Towards a Nature-Positive Built Environment (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9783031952913)

Giuliana Iannaccone is a Full Professor of Architectural Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. She holds a degree in Architecture (1998) and a PhD in Architectural Technology (2003) from the University of Naples. She is the Director of Studies of the Master's Degree Program in Building Engineering for Sustainability and is an active member of various academic boards and commissions. Her teaching focuses on construction technology and integrated building design, with a strong emphasis on innovative and international teaching methods, including Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Her research centers on energy-efficient and zero-carbon buildings, with a cross-disciplinary approach to decarbonizing the built environment. She also explores futures thinking methods and is involved in technology foresight activities at Politecnico di Milano. She has extensive international collaborations and serves as a visiting professor at universities in the U.S. and China. An author of numerous scientific publications, she has presented at international conferences and evaluated research projects for the European Commission, Swiss National Science Foundation, and Italian Ministry of University and Research.

Eugenia Victoria Ellis is Professor Emerita at Drexel University, USA. A practicing architect who designs energy-conscious buildings shaped by the natural world, Professor Ellis investigates engineering solutions for the built environment at the intersection of light and health. Driven by the prospect of climate change, she researches strategies for the urban environment by considering the city as a responsive urban ecosystem where buildings and infrastructure interact with nature to promote the wellbeing of its citizens. Dr. Ellis' research considers the city as a complex network of interrelated systems that rely on each other to maintain system balance. Her research team has partnered with the Politecnico di Milano to use the comparable cities of Philadelphia and Milan as a testbed to develop prototypical strategies other cities around the globe can use to reduce their carbon footprint and increase human health and wellbeing. Dr. Ellis previously taught at Temple University in 1991 and the University of Idaho 1992-1995. She joined the Drexel faculty in 2000 after twenty years in private practice designing civic and municipal projects, laboratories for high-tech industry, and healthcare/skilled nursing facilities. Her work has been exhibited at numerous galleries and her built projects have been recognized for design by the American Institute of Architects. A principal at BAU Architecture, she designs novel technological buildings that perform like machines to sync the indoor environment with outdoor environmental conditions and reduce energy use. Dr. Ellis has directed Drexel's dLUX light lab since 2012 where students, faculty, and partners from a variety of disciplines investigate light in the built environment and its effect on life and energy use.