Danilo joined MSA in 2022 as part of the Technologies Team. Danilo worked in practice as a Lead Architect in Brazil for about ten years, where he delivered a diverse range of projects. His teaching focuses on the interdisciplinary nature of design and the importance of engaging into collaborative practices with other disciplines from very early stages. He has a personal interest in working at the bridge between design and construction, which have led him to play a key role trying to merge practice and academia. He previous led the BSc Architectural Technology programme and was the academic lead for Technologies in the architecture programme at University of Huddersfield.

Over the last few years, he has worked to understand the challenges and find ways to improve collaborative practices of multidisciplinary teams. He designed strategies to enable and develop collaborative skills within undergraduate programmes in his previous institution. The success of such strategies has been recognised both by the academic team and employers, which have perceived the increase in awareness and ability in the students to work across traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Danilo’s research has also explored the principles and strategies for Modular Construction and Design for Manufacturing & Assembly (DfMA) through the development of design project briefs, design methodologies and digital fabrication techniques. Such research exploration was conducted in conjunction with PhD and Masters level supervisions. He is currently exploring ways to continue and expanding this research through industrial partnerships and further insights into robotics.

His previous experience as programme leader in another institution have also involved the exploration of ways to introduce Lean Construction philosophy into the undergrad architecture programme, and the levelling up of digital design skills and BIM capabilities for students.

Ultimately, Danilo deeply believes in the collective constructive nature of learning, especially when it involves Professional Training in Architecture. His teaching philosophy aligns with ideas originally disseminated by Dewey, Rittel and Schön:

“More than ever, we need to develop greater awareness on how intricate our life is, as an interconnected web of practices that is not constricted by disciplinary traditions. Professional learning, must be approached as a cultural-historical evolution towards concerted actions in the continuous development of social systems.”

Academic and professional qualifications

2020 – FHEA PG Certificate in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education

2019 – PhD in Architecture (University of Huddersfield, UK)

2009 – Master of Science in Civil Engineering (State University of Londrina, Brazil)

2006 – Bachelor in Architecture and Urban Planning (State University of Londrina, Brazil)

Previous Employment

Previously working as a Course Leader and Principal Architect allowed him to develop strong leadership and management skills. On these jobs, he gained experience on Collaboration, Lean, BIM, Architecture and Project Management:

2015 – 2022 Senior Lecturer and Course Leader - BSc (Hons) Architectural Technology (University of Huddersfield, UK)

2009 – 2015 Senior Lecturer - Architecture and Urban Design (Universidade Sagrado Coração, Brazil)

2010 – 2015 Senior Architect at Fazzan+Gomes Arquitetura e Construção (Brazil)

2004 – 2009 Architect at Suzuki Arquitetura Ltda (Brazil)

Languages

Portuguese

Spanish

Prizes and awards

2017 - Autodesk Scholarship Award in recognition of the work I presented at the LC3 2017 Congress in Crete, Greece.

Research

Book Chapters

Gomes, D., Tzortzopoulos, P., 2020. 'Challenges and opportunities for early project collaboration'. In Lean Construction, pp. 408-425, Routledge.

Conference Papers

Soliman-Junior, J., Awwal, S., Bridi, ME., Tzortzopoulos, P., Granja, AD., Koskela, L., Gomes, D., 2021. 'Living Labs in a Lean Perspective', 29th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC), 14/7/2021 - 16/7/2021, in Proc. 29th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC), pp. 484-493.

Gomes, D., Tzortzopoulos, P., 2018. 'Building Shared Understanding During Early Design', 26th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 18/7/2018 - 20/7/2018, in 26th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 1, pp. 473-483.

Gomes, D., Tzortzopoulos, P., Kagioglou, M., 2017. 'Socio-Constructivist Account of Collaboration in Concept Design', 25th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 9/7/2017 - 12/7/2017, in 25th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, pp. 301-308.

Gomes, D., Tzortzopoulos, P., Kagioglou, M., 2016. 'Collaboration through shared understanding in early design stage', in IGLC 2016 - 24th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, pp. 63-72.

Koskela, L., Pikas, E., Gomes, D., Biotto, C., Talebi, S., Rahim, N., Tzortzopoulos, P., 2016. 'Towards shared understanding on common ground, boundary objects and other related concepts', in IGLC 2016 - 24th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, pp. 63-72.