About me
Founder of research, strategy and design studio The Place Bureau, Rosanna is a creative director and urban strategist focusing on public places, cultures and experience design. Her work unlocks the power and potential of place through cultural insights and narrative-led design, partnering with museums and masterplanners, cities and communities, brands and government bodies.
Most recently, she has advised the Comune di Parma, Italy, on the creation of a new contemporary art foundation for the city; worked with ULI to revive downtown St Louis, USA through equitable culture-led placemaking; led narrative and co-production for Canning Dock, with National Museums Liverpool alongside Asif Khan architects; advised The Crown Estate on their cultural strategy for Haymarket, in central London's theatre district.
Prior to establishing The Place Bureau, Rosanna was a Director at Ralph Appelbaum Associates in New York and London for over 8 years, taking a leading role on projects as diverse as the Museum of London, Museu D'Amanha in Rio de Janiero, and Museo Lavazza in Turin. Thinking beyond industry divisions, and instead about what connects us to place, her work aims to open our imagination about the future of the cities, cultures and landscapes we are part of.
Rosanna is also a Research Associate at Central Saint Martins, London, working on the Urban Lexicons project which explores local cultural identity and ownership through public space design (http://urbanlexicons.org). She is a contributor to publications on public space and placemaking research alongside Senior Research Fellow Marcus Willcocks, including co-authoring the final chapter of The Routledge Handbook of Placemaking. Rosanna is also invited to speak and share research at global conferences including SXSW, Austin; Culturopolis, Barcelona; Media Architecture Biennale, Toronto; Utopian Hours,Turin; and the Design Research Society, Bilbao.
Talk to Rosanna about:
• Cultural Placemaking
• Public Space and Experience Design
• Destination Design and Destination Branding
• Place Futures and Futures Literacy
• Places and projects at the nexus of nature + culture