Savina Torrisi

Architect Savina is Senior Tutor on the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) programme at the Royal College of Art. She has been teaching IDE since 2004.

Savina graduated in Architecture at the Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria (Italy) and qualified as an architect in 2001. She worked for her family’s architectural firm before moving to London in 2002. She has worked as Project Architect for several architectural and interdisciplinary firms including Foster + Partners and has collaborated as Design and Innovation consultant with Richard Rogers & Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects.

She has created and led several inter-institutional projects including: Departure Lounge, The Encounter, and Re-mix, which investigated the controversial dynamics of interdisciplinary creative collaborations. She was team leader in a series of workshops organised by the Olympic Delivery Authority and InnovationRCA to deliver design ideas for the 2012 Olympic Park.

Research interests

Savina’s research focuses on the exploration of interdisciplinary processes leading to the creation of new knowledge. Her research aims at defining the chameleonic identity of the Interdisciplinarian and investigates the impact of interdisciplinary approaches on higher education.

Her research projects and publications explore and analyse key aspects of interdisciplinary design practice including conflicts, miscommunications and the capability to draw not obvious correlations across diverse fields.

Practice

In 2008 Savina co-founded NOI architects, an interdisciplinary architectural firm based in London that works in the diverse fields of architecture, design and art. Her portfolio includes high-rise residential and commercial building, hotels, lighting systems, modular residential systems, kinetic and site-specific installations. Her work has been exhibited in UK and abroad.