is an architect based in Milan who’s main focus is researching the imaginaries of contemporary design.
Her research explores how design, photography, fashion, architecture, art and cinema construct the imaginaries of the contemporary.
She looks at the relationship between project and representation: how objects, spaces and bodies are imagined, represented and made culturally meaningful through images.
Her work develops across research, editorial, education and consulting.
is an architect, curator and researcher based in Milan. Her research explores how design, photography, fashion, architecture, art and cinema construct the imaginaries of the contemporary.
She looks at the relationship between project and representation: how objects, spaces and bodies are imagined, represented and made culturally meaningful through images. Her work develops across research, editorial, education and consulting.
The contemporary project does not exist through its material form alone.
It also exists through the images that represent it: photographs, films, campaigns, editorials, renderings, digital images, exhibitions and other forms of visual communication.
Paola Bellani's research investigates the relationship between project and representation, asking how images contribute to the construction of meaning, desire and cultural identity around objects, spaces and bodies.
The research moves across design, architecture, fashion, art, cinema and visual culture.
It observes where their languages converge, where they diverge, and what these relationships reveal about the time we live in.
A particular focus is placed on the role of space: how interiors, architecture, objects and bodies are staged, photographed and imagined across different disciplines.
The research also looks backwards and forwards.
It investigates how different historical periods imagined their futures through science fiction, architecture, design, fashion, cinema and visual culture — and how those imagined futures continue to shape the present.
Current research questions
How do images shape the meaning of a project?
Do different creative disciplines share the same imaginary of an era?
What happens when fashion, design, architecture, art and cinema begin to speak through similar spaces and visual languages?
How have different periods imagined their futures?