Salihbegovic Amra

Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the DABC, AUIC School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano. Served as an expert for the European Commission, New European Bauhaus Knowledge Management Platform, in the field of architectural aesthetics, and as an expert evaluator for the NEB Prizes. With more than a decade of teaching experience in architectural design at Politecnico di Milano, University of Stuttgart, and the University of Sarajevo. Recipient of several international awards and author of numerous scientific projects and research in the field of architectural design, and co-organizer of architectural conferences, design workshops and exhibitions.Her research deals with the complexity and aesthetics of contemporary architectural design, from the design process to the final built work, with a focus on themes as architectural expression and aesthetic experience, and the interdependence and assessment of architectural form and space.

Career

She received her BArch (2011) and MArch at the University of Sarajevo – Faculty of Architecture (2013), studied at ETSAB (2010–11), and participated in numerous summer schools, international workshops and masterclasses (ELISAVA, Yildiz Technical University, Porto Academy, Technical University of Munich, DigitalFUTURES Tongji). She worked as teaching assistant and senior assistant at the University of Sarajevo – Faculty of Architecture (2014–18). She received her PhD with honors in Architecture, Built Environment and Engineering Construction from Politecnico di Milano (2021), with the topic “Complexity of Contemporary Architecture: The Interdependence of Form and Space”, proposing a theoretical framework and a methodological approach for the aesthetic evaluation of contemporary architecture. She won a postdoctoral research project titled “Cultural Revival of Military Architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, funded by the Fondazione Fratelli Confalonieri in Milan (2022–23), investigating former military architecture and strategies for adaptive reuse.

Research

Her research focuses on the complexity and quality of contemporary architecture and urban design across diverse scales and typologies, in terms of following thematic groups:

• designing and measuring high-quality architecture: architectural aesthetics, formal and spatial analysis, qualitative and quantitative aesthetic assessment, space syntax analysis, visual and multisensory architectural experience;
• transformation of the built environment: regenerative design, adaptive reuse and architectural redesign, contemporary cultural and public buildings, reuse of former military architecture, designing for/in informality;
• architectural design process-methods and tools: complexity, architectural language, architectural composition, determinants, order, form and space.
  

Selected Publications

Salihbegović A (2025) Reshaping the Ground. A Comparative Aesthetic Assessment of Contemporary Underground Museums. In ReUso 2025: Territori Marginali_Patrimonio a Rischio Documentazione | Restauro | Rigenerazione | Sostenibilità. PUBLICA, Alghero, pp. 234–43.

Salihbegović A. [Amira], and Salihbegović A (2025) Prirodni i biokompozitni materijali u arhitekturi 1 | Natural and Biocomposite Materials in Architecture 1. University of Sarajevo – Faculty of Architecture, Sarajevo.
Salihbegović A, and Chizzoniti D (2025) Radical Transformation. Cultural Revival of Military Architecture. In Kong M S M, Monteiro M D R, and Neto M J P (eds.) PHI Book Series Creation, Transformation and Metamorphosis. Taylor and Francis Group, pp. 143–9.

Salihbegović A (2024) Military brownfields. From assessment to design strategy for the Sarajevo University Campus. In ReUSO 2024: Documentazione, restauro e rigenerazione sostenibile del patrimonio costruito. PUBLICA, Alghero, pp. 1702–11.

Lourenço P, Maloutas T, Santamouris M, Widera B, Ansaloni F, Balaras C, Katuric I, Kolokotsa D, Rossetto T, Senatore G, Tomaszewicz A, Salihbegović A, et al. (2024) A Practical Guide to the New European Bauhaus Self-Assessment Method and Tool, Gkatzogias K, Romano E, and Negro P (eds.). Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.

Salihbegović A (2023) Built Ideas. Form, Space and Meaning. Accademia University Press, Turin.

Salihbegović A, and Chizzoniti D (2023) Sarajevo Military Brownfields. Principles for Adaptive Reuse. In Varum H, Cunha Ferreira T (eds) Built Heritage Sustainable Reuse. Building Pathology and Rehabilitation, vol 26. Springer, Cham, pp. 107–20.

Salihbegović A, and Chizzoniti D (2022) The Essence of Architectural Creation: Aesthetic Experience as Impetus. In Kong M S M, Monteiro M D R, and Neto M J P (eds.) PHI Book Series, Creating Through Mind and Emotions. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, pp. 71–7.

Salihbegović A (2020) Apologia per un’architettura del gioco| Apologia for an Architecture of Play. FAM Magazine del Festival dell’Architettura – Ricerche e progetti sull'architettura e la città, n. 51:67–75.

Salihbegović A (2019) Conceptual Taxonomy of Contemporary Architecture: A Critical Analysis of Spatial Design. In Freedom to Design! Architecture as a Bridge between Nature and Culture. ARQUITECTONICS and Josep Muntanola, UPC Barcelona, pp. 182–91.