Luca Brunelli
Luca Brunelli
- Senior Lecturer / Stage leader
- ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1502-6599- Professional Title
- Senior Lecturer
- Job Title
- Senior Lecturer / Stage leader
- School or Academic Area
- Mackintosh School of Architecture
- School or Academic Area Supervised for
- Mackintosh School of Architecture
- L.Brunelli@gsa.ac.uk
- Contact Number
- +44 141 353 4642
- Professional Address
- 164 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, G3 6RQ
Biography
I joined academia full-time relatively late in my career, having co-led an award-winning architectural practice in Madrid for 15 years. I also taught part-time as an Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at UCH-CEU in Valencia, Spain (2003–2013), module leader, master in housing, University of Panama (2007), and as unit leader and urban design strategies tutor at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA, 2015–2016). In 2017, I took the full time role of Senior Lecturer at the Mackintosh School of Architecture (MSA). I hold an MArch from Turin Polytechnic, Italy; an MSc in Planning and Development from the Development Planning Unit, The Bartlett, UCL; an MRes in Town Planning from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain; and a PhD in Urban Studies from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
Research Interests
Salutogenic design of the built environment, ageing, well-being, and public health; post-human approaches to urbanism and architecture; housing design and policies; user involvement in design and production of the built environment; and architectural design pedagogy.
Grants
My doctoral research on local high street, ageing, and well-being was fully funded (£50,000) by a Heriot-Watt scholarship (2013–2016). Most recently (2024), I was awarded as P-I a British Academy / Leverhulme small grant (£9,815) to continue the research I have been developing in previous years with my colleague Dr Malonza from the University of Rwanda on rural housing policies and design.
PGR Supervision Interests
- Housing policies and design in the global south
- Ageing, urbanism and architecture.
- Well-being and the salutogenic design of the built environment
- Post-human approaches to urbanism and architecture.
Current PGR Students
As second supervisor, Madiha Salam, Urban dwellings morphology and occupant’s health.
Investigating Sunlight Accessibility and Vitamin D Health Impacts in Karachi’s Middle-Income Formal Housing .
As second supervisor, Roba Al Garny, The Use of Advanced Computing Technologies and Generative Systems to Investigate the Design of Public Buildings in Saudi Arabia- An Inquiry into the Role of Digital Media and Generative Patterns Design in public buildings in Saudi Arabia.
Former PGR Students
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Teaching
As Stage Leader, my principal role is to lead and coordinate a full year, currently Stage 3. I am also responsible for designing and delivering all studio-based courses within the year (60 credits). In recent years, my additional teaching has focused on the taught MArch programme, where I have designed and delivered the Creative Urban Practices pathway and, more recently, developed the new Project in the City course (2025)
Latest Additions
- Brunelli, Luca, Smith, Harry and Woolrych, Ryan (2025) Ageing in place, local high streets and well-being. Cities and Health. ISSN 2374-8842
- Malonza, Josephine and Brunelli, Luca (2025) Implementing SDGs in Rwanda's Rural Housing: Lessons from Karama Model Village. Rwanda Journal of Engineering, Science, Technology and Environment, 7 (1). ISSN 2617-233X
- Brunelli, Luca, Smith, Harry and Woolrych, Ryan (2025) High streets, ageing and well-being. Journal of Urban Design, 30 (2). pp. 223-253. ISSN 1357-4809
- Brunelli, Luca (2024) "Delightful Fun: A Cedric Price Thinkbelt for Our Times".
- Brunelli, Luca and Mochrie, Neil (2024) An activity field guide in the landscape. In: Pedagogy of Place - A Field Guide to Reading Landscape for Artists, Architects, & Designers. Intellect Books, Bristol.
- Malonza, Josephine and Brunelli, Luca (2023) Domesticating SDGS in Rwanda’s Housing: The Case of Karama Model Village in Kigali. In: Design for Resilient Communities: Proceedings of the UIA World Congress of Architects Copenhagen 2023. Sustainable Development Goals Series . Springer, Cham, pp. 153-165. ISBN 978-3-031-36639-0
- Brunelli, Luca, Smith, Harry and Woolrych, Ryan (2022) A salutogenic urban design framework: the case of UK local high streets and older people. Health Promotion International, 37 (5). pp. 1-17. ISSN Print: 0957-4824; Electronic: 1460-2245
- Brunelli, Luca (2022) A Salutogenic Approach to Age Friendly High Streets. In: Environments by Design – Health, Wellbeing and Place. AMPS Proceedings, 26 (1). AMPS, Architecture Media Politics and Society, pp. 196-205.
- Brunelli, Luca (2019) Ageing UK High Streets: adding life to years. MONU (Magazine on Urbanism) (30). ISSN 1860-3211
- Brunelli, Luca (2016) Edinburgh: Exploring how older adults make use of their local high streets. Journal of the Centre for Accessible Environments (146). pp. 24-25. ISSN 0959-1591
