Sofia Colabella

Senior Lecturer in Architectural Technology at ABP | The University of Melbourne

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

About

Sofia is an architect and Senior Lecturer in Architectural Technology at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (ABP) of The University of Melbourne. As a registered architect (2002) with a PhD in Architectural Technology (2006), she co-founded and co-directed (2002-15) two research-based architecture practices specialising in structural, acoustic and interior design. Expert in timber lightweight structures and ecological digital design, she designed and built several timber gridshells and acoustic shells for open-air concerts (2007-15). At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL, 2016), she developed a cross-industry project on waste reduction, tested through a prototype exhibited at the Architecture Biennale in Lyon (2017). At UoM, she teaches research-infused design studios on acoustic design and investigates emerging pedagogies for teaching architectural technology. Sofia is a member of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS), the IASS Hangai Prize Committee, the UEDLab and the Sustainable and Healthy Environments (SHE) Lab. She is a member and co-founder of the Advanced Digital Design + Fabrication (ADD+F) research hub.

Experience

  • University of Melbourne (7 yrs 6 mos)
    • Senior Lecturer in Architectural Technology
      Sep 2025 - Present · 11 mos

    • Lecturer in Architectural Technology
      Sep 2022 - Present · 3 yrs 11 mos

      Lecturer in Architectural Technology

    • Lecturer in Construction Technology in Architecture
      Feb 2019 - Sep 2022 · 3 yrs 8 mos

  • Senior Tutor at University of Melbourne
    Jul 2017 - Dec 2018 · 1 yr 6 mos

  • Co-founder at Gridshell.it
    2007 - 2018 · 11 yrs

    Gridshell.it is a firm specialised in timber spatial structures and acoustic shells, which are designed by means of digital design tools and scale prototypes

  • Visiting Researcher at EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne)
    Nov 2016 - Jul 2017 · 9 mos

  • University of Melbourne ()
    • Tutor
      2016 - 2016 · Less than a year

      Tutor for the Graduate/Postgraduate capstone subject ‘Experiences in Industry’, Coordinator: Paolo Tombesi

    • Research Assistant
      Oct 2015 - Dec 2015 · 3 mos

      Digital Fabrication Technologies: Analysing Patterns of Adoption and Innovative Transformations in Architectural Design and Practice