He is Associate Professor of Urban Planning at Politecnico di Milano. His research activity focuses on urban and cultural policy, heritage preservation and planning theory. He has lead a number of international research projects regarding these topics. He has been an advisor of both cultural policy and urban planning to local and national governments and to other public and private entities. He has been visiting researcher Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, and Sciences Po, Paris. In 2017 he was Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Munich. He is the author of the book Transnational Architecture and Urbanism: Rethinking How Cities Plan, Transform, and Learn, and co-editor (with Harvey Molotch) of The New Arab Urban: Gulf Cities of Wealth, Ambition, and Distress.