DrPaolo Stracchi
Senior Lecturer
Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning
- Senior LecturerSydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning
BIO
Paolo Stracchi is a Senior Lecturer in Architectural Technology at the University of Sydney, School of Architecture, Design and Planning. He holds a PhD in Architecture and Construction from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he also graduated in Architectural Engineering.
His research spans modern and contemporary construction history and theory, with particular attention to the relationship between design and the construction site, and to the entanglement of expertise and responsibilities among architects, engineers, and builders, examining how design philosophies, technologies, power relations, and industrial and societal forces shape the built environment. His work has brought renewed attention to the Australian work of Pier Luigi Nervi—especially his collaboration with Harry Seidler—and to the construction history of the Sydney Opera House. His findings have been widely published and featured in international outlets, including Casabella and L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui.
His interests also extend to digital heritage, using AI and VR to reconstruct and interpret historical design-to-delivery workflows, and to advocate for the conservation of historical construction documentation and practice.
He has received several awards, including the Engineers Australia Colin Crisp Award (2024), the NSW National Trust Heritage Award (2024), and the Frontiers of Architectural Research Best Paper Award (2022) for co-led research on the construction of the Sydney Opera House. In 2022, he was also awarded the Dr AM Hertzberg AO Fellowship at the State Library of New South Wales for research on the role of modern architecture in the development of the NSW construction industry (1950–1980). Most recently, he co-curated the exhibition Migrating Modernism: The Architecture of Harry Seidler, presented at SMAC in Venice as a collateral event of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Prior to his academic appointment, Paolo worked as a project designer in Italy and Australia. In Sydney, he collaborated with Koichi Takada Architects, Smart Design Studio, and Johnson Pilton Walker. He also served as a Project Manager at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome.
SCHOOL
- School of Architecture, Design and Planning