Luigi Bartolomei received his Master's degree in Building Engineering (2003) and his Ph.D. in Architectural Composition (2008) at the University of Bologna. From 2013 to 2016 he has been a researcher (Rtd-A) at the University of Bologna in Architectural Composition and from 2017 to 2022 a postdoctoral research fellow at the same University.
He is well-known for his research regarding sacred architecture, history of sacred architecture, and participatory landscape design. Concerning his research on sacred architecture, he has been invited to the most important conferences and his speeches are now part of the proceedings of some of the most relevant symposiums in this field (International Conferences in Bose, 2017; A living presence, Washington DC, 2011). His studies concerning the reuse of religious cultural heritage have got an international reputation and have been mentioned by some international journals such as “The Guardian”, where an article referring to his research appeared in May 2019 (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/28/italys-new-ruins-heritage-sites-being-lost-to-neglect-and-looting ).
In the role of president of Centro Studi Cherubino Ghirardacci (www.ghirardacci.org ) he promoted, in collaboration with the University of Bologna, some preeminent initiatives in the field of religious cultural heritage, with relevance both in research activities as well as in didactical methods. In fact, in 2016 he organized and promoted the international conference “The future of churches”, the second conference on this topic in Italy, whose proceedings have been then published in “IN_BO. Ricerche e progetti per il territorio, la città e l’architettura”, scientific journal of the department of architecture.
In 2019 he promoted the first national summer school regarding the reuse of religious cultural heritage, organizing a ten-day summer camp in Lucca where students were asked to design new functions for the dismissed monastery of St. Augustin. This Experience was then published in a special number of In_Bo, (vol. 12, n.6) and remains one of the fundamental researches on the reuse of dismissed cultural heritage in Europe.
In 2022, as a collaborator of "The Pontifical Council for Culture", (now Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See) he has been among the promoters of the International Conference "Charisma and Creativity", (http://www.cultura.va/content/cultura/it/eventi/major/carismaecreativita.html, acts being published).
He also collaborates with the National Office for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage and Religious Buildings of the CEI – Conference of Italian Bishops, where he is responsible for the national project "The boundaries of the Italian dioceses". (https://bce.chiesacattolica.it/2022/04/30/i-confini-delle-diocesi-italiane/ )
His teaching experiences began in 2006 giving courses in History of Architecture, then Architectural Composition and design for Landscapes and Infrastructures. In this academic year (2022/23) he teaches the course “Religious cultural heritage. Comprehension, care and valorization” at the University of Bologna. At FTER- Faculty of Theology of Emilia-Romagna, since the academic year 2009/10 he has been invited professor for courses related to the history and understanding of Architecture for the Christian Liturgy and Phenomenology of the Sacred Space.
Luigi Bartolomei has also been in charge of different European projects. In 2014, being a professor at the University of Bologna, he was a promoter – together with prof. Ernesto Antonini- of the Erasmus Plus Project “Led – Landscape Education for Democracy” which was then funded as well as, in 2019, its continuation under the title “LED2LEAP”, regarding participatory processes in landscape design as an opportunity to foster democracy and territorial belonging (https://ledwiki.hfwu.de/index.php?title=Main_Page ).
Luigi Bartolomei has editorial experience, being the director of the Scientific Journal "in_bo. Research and projects for the Territory, the City and Architecture", https://in-bo.unibo.it/, open access scientific journal registered in Scopus-Elsevier and considered a class-A publication by the Italian national agency for research in the field of history of architecture, architectural composition, urban planning.
Since 2011 Luigi Bartolomei is a collaborator of "Il Giornale dell'Architettura" (https://ilgiornaledellarchitettura.com/ ), becoming a member of the editorial board in 2015.
He is also president of the Centro Studi Cherubino Ghirardacci research center in Bologna which promoted in the last decade research activities on sacred architecture, reuse of ecclesiastical buildings, and valorization of the Church’s Cultural Heritage.
