive design, fabrication, and assembly using reclaimed structural timbers in Japan. This studio is a joint studio with the ETH Gramazio Kohler Research group. We explored the potential of reclaimed wood as a structural material, appreciating imperfections as aesthetic qualities and incorporating them into the design process. My interest in traditional Japanese wooden constructions, especially wooden joints, stems from a rich craftsmanship tradition facing challenges from modern building practices and the possibilities offered by digital fabrication technologies. The studio draws inspiration from digital fabrication, applying it to reuse reclaimed wood structurally.
In the first project phase, we worked in small groups to enhance the design proposal for a pavilion structure at Kyoto Institute of Technology. Integrating insights from traditional Japanese joinery and digital tools, we iterated through various joinery designs. The second phase focused on digital fabrication, involving tasks unique to the project. I contributed to the digitalization process with photometric scanning of wood elements, learned to generate “toolpaths” for robotic arms, and took a lead role in project planning and the 1:1 assembly of a part of the structure.
Note: this project is not yet completed. Therefore the latest images are from the test assembly of a portion of the structure.
m.angelini@student.tudeft.nl