Dr
Adriana Laura
Massidda

School of Architecture and Landscape

Lecturer in Architectural Humanities

Adriana Laura Massidda profile picture
Profile picture of Adriana Laura Massidda profile picture
a.l.massidda@sheffield.ac.uk
Arts Tower

Full contact details

Dr Adriana Laura Massidda
School of Architecture and Landscape

Arts Tower
Western Bank

Sheffield

S10 2TN

Profile
I am currently working in two main research areas. First, for twelve years I have been studying and reconstructing the history of Buenos Aires shantytowns. Second, in my most recent research, I have begun to investigate and expand on the environmental aspects of the processes of urban change I have found when studying precarious settlements, linking them to architectural design. In particular, I am piloting research-by-design techniques and co-design in low-income housing contexts in the UK, more specifically in the context of two social housing complexes built on top of former sewage farms in London and Leicester. I am also preparing a new project to pursue similar work in Buenos Aires, thus combining both elements of my expertise.
 

Recent publication: 

. Córdoba, Rosario y Buenos Aires. Co-edited with Valeria Snitcofsky and Eva Camelli. Buenos Aires: Café de las Ciudades, 2021. Declared  (Bien de Interés para la Comunicación Social) by the Buenos Aires Legislature in November 2023.
 
 
Research interests

Shantytown history, urban informality, urban history, social housing, (water and sewage) infrastructure, critical environmentalisms, waste, flooding, co-design, urban rivers, landscape design, phytoremediation.

Publications

Edited books

  • Snitcofsky VL, Camelli E & Massidda A (Eds.) (2021) Villas en Dictadura. Córdoba, Rosario y Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Café de las Ciudades.
  • Geraghty NHD & Massidda AL (Ed.) (2019) . London: University of London Press / Institute of Latin American Studies.

Journal articles

  • YIACOUP S, LEWIS EF, HERRÁN JMG, THOMPSON M, BERGESON CN, NOBLE F, TOWERS DI, CARRERES Á, NORIEGA-SÁNCHEZ M, MASSIDDA AL & ADAMS V (2025) . Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 102(10), 1147-1160.
  • Massidda AL (2025) The Slum and the City: Culture and Dissidence in the Villas Miseria of Buenos Aires. BULLETIN OF HISPANIC STUDIES, 102(10).
  • Massidda AL (2025) . AREA - Agenda de Reflexión en Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo, 31(1).
  • Massidda AL (2023) Reocupar, reconstruir, “refundar”: el repoblamiento de las villas del sur de Buenos Aires (1981-1985) [Reoccupying, rebuilding, "re-founding": the repopulation of the villas of south Buenos Aires (1981-1985). Vivienda y Ciudad, 10, 72-93.
  • Massidda AL (2023) . Journal of Urban History, 49(3), 552-570.
  • Massidda A, Camelli E & Snitcofsky V (2023) . EURE (Santiago) - Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Urbano Regionales, 49(147), 1-21.
  • Massidda AL (2021) Shantytowns and social engineering in 1950s Argentina. RIBAJ: The RIBA Journal.
  • Massidda AL (2021) . Planning Perspectives, 36(2), 215-236.
  • Elinbaum P & Massidda A (2020) . Bitácora Urbano Territorial, 30(1), 115-126.
  • Massidda AL (2019) . Journal of Design History, 32(1), 35-51.
  • Massidda AL (2018) Cómo nombrar a la informalidad urbana: una revisión de las definiciones en uso, sus implicaciones analíticas y su alcance. Quid 16, 10.
  • Massidda AL (2018) Lo político en lo urbano. Pobreza urbana en el pasado reciente. Villa Jardín, 1958-1967. Revista Encuentros Uruguayos, XI(1), 59-72.
  • Massidda AL (2018) . Journal of Romance Studies, 18(2), 159-179.
  • Massidda AL (2018) . Bulletin of Latin American Research, 37(2), 144-159.
  • Massidda AL (2017) . Architecture_MPS.
  • Massidda AL (2017) . Carta Económica Regional, 29(120).
  • Massidda AL (2017) . URBANA: Revista Eletrônica do Centro Interdisciplinar de Estudos sobre a Cidade, 9(1), 15-15.
  • Massidda A () . field, 10(1).

Book chapters

  • Massidda AL (2022) Entre invisibilidades y dirigencias: mujeres en villas de Buenos Aires (1958-1967) In Cravino MC (Ed.), Historia y memoria de villas y favelas (pp. 37-74). Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento
  • Geraghty NHD & Massidda AL (2019) The spatiality of desire in Martín Oesterheld’s La multitud (2012) and Luis Ortega’s Dromómanos (2012) In Geraghty NHD & Massidda AL (Ed.), Creative Spaces: Urban Culture and Marginality in Latin America (pp. 201-240). University of London Press, Institute of Latin American Studies

Book reviews

  • Massidda AL (2022) . Journal of Latin American Studies, 54(3), 553-555.

Dictionary or encyclopaedia entries

  • Massidda AL & Baumann H (2023) Ñܾñܱ/ٰÑ. In Wastiary: A Bestiary of Waste UCL Press.

Other

  • Massidda AL, Camelli E, Fainstein C & Snitcofsky VL (2026) El agua arrasó todo: la inundación de 1967 en Buenos Aires.
  • Massidda AL & Baumann H (2022) Art and the toxic politics of waste: Latin America. a roundtable discussion with filmmakers and researchers at University College London. A Contracorriente: una revista de estudios latinoamericanos, 20(1), 317-335.
  • Baumann H, Massidda A, Saad B, Saleh E & Stamatopoulou-Robbins S (2022) Film and the toxic politics of waste: a roundtable. e-flux Journal(127).
Teaching interests
  • Architectural humanities
  • Architectural and landscape design
  • Research/doctoral supervision