Laura Lee

Laura is a licensed architect and Professor based in Italy. She practices and teaches internationally as a strategic and systems transformation designer to address large-scale complex global challenges. Her work focuses on innovation and integrated design education, policy, practice and research between the academy, government, industry and diverse organisations.

In 2021, Laura was a Rockefeller Foundation Practitioner-in-Residence at the prestigious Bellagio Center in Italy to advance an opus magnum “From 1% to 10 Billion: An open source guide to collaborative innovation for collective action” to be published in 2023.

Laura was also a “Thinker in Residence” in South Australia, a program inviting global experts in their field to generate visionary and actionable recommendations for government. Focused on the value of design and the impact of the built environment on the quality of life, Laura published an “Integrated Design Strategy for Australia – Building the Future.”

Professor of Architecture for two decades at Carnegie Mellon University where she served as Head of School, Laura has created leading paradigms relating education, internship, and research-based practices. For many years, Laura has served on award juries and has been an advisor, accreditation chair, and consultant for numerous institutions.

She has designed and developed intercultural design and urbanism courses, curricula and programs worldwide, conducting projects, studios and workshops in over 25 countries. She has received several awards, grants and honours for advancing design education, practice and research in a multi-cultural context.