Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi is an Italian PhD architect who encompasses and tackles the ambiguous complexity and different ambassadorial roles and practices of architec­ture, both relying on fundamental historical-theoretical references and inspiring the improvement of innovative approaches.

He graduated (cum laude) from A.S.P. Alta Scuola Politec­nica (2008), Politecnico di Milano (2008) and Politecnico di Torino (2009). In 2011 he was Collection Research Grant Recipient at the CCA-The Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. In 2013, he received his PhD at IUAV and TU Delft Universities as a Joint Doctorate with a research on “The Heart of the City” (published by Routledge in 2018 with a Foreword by Tom Avermaete and Paola Viganò and an Afterword by Vittorio Gregotti).

After completing the PhD, he developed his research in the contents of various international postdoc research projects and fellowships. In 2014 he was a member of the curatorial team of the “Balcony” exhibition at Biennale di Venezia, as a collaborator of Tom Avermaete. In 2014-2015, he was Postdoc Fellow at KTH University in Stockholm and, since 2015, he has conducted postdoctoral researches at TU Delft in the Netherlands in collaboration with professional firms (Mecanoo architects-Delft), international policies (UNESCO, World Bank) and renowned academic institutions (IIT-Chicago, ETH-Zurich). In 2015 and 2016 he received two special mentions from the “Bruno Zevi prize”.

In 2019 and 2021, he received two Seals of Excellence from the European Commission for his research proposal on the Transcultural Habitat for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship. He is member and advisor of the “City Space Architecture Organization.” Regarding his teaching practice, he has taught at Politecnico di Milano, TU Delft and UDEM-Universidad de Monterrey.

In parallel with his PhD studies and academic activities, he has pursued professional research by design with the arduous aim of mirroring and interpreting the research he has carried out on the urban realm and architectural milieu. He has collaborated in urban design/landscape projects and theoretical researches with international firms such as CZA-Cino Zucchi Architetti, MECANOO architecten, LAND until a senior level. He is co-founder and lead designer of {Co-P-E} – Collective of Projects in Equipoise, a multidisciplinary team operating with a continuous non-static “equipoise” (Giedion, 1948) and “amphibious” practice in-between design and research, micro-scale and landscape, progressive visions and historical references.

Both his urban design activity and multidisciplinary theoretical research resulted in him being awarded the “Europe 40 Under 40 Award” (Chicago Athenaeum and the European Center) in 2010, being runner-up at Europan 11 in Leeuwarden (NL) in 2011 and winning Europan 14 in 2017 as team representative of {Co-P-E}, with the project “The Productive Heart of Neu Ulm,” a design reinterpretation of his PhD research on the Heart of the City.

He is currently non-tenure assistant professor at PoliMI.