Alessandra Cianchetta


Alessandra Cianchetta is an Italian architect, urban planner and author.
Based in London and Paris, she is the founder and sole director of AWP London. She formerly co-founded AWP France of which she is currently co-owner and shareholder.
Her achievements include a masterplan for developing an area of in Paris's La Défense business district.

Biography

Initially interested in fashion, Cianchetta was persuaded by the fashion designer Emilio Pucci to turn to architecture.
She studied architecture at La Sapienza, Rome, and went on to earn a master's degree at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, in 2000. She also completed advanced studies in landscape architecture at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris, in 2002.
Her activities cover a wide variety of projects in the area of urban design and planning, including landscape design, pavilions and interiors. She is particularly interested in the effects of landscape, light, climate and art on the urban environment. In addition to her plans for La Défense, she has designed Poissy Galore, a series of public buildings and follies projects in a Paris park. Constructed of timber, her Lantern Pavilion in Sandnes, Norway, was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2009. She has also designed and curated a number of exhibitions.
Cianchetta has taken up educational assignments at Columbia University, New York, Carlton University, Ottawa, The Berlage in the Netherlands. Cianchetta is currently a Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and a Professor Adjunct at The Cooper Union in New York City.

Awards

Cianchetta has received a number of awards including: