About us
Architectural Aesthetic Alignment
Architectural Aesthetic Alignment is a research project that asks whether there is a shared aesthetic judgement of architecture, and whether a generative image model can learn it.
In the first phase, people with and without a background in architecture rate photographs of 300 buildings completed from 1919 to today, across every continent and building type, industrial architecture included. The ratings are used to select two sets of images: the works judged most successful, and a control set matched by building type and period. Each set is used to train a version of the same generative model.
In the second phase, the images produced by the models are rated blind, without knowing which model generated them, to test whether training on shared aesthetic judgement leads to better architectural proposals. Participation is anonymous: we do not collect names or e-mail addresses.
Research team
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Graziella Trovato
Architectural design and heritage
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Graziella Trovato is an architect and lecturer in Architectural Design at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She holds a PhD cum laude, specialises in architectural and urban heritage, and works on heritage reuse, the city and contemporary architecture. She was principal investigator of the TRAHERE – TRAin HEritage REuse project (2020–2024) and has curated exhibitions in Madrid and Rome. Her publications include Madrid, entre río y raíles (2022) and Des-velos (2007). Since 1998 she has combined research and teaching with professional practice alongside Luis Moya.
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Paola Raffa
Drawing, survey and representation
Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria · dAeD
Paola Raffa es arquitecta, doctora y profesora titular de Dibujo en el Departamento de Arquitectura y Diseño de la Universidad Mediterranea de Reggio Calabria. Es directora científica del laboratorio DARCLab y profesora invitada en la Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. Es titular de la Cátedra UNESCO Mediterranean Landscapes in Context of Emergency. Su investigación se centra en el levantamiento y la representación del paisaje, la ciudad y la arquitectura, con especial atención al patrimonio cultural del Mediterráneo.
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Clara Stella Vicari Aversa
Architectural and urban design
Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria · dAeD
Clara Stella Vicari Aversa is an architect, PhD and researcher in Architectural and Urban Design at the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria. Her research explores the relationship between the city, the landscape and waterfront edges, with attention to shared spaces and the quality of living. She is scientific co-director of the Strett-Arch laboratory and coordinates international research between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Author of numerous publications, she has devoted to the relationship between city and sea the books San Sebastián: un continuo diálogo entre la ciudad y el mar (2008) and Architettura nell’illimitato bordo terracqueo (2025).
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Alessia Gaetana Quattrone
Architecture and artificial intelligence
Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria · dAeD
Alessia Gaetana Quattrone is an architect with a PhD in Architecture and Territory from the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria. She is technical manager of the departmental laboratory STRETTARCH and carries out research and teaching support in architectural design. Selected as adjunct lecturer in Artificial Intelligence for Design at the Department of Architecture and Design (dAeD) of UNIRC, she explores the applications of AI to design. Alongside her academic work she practises as an architect in architectural design, interior design and BIM.
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Filippo D'Errigo
Technology architecture, data and generative models
He has worked in digital technology since the early 2000s, designing and building software, systems and products. He is Technical Implementation Manager at the Department for Digital Transformation of the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers and technical director of the in-house company of the City of Reggio Calabria. In the project he conceived and leads the technology architecture: the design of the research platform and of the data-collection protocols, the construction of the image corpus, and the strategy for training and blind evaluation of the generative models. He lives and works in Reggio Calabria.