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Michela Bonomo

Nationality: Italian

EPFLETUEDOCEDAR

Expertise

History of Italian Postwar Architecture
Villa Type and Typology
Coastal Development
Building Speculation Practices
Labor Practices
Tourist Real Estate and Mediterranean Imagery
Michela is an architect and researcher, born and raised in Milan.
She completed her training in Architecture in London, where she then practiced in industry at Foster Partners and Herzog & de Meuron, as well as through freelance projects in London, Mallorca, and Milan.Her PhD Research Proposal titled Villa-mania. The Project of the Seaside Villa Ideology in Postwar Italy (1953-1973) has been fully funded by the IA at EPFL since 2022, with a completion date set for Spring 2026. Her PhD examines the proliferation of seaside holiday villas in Italy from the start of the ‘Economic Miracle’ to the first Oil Crisis.

Within TPOD Lab (Theory and Project of Domestic Space), she supervises Master's Thesis Projects and acts as one of the editors of  Burning Farm Journal. She has been invited as an external critic at the London Metropolitan University, the Architectural Association, and the University of Brighton. Her architectural work has been showcased at the Lisbon Triennale, AA Project Reviews, and Something Curated. Her writing has been published in Burning Farm, Dimensions Journal, and OASE, and appeared in Italian and Swiss newspapers.

She was proudly involved in institutional engagement, acting as PhD representative within the collective Quatre, of 70 students in the Doctoral School of Architecture between 2023 and 2025. In April 2023, she launched Doc. Days EDAR, , a doctoral seminar across the different labs of the School of Architecture. 


Education

Professional Practice in Architecture

| RIBA Part 3

2018 – 2018 University of Westminster

Master in Architecture

| AA Diploma - RIBA Part 2

2016 – 2016 Architectural Association School of Architecture

Bachelor in Architecture

| RIBA Part 1

2013 – 2013 London Metropolitan University

Professionals experiences

Architect

Architect

Architectural Assistant

Journal Articles

2025

The Paradoxes of Prefabrication: Politics of Construction in Vico Magistretti's Villa Arosio and Marcello D'Olivo's Villa Spezzotti

M. Bonomo

Burning Farm. 2025. DOI : 10.63602/252052.

2024

The Alter Ego of the City

M. BonomoM. Korbi

OASE. Journal for Architecture. 2024.

2023

Rogue and Trickster. Luigi Moretti, Real Estate and the Villa Triptych

M. Bonomo

Burning.Farm. 2023.

Patronage as Collaboration. Dante Bini’s Villas in Sardinia

M. Bonomo

Dimensions. Journal of Architectural Knowledge. 2023. DOI : 10.14361/dak-2023-0511.

Conference Papers

2024

Their Place in the Sun. The Tacit Agency of Bettina Graziani and Dolores Guinness in Costa Smeralda

M. Bonomo

2024. The Historic Production of the Tourist Space. Urbanism, Territory and Local Identities from a Gender Perspective, Barcelon, Spain, 2024-09-12 - 2024-09-13.

2023

Villa: Type or Model? Framing a Contradiction in the Context of Post-war Italy

2023. The Fifth Typology. A Symposium on Type and Architecture, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 4-5, 2023.

Talks

2023

Constructing the Dream : Villas on Display in Italy in 1933 and 1964

M. Bonomo

DHS Student Forum 2023 - 'Displaying Design', London, 02/09/23.

Dwelling by the Mediterrenan Sea. The case of Villa Balmain by Leonardo Ricci

M. Bonomo

Architecture Theory and Culture Exercises, EPFL, Lausanne, Suisse, 2023.

Villas through Press. The Endorsement of the Escape by Hoepli and Görlich in Postwar Italy

M. Bonomo

Doc.days EDAR, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 24, 2023.

Villa: Type or Model? Framing a Contradiction in the Context of Post-war Italy

M. Bonomo

The Fifth Typology: A symposium on type and architecture, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 4–5, 2023.

‘How To Build a Villa By The Sea’ The Implicit Project of Villa-mania in Post-war Italy (1948-1973)

M. Bonomo

Doc Talks Lightining, Zurich / Zoom, January 24, 2023.

Constructing the Dream Villas on Display in Italy in 1933 & 1964

M. Bonomo

Studying Architecture Exhibitions Doctoral Workshops, Gent, Belgium, January 19, 2023.

2022

Mediterrenean View. Villa Antonioni by Dante Bini

M. Bonomo

Architecture Theory and Culture Exercises, EPFL, Lausanne, Suisse, 2022.

Villa Antonioni by Dante Bini, Sardinia (1970)

M. Bonomo

Architecture Theory and Culture Exercises, EPFL, Lausanne, Suisse, 2022.

Student Projects

2024

Office care space Transformation of an existing office and workshop building in Les Acacias (GE)

K. Rodriguez

2024

Media

2025

How long will the dream of the seaside holiday villa last?

M. Bonomo

2025.