Carmelo Ignaccolo is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, where he is affiliated with the City Design and the Urban Information Systems groups. His academic research focuses on urban morphology, and wayfinding theory in rapidly evolving cities, where collective identity and heritage have been constantly reshaped. He employs data visualization and mapping techniques—informed by urban analytics and spatial statistics—to investigate the complexity of our data-rich environment and to envision new design solutions at the different scales of the built environment.
Carmelo has professional experience in geospatial analysis, data visualization and story-telling for urban design projects and city planning action plans. Prior to MIT, he worked as Urban Planner at the Urban Planning and Design Lab of the United Nations Habitat Programme in Nairobi. He was responsible for developing strategic recommendations about public transit networks, heritage preservation and resilience for the future planning system of several cities in the Middle East (e.g. Jeddah, Makkah, Tabuk). Carmelo also worked as an Urban Designer at AECOM in the Urban Design Studio in New York City. His expertise in mapping and in multi-scalar territorial studies allowed him to be involved as Research Assistant at the Center for Spatial Research at Columbia University and as Project Manager of the “Resilient Mozambique” GSAPP summer workshop – organized with the WWF and the Columbia Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes.
Carmelo has professional experience in geospatial analysis, data visualization and story-telling for urban design projects and city planning action plans. Prior to MIT, he worked as Urban Planner at the Urban Planning and Design Lab of the United Nations Habitat Programme in Nairobi. He was responsible for developing strategic recommendations about public transit networks, heritage preservation and resilience for the future planning system of several cities in the Middle East (e.g. Jeddah, Makkah, Tabuk). Carmelo also worked as an Urban Designer at AECOM in the Urban Design Studio in New York City. His expertise in mapping and in multi-scalar territorial studies allowed him to be involved as Research Assistant at the Center for Spatial Research at Columbia University and as Project Manager of the “Resilient Mozambique” GSAPP summer workshop – organized with the WWF and the Columbia Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes.