Cofounder of UrbanistAI a GenAI platform to reimagine the future of our cities; and SPIN Unit an urban research practice. Product devlopment for Parkly and Embassador at BAITT. Currently running academic projects at Tampere University and EKA. Complementary photograpy.

I see our ecologies as the dynamic interplay of networked agents that have past the hybridisation of biological-synthetic intelligence and have already become a new hole - contributing to the shaping of space and time in ways that transcend traditional human values.

The interpretation of collective intelligences - including biological and synthetic forms of storage or computation - layes the foundation for an urban planning discipline that is defined and infinite as the number of agents we are willing to understand and provide values for.

Our practice is evolving from a linear, mechanistic exercise - soon to be replaces by artificial intelligence programs - into a multidimensional exploration of the interwoven experiences that define the urban landscape - establishing new design strategies that retain a meaninful human participation

Planning as an iterative process of dialogue and negotiation with computational tools, enabling us to engage with and shape the city as a complex, living system. Meaningful urban design will produce value for the whole, that is, providing opportunities for biological and synthetic agents to express their agency.

Damiano is an urbanist, researcher and educator.
He cofounded SPIN Unit, an urban research and innovation practice; and UrbanistAI, a participatory design platform to reimagine the future of our cities. His practice focuses on urban research and policy design with a focus on transformative governance. Cerrone is also affiliated with and teaches at several academic institutions in Finland and abroad.
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Cerrone has held various positions, including consultant at Demos Helsinki, Principal Researcher at TERREFOM UR, and visiting researcher and professor at several institutions such as Chalmers University, Beijing University of Technology, Nokia Bell Labs, and Sapienza University of Rome. He has been recognized as an ESRI Scholar of the year and has served as a jury member for the European Capital of Innovation Award.
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Cerrone has worked with numerous clients and partners, including the United Nations Development Program, the European Commission, the United Arab Emirates Prime Minister's Office, the Architects' Council of Europe, various ministries and municipalities in the Nordics, and consultanted for private companies engaged with urban planning and governament innovation such as Ernst & Young, FYMA, Akkadian, the Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin.

Previous positions
Consultant, full-time @ Demos Helsinki
Consultant, independent @ Akkadian
Chief Urban Transformation @ Zeamly
Principal Researcher @ TERREFOM UR
Expert, part-time @ TalTech

Visiting Researcher @ Chalmers University
Visiting Professor @ Beijing University of Technology
Visiting Researcher @ Nokia Bell Labs
Visiting Researcher @ Sapienza University of Rome
Associate @ Spatial Ethnography Lab
Associate @ Postopia
OTHER COMMITMENTSAdvisory board @ City Destination Alliance
Jury member @ European Capital of Innovation
Fellow @ LINA (European Architecture Platform)
Reviewer @ Territorio and Swiss National Science Foundation.

CONTACTS
damianocerrone@gmail.com
+358 44 238 1084

Curriculum Vitae
Headshots

WORKING FOR AND WITH

CITIES

REGIONAL - NATIONAL

PRIVATE - THIRD sectors

ACADEMIA

Dubai
Warsaw
Singapore

Helsinki
Turku
Jyväskylä
Lahti
Vantaa
Pori
Sipoo

Tallinn
Tartu
Narva
Pärnu

European Commission
LINA Network
United Arab Emirates, Prime Minister Office

Finnish Ministry of Environment

Estonian Ministry of Climate
Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication
Estonian Ministry of Finance

Estonian Museum of Architecture
Estonian Centre for Architecture
Estonian Museum of Natural History
Estonian Police and Border Guard Board.

United Nation Development Program
Architects' Council of Europe
GIZ - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO
Forum Virium Helsinki
Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin

Kosovo Architecture Foundation
Estonian Museum of Natural History

Sweco - ALA Architects - Femma Planning - Karress+Brands
Group NAO - Strelka KB - Fyma - Kaupunkitilat
Ernst & Young - Miltton - Ramboll - Demos Helsinki

Tallinn Airport - Mainor Ülemiste - Bolt

University of Twente
Luleå University
Aarhus University
Sciences Po
HafenCity University Hamburg
London School of Economics
IHS Erasmus University Rotterdam
Kyev School of Economics
University of Salford Manchester
Princetown University
Philipps University Marburg
TalTech, Tallinn Technical University
Estonian Academy of Arts
University of Helsinki
Princeton University
University of Turku
Universidad de Alicante.

PROJECTS / COMMISSIONS

2024

Reviewer

Project

Indipendent

Swiss National Science Foundation

🇨🇭

2024

Climate change scenarios

Project

UrbanistAI

HafenCity University Hamburg

🇩🇪

2024

Capacity building - Youth engagement

Project

UrbanistAI

HafenCity University Hamburg

🇩🇪

2024

Codesign workshop for reconstruction

Workshop

UrbanistAI

Kyiv School of Economics

🇺🇦

2024

UrbanistAI for The Mayors for Economic Growth

Project

UrbanistAI

United Nation Development Program

🌏

2024

Urbanist DubAI - governance innovation program

Project

UrbanistAI

Prime Minister Office of the United Arab Emirates

🇦🇪

2024

Codesign Nusantara capital city

Workshop

UrbanistAI

University of Turku / Business Finland

🇮🇩

2024

Expert Advisory Board

Advisory

Indipendent

The Economist, Economist Impact

🇬🇧

2023

Smartland interactive storytelling.

Project

SPIN Unit

Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin

🇮🇹

2023

Tartu parking study and policy scenarios

Project

SPIN Unit

City of Tartu

🇪🇪

2023

Reimagining Pristina Block 1

Project

SPIN Unit/UAI

UNDP Kosovo

🇽🇰

2023

Reimagining Pristina

Workshop

Indipendent

Kosovo Architecture Foundation

🇽🇰

2023

Lebanon Unsettled

Project

SPIN Unit

London School of Economics

🇬🇧

2023

Lahti land use analysis

Project

SPIN Unit

Helsinki University

🇫🇮

2023

Codesign design guideline for Nusantara capital city

Workshop

UrbanistAI

UNDP Accelerator Labs

🇮🇩

2023

Tallinn accessibility analysis - KPIs for policy design.

Project

SPIN Unit

City of Tallinn

🇪🇪

2023

World Government Summit

Exhibition

UrbanistAI

Dubai Prime Minister Office

🇦🇪

2023

Developing Generative AI for children

Grant

UrbanistAI

Architects' Council of Europe (ACE)

🇪🇺

2023

Denk zueri neu

Project

UrbanistAI

Dinnomo

🇨🇭

2023

BiodiversityCity?

Exhibition

UrbanistAI

Estonian Museum of Natural History

🇪🇪

2023

Reimagining Helsinki market squares

Workshop

UrbanistAI

Kaupunkitilat / Femma planning

🇫🇮

2023

Tallinn Avalinn - Building AI proficiency

Workshop

UrbanistAI

Estonian Ministry of Climate

🇪🇪

2023

Helsinki summer street - codesining 2 pedestrian streets.

Workshop

UrbanistAI

City of Helsinki

🇫🇮

2023

The Mayors for Economic Growth: Home - M4EG

Workshop

UrbanistAI

UNDP

🇬🇪

2023

AI for Destination Management Organisations

Workshop

UrbanistAI

Group NAO

🇪🇸

2022

A vision for a planetary city

Exhibition

SPIN Unit

Tallinn Architecture Biennale

🇫🇮

2022

Shrinking cities: a national study.

Project

SPIN Unit

Estonian Ministry of Economy and Communication.

🇪🇪

2022

Jyväskylä city center vision

Project

UrbanistAI

City of Jyväskylä

🇫🇮

2022

Wellbeing Index

Project

TalTech

🇪🇪

2022

Experimentation evaluation toolkit

Project

SPIN Unit

Millton / Forum Virium Helsinki

🇪🇪

2022

Stockmann - footfall/mobility analysis

Project

SPIN Unit

Viru Keemia Grupp

🇱🇻

2022

Tallinn Green Factor

Project

SPIN Unit

City of Tallinn

🇪🇪

2022

Land use analysis Kilimangiario Area

Project

SPIN Unit

Marburg University

🇩🇪

2022

Business consulting

Project

Indipendent

Akkadian

🇪🇪

2022

Business consulting and research

Project

Indipendent

Akkadian

🇪🇪

2021

The new modal. Policies for equitable public transit.

Project

Demos Helsinki

Harju County

🇪🇪

2021

Nordic Smart City roadmap

Building vitality - regenerative construction

Anticipatory public budgeting

Project

Demos Helsinki

Dubai’s Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future

🇦🇪

2021

Recenter Jyväskylä

Project

UrbanistAI

City of Jyväskylä

🇫🇮

2021

Land use emission calculations

Project

Indipendent

TalTech

🇪🇪

2021

Participatory mobility analyses

Project

SPIN Unit

Harju County

🇪🇪

2021

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Mobility study

Project

SPIN Unit

FYMA

🇬🇧

2021

Business development and scenario planning

Project

Indipendent

Floorin

🇪🇪

2021

Taxonomy for climate resilient cities

Project

Demos Helsinki

EIT Climate-KIC

🇬🇧

2022

Business consulting and research

Project

Indipendent

Akkadian

🇪🇪

2020

Narva youth vision

Project

SPIN Unit

City of Narva

🇪🇪

2020

Shrinking cities pilot: developing methods to map shrinkage

Project

SPIN Unit

Estonian Ministry of Finance

🇪🇪

2020

Yerevan Urban Analyses for city centre development

Project

SPIN Unit

UNDP

🇪🇪

2020

Residential housing colour analyses

Project

SPIN Unit

City of Sipoo

🇫🇮

2020

Estonian Shrinking cities - research pilot

Project

SPIN Unit

Estonian Ministry of Finance

🇪🇪

2020

Porvo square benchmark analysis

Project

SPIN Unit

ALA Architects

🇫🇮

2020

Tallinn Airport and Ulemiste city mobility study

Project

SPIN Unit

Tallinn Airport, Mainor, City of Tallinn

🇪🇪

2020

Smart Lands for Multimodal corss-border transit

Project

Demos Helsinki

Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin

🇮🇹

2020

Riga Mobility Metrics

Project

Demos Helsinki

City of Riga

🇱🇻

2019

City Unfinished

Exhibition

Indipendent

Estonian Academy of Arts

🇪🇪

ARTICLES - WRITING - OPINIONS

2024

Rethinking the architecture of choice

Column

BAITT

2023

Territorial and Consumption-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions Assessments: Implications for Spatial Planning Policies

Academic

MDPI

2022

Quantitative Greenhouse Gas Impact Assessment Method for Spatial Planning Policy

Academic

ESPON report

2021

From smart to people-first cities

Column

Forum for the future

2021

Land Cover of Early-Life Environment Modulates the Risk of Type 1 Diabetes

Academic

Diabetes Care

2021

Next Stop: Make transportation work for people

White paper

Demos Helsinki

2021

Implementing Gehl’s Theory to Study Urban Space. The Case of Monotowns

Academic

MDPI

2019

Drivers of Global Urbanization: Exploring the emerging Urban Society

Academic

The Routledge handbook of Henri Lefebvre

2018

Integrative Urbanism: Using Social Media to Map Activity Patterns for Decision-Making Assessment

Conference

IFKAD 2018

2018

Simulating Pedestrian Movement

Academic

Springer. Humanazing digital realities

2017

Comparing two methods for urban complexity calculation using the Shannon-Wiener Index

Academic

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

TEACHING / TRAINING

GRADUATE COURSES

GRADUATE WORKSHOPS / SUMMER SCHOOLS

INVITED LECTURER

URBAN PROTOTYPING
Estonian Academy of Arts, Architecture
2023

This graduate for master students in Architecture is focused on developing spatial scenarios for urban and regional planning.

ADVANCED URBAN ANALYSES
Tampere University, Architecture
2020 > 2021 > 2022

This graduate course was designed for an interdisciplinary master program. It introduces advanced methodologies for mapping and analysing city form, focusing on innovative techniques to understand and address urban complexities using GIS and open data.

URBAN PLANNING
Tampere University, Architecture
2020 > 2021 > 2022

This graduate course was designed for an interdisciplinary master program. It introduces advanced methodologies for mapping and analysing city form, focusing on innovative techniques to understand and address urban complexities using GIS and open data.

URBAN PLANNING, RESIDENTIAL LAYOUT
Beijing University of Technology
2018 > 2019

Two graduate courses on Urban Planning and Residential Layout.

URBAN META-MORPHOLOGY
Tallinn Technical University, Landscape architecture
2017

A master course for landscape architects exploring theories and methods to study the relationships between the morphology and accessibility of green urban area and behavioural patterns. The lectures and the practical learning in GIS are focused on the collection and analyses of open social media data to reveal to the spatial patterns of human activities in the city.

URBAN MORPHOLOGY
Estonian Academy of Arts, Architecture
2013 > 2014 > 2015

A master course exploring theories and methods to study the relationships between city form and behavioural patterns. The lectures and the practical learning in GIS are based on the work of the Italian Typomorphological school of Caniggia, Maffei, Muratori and Rossi; and the Space Syntax theory developed by Hillier and Hanson.

PrishtinAI
Kosovo Architedture Foundation | 2023

What if?
Estonian Museum of Architecture | 2023

Urban goodcamp
Aalto University | 2023

metaNAR
Narva Art Residency | 2019

metaMORPHOLOGY LAB
Tallinn Technical University | 2018

metaMORPHOLOGY LAB
Institute of Housing and Urban Management, Erasmus University of Rotterdam | 2017

metaMORPHOLOGY LAB
University of Turku and Åbo Akedemi University | 2017

metaMORPHOLOGY LAB
Tampere University of Technology | 2017

metaMORPHOLOGY LAB
CoDirected with Prof. Lev Manovich
St. Petersburg, European University of St. Petersburg | 2016

Open Gaza workshop
The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, CCNY, | 2016

Open Gaza workshop
Tampere Technical University, Architecture | 2016

metaMORPHOLOGY LAB
Urban Design London | 2015

The Royal Danish Academy
Aalto University > Seasonal since 2016
Sciences Po
TalTech
University of Hawaii at Manoa
The Burnes Center For Social Change
University of Groningen
CUNY Graduate center
CUNY The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture
University of Alicante
ITMO University
Luelå University
BINUS University
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Westminster University

ARCH STUDIO REVIEWER
University of Insbruk | 2020
UCL, Urban Morphogenesis Lab | 2018
Westminster University, MA architecture studio | 2018
Westminster University, MA architecture studio | 2017