Valentina Orioli (Cesena, 1971), architect and PhD, is associate professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the Department of Architecture at the University of Bologna. From 2021 to 2024, she served as a councilor for the City of Bologna, in charge of New Mobility, Infrastructure, Public Transport, “Città 30,” and the protection of cultural heritage and historic gardens. During the 2016–21 term, she served as councilor for Urban Planning, Real Estate, Environment, Preservation and Renewal of the Historic City, Green Deal and Nomination of I Portici di Bologna to Unesco WHL, and deputy mayor since 2020.
Valentina graduated as an Architect at the IUAV in Venice in 1996 and obtained her license to practice as an architect in the same year. In 2003, she earned a Ph.D. in Civil and Territorial Engineering from the University of Bologna. In 2005, she became a researcher in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Bologna, DAPT, “Aldo Rossi” Faculty of Architecture. Since September 2014, she has been an associate professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Bologna. In 2023 she obtained the qualification to Full Professor.
She has participated in various European research projects, including the Culture 2000 project “Architecture and Society of the Holiday Camps. History and Perspectives” (2006–2007), the Horizon 2020 ROCK project (2017–2020), the Erasmus+ ARCHEA project (2018–2022), the EUI TALEA project, and various seed funding initiatives from the UNA Europa network, such as CUTE and Green HER. She participated in the Bologna research unit for the 2009 PRIN project “The Forms of Habitable Space: Experiences of Architectural and Urban ‘Remodelage’ in Social Housing Neighborhoods,” coordinated by the University of Brescia, and served as unit coordinator for the 2022 PRIN project “Metropolitan Cities under PNRR,” coordinated by the University of Florence.
She is the author of over 170 scientific publications, including various monographs and essays on the themes of social housing and the construction of urban suburbs in the post-World War II period; on the forms and qualities of public space and infrastructure in the contemporary city; and on the relationship between tourism and urban planning in seaside areas, particularly along the Emilia-Romagna coast. Her research interests have progressively focused on the tools and processes for governing urban transformations, with a specific focus on the relationship between urban regeneration and social innovation practices, as evidenced by the book published with Martina Massari, "Praticare l’urbanistica. Traiettorie fra innovazione sociale e pianificazione" (Franco Angeli 2023).
In Cesena, she teaches the courses Elements of Urban Planning, Urban Planning Techniques and Mobility and Public Space in the single-cycle Degree Program in Architecture and serves as the scientific director of the CARTA Laboratory. In Bologna, she teaches Urban Policies in the Master’s Degree Program in Service Design and coordinates the Structuring the City by Design Laboratory within the Master’s Degree Program in Architecture and Creative Practices for Cities and Landscape. She is responsible for Erasmus exchanges between the Department of Architecture and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et de Paysage (ENSAP) in Lille; the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture (ENSA) in Nantes; the ENSA de Normandie (Rouen); the ENSA de Paris Val-de-Seine; and the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol.
From 2007 to 2016 she has been a member of the supervising team at the doctoral school of Architecture of the University of Bologna. She is a member of the supervising team of the doctoral school of Service Design for Public Sector at Sapienza University in Rome (aa 2023/2024).
She has been a member of the leading committee at the DAPT (2007-10, director Pr Piero Secondini). In 2010-12 she was a member of the "Research Observatory" at the University of Bologna (Panel 08). In 2012-15 she served as deputy director of the Department of Architecture (director Pr Giovanni Leoni). She participated in the “Technical Board of Researchers” of the University of Bologna since its establishment in 2010.
She served as chair of the Commission for Architectural Quality and Landscape of the Municipality of Cesenatico (2009–15). From 2015 to 2019, she was a member of the Scientific Committee of the Malatestiana Library in Cesena. She is a member of the Cassa di Risparmio di Cesena Foundation.
She participates in the activities of the International Commission for the History of Towns (ICHT), the Italian Society of Urban Planners (SIU), and the National Association of Historic and Artistic Centers (ANCSA).
She is president of the Scientific Committee of the “Leonardo Melandri” Study Center in Forlì and serves on the Scientific Committee of the LAQUP association in Turin. She also participates in the activities of the Società di Studi Romagnoli.
She is president of URBAN@IT, a National Center for Urban Policy Studies, established in Bologna in December 2014 on the initiative of the University of Bologna, the Polytechnic University of Milan, and Laboratorio Urbano. The Center brings together 16 Italian universities with the aim of leveraging the diverse expertise within the Italian university research community and making this expertise available to institutions, the business sector, and citizens, in order to contribute to the design and implementation of a new cycle of urban policy planning.
