Gentucca Canella

Gentucca Canella is an Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture and Design (DAD), College of Architecture and Design, Polytechnic University of Turin. She specializes in architectural heritage conservation, 20th-century Italian architecture, and urban design. Her research integrates historical analysis with contemporary preservation challenges, focusing on authorial architecture and monument conservation.

Her primary research interests include:

• Documentation and preservation of 20th-century architectural heritage
• Urban morphology in post-colonial contexts (e.g., Horn of Africa)
• Ethical dimensions of memorial architecture
• Adaptive reuse of industrial structures
• Cross-cultural Mediterranean urban traditions

Publications primarily explore Italian modernism, memorial architecture, and heritage conservation methodologies. Recent works analyze the socio-political contexts of post-war reconstruction, memorial symbolism, and adaptive reuse case studies across Europe and Africa.

She leads major research initiatives including the National Census of Italian Architecture of the Second Half of the 20th Century (2018-2019) and directs editorial projects like Italian Architects of the Twentieth Century. She currently supervises PhD candidates researching disaster-responsive architecture and interventions in modernist heritage.