Vasilena Vassilev

Vasilena Vassilev is a full-time Assistant Professor at Syracuse University's School of Architecture, where she has been since 2009. She also served as a Visiting Professor at SU’s London study abroad program and taught Second Year Undergraduate studio at Nottingham Trent University. She holds a Master of Architecture from MIT, where she contributed to the MIT Mobile Experience Lab and MIT Senseable Cities Lab, collaborating on sustainable transportation and urban development projects with cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

Her research focuses on urban sustainability, holistic urban design, and ecological architecture. She developed Syracuse University’s first course on Urban Sustainability, “The Ecology of Cities,” and led workshops on urban systems and design. Notable projects include the Botanical Air Cleaning Wall System (collaborating with Professor Jensen Zhang) and infrastructural interventions along the Thames Tideway Tunnel. Her design practice, P+ Studio, is constructing a sustainable technologies demonstration building in China’s first government-accredited Green Building Demonstration Zone.

She actively contributes to academic governance, program development, and student recruitment, advising students across levels. Her work bridges architecture, engineering, and urban ecology through collaborative initiatives like the “Living Systems in Architecture and Engineering” workshop and partnerships with institutions like UPSTATE Centre and Thames Water.