Pierangelo Moro studied in Italy at the Polytechnic University of Milan, Faculty of Architecture, as well as at the Helsinki Polytechnic University.
1994
First encounter with Russia
While studying in Helsinki, Pierangelo admired the architecture of the city built by German architect Carl Ludvig Engel under Johan Albrecht Ehrenström at the request of Tsar Alexander I. Curiosity led Pier to make his first student trip to Russia — to St. Petersburg in 1994 — and discover the grandeur of this city, built, incidentally, by Italian masters.
1995–2010
From theory to practice
In Finland Pierangelo met a Milanese architect who convinced him to return to Milan. There, for 15 years, he created projects for top-level Finnish multinationals — Outokumpu, UPM Kymmene, Nokia — as well as large private residences, commercial buildings and public facilities for various municipal administrations.
1996
Licence to practise
Pierangelo passed the State Examination of the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research, gaining the right to practise architecture independently — to sign a project and answer for it.
1997
A book and an exhibition on Pietilä
With Prof. Arch. Vincenzo Pavan, Moro curated the catalogue “Raili e Reima Pietilä: l’architettura sconosciuta” on post-Aalto Finnish architecture (Torre Colombera). The volume appeared under the patronage of the Finnish Embassy in Rome, the European Commission Representation in Milan, the Faculty of Architecture of the Politecnico di Milano and the Helsinki University of Technology. Essays were written by Giancarlo De Carlo, Roger Connah and Amedeo Vitone. The exhibition of the same name travelled from Gorla Maggiore to the Faculty of Architecture of the Politecnico di Milano, the Museum of Architecture in Zagreb, Novara and Ferrara.
2000
Expo 2000, Hannover
The paper “Copper in Architecture. Forms and Chromatic aspects” at the World Exposition in Hannover — the outcome of his work as consultant to Finland’s Outokumpu on complex copper roofing.
1998–2004
University experience
Pierangelo was assistant to Professor Guido Nardi, dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan. Together they organised numerous architectural exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and took part in international conferences in collaboration with the major publisher BE-MA.
2003
International competitions
Pierangelo took part in international architectural competitions led by Stefano Boeri and Rem Koolhaas, including the competition for the high-speed railway station in Afragola (Naples). Moro was the link between the designers and the London firm OVE ARUP, responsible for the engineering. The competition was won by Zaha Hadid.
2007
Point of view
His experience at architectural exhibitions and conferences made Pierangelo an expert in communications. In 2007 he began working in television as co-author and host of the Milan programme “Point of View” (Big City Life).
2008
A major project
In 2008 Moro took part in a large residential project led by Philippe Starck in St. Petersburg. That same year he began his architectural practice in Russia, in Moscow.
2009–2011
Another opinion
Pierangelo was invited to Moscow as author and host of the television programme “Another Opinion” on the Expert TV channel, dedicated to doing business in the Russian Federation.
2012–2015
An Italian startup in Russia
In 2012 Moro headed the major Italian decorative lighting company Axo Light. In 2013 he launched the company's startup on the Russian market, opening an office in Moscow and leading it until 2015.
2015–2021
Rostov-on-Don
Pierangelo lived in Rostov-on-Don, Moscow, Vicenza, Milan and Mexico City, managing architectural and interior projects mainly for Russian clients. Among them — Bosco Casa in the Petrovsky Passage in Moscow, General Sokolov's dacha on the Black Sea, the Hurston house in London, the TsUM building in Krasnodar, and the Santa Margherita and Amalfi villas at the golf club in Gelendzhik.
2016
The Design Algorithm
Pierangelo distilled thirty years of practice into a method: design as a sequence of verifiable steps, from brief and budget to handover. That method became the basis of his teaching and of every digital tool that followed.
2018
Project Calculator
The first digital costing system: a calculator of the full cost of delivering a project, built for Art Studio HOUSE — projectcalculator.ru. It opens the line of tools that later led to the Moro Design App configurator, the Design Calculator and the Design Algorithm Application — separate products, not versions of one.
Since 2021 Pierangelo has lived mainly in Moscow. In 2022–2024 he was a senior lecturer at the Higher School of Economics — School of Design, teaching design business processes based on the design algorithm he developed in 2017. In late 2024 he decided to develop the technology startup Design Algorithm Application with an educational project, which evolved into the “Design Algorithm Academy” — aiming to advance design management in Russia.
2025
Design Algorithm Academy
The method became a teaching system: courses, intensives and consultations for owners, students, practising designers, investors and estate agents. That same year Pierangelo obtained a diploma of professional retraining as a teacher in continuing professional education.
2026
A digital ecosystem
Digital tools gather around the method — a project management platform, a configurator and a cost calculator — together with Design Space, the artists’ community that grew out of work on the MAXROBINO collection.
Technical expertise
Construction risk and regulation
The part of the biography a portfolio usually leaves out: fire safety, occupational safety, bringing buildings into compliance, and resolving disputes. This is what stands behind “construction risk management”.
Fire safety
Fire-safety design and approvals — from escape-route calculation to obtaining the building’s fire prevention certificate.
Vigile Volontario Ausiliario (VVA 156 course, Capannelle, Rome) at the Drawing Office of the Milan Provincial Fire Brigade Command
Professional requirements under art. 3 of D.M. 25.03.85
41 project reviews completed with the related Certificato di Prevenzione Incendi (CPI) — the fire prevention certificate
Buildings included the INAIL office building in Milan, and a municipal library and nursery school in Gorgonzola
Construction site safety
Safety plans and works coordination at both design and execution stage, under the Italian consolidated health-and-safety act.
Safety coordination since 1998
Safety plans and coordination for the retrofit of Gorgonzola’s municipal buildings (2000–2001)
Site coordination: new car park on via Romagna, services refurbishment of municipal housing on via Serbelloni and via Filzi (1999–2000)
New STEM industrial plant in Cura Carpignano: design, site supervision and safety plan (1998–1999)
Building compliance
Bringing existing buildings into compliance — work at the intersection of municipal building codes, health regulations, fire-safety circulars and national law.
As of the 2011 CV: 18 years of practice in upgrading existing buildings
Detailed design and site supervision for the upgrade of seven municipal buildings in Gorgonzola: town hall, technical office, depot, library, nursery and kindergarten, two primary schools (1998–2001)
In new-build projects the risk assessment document was embedded at the architectural design stage
Responsabile del Servizio di Prevenzione e Protezione (RSPP)
The statutory head of the prevention and protection service under Italian occupational safety law, held for municipalities and private companies.
Municipality of Sesto San Giovanni (2001–2004)
Municipality of Dresano (2003)
Municipality of Vimodrone (2003–2006)
SPW Company and CP Store, Milan — from 2002
Party-appointed technical consultant
Regulatory expertise in construction disputes: establishing precisely where and how a project departed from the code.
Engaged by Milan law firms as a party-appointed technical consultant in preliminary technical assessments
The competence rests on regulatory practice in fire safety, occupational safety and building upgrades
Complex metal roofing
Technical consultancy on copper roofing: where the design fails and what that costs on site.
Consultant to Outokumpu Sales Oy (Italy), Finnish manufacturer of copper strip and sheet for roofing, 1998–2003
The brief: to show designers and contractors the design risks and on-site safety issues
Paper “Copper in Architecture. Forms and Chromatic aspects”, Expo 2000, Hannover
Public buildings — a selection
1998–2000New fire station in Gorgonzola (Milan): detailed design of the first functional phase
1998–2001Seven municipal buildings in Gorgonzola: safety-compliance design and site supervision
INAIL, Milan, via Sabaudia 1: fire-safety design of the office building
Source: the technical curriculum vitae of Pierangelo Moro, updated to 31 December 2011. It documents the professional activity up to that date and is not a complete record of the work that followed.
Teaching and communication
University, stage and television
The ability to explain came before the Academy: university courses, international conferences and two television programmes — in Milan and in Moscow.
Senior lecturer on the “Design of the Architectural Environment” master’s programme. A course on business processes in design, built on his own design algorithm.
Assistant to Professor Guido Nardi at the Faculty of Architecture; organiser of exhibitions and international conferences on Finnish architecture, timber and copper in building, design quality in public commissions, and safety in public and private construction.
Conferences and forums
2000Hannover
Expo 2000 — “Copper in Architecture”
A paper on the forms and chromatic aspects of copper in architecture at the World Exposition.
2023Yekaterinburg
100+ TechnoBuild
Speaker in the business programme of the forum on high-rise and unique construction: urban-planning questions of tall buildings and their regulation.
Co-author and host of a television programme about Milan: the city seen by professionals and residents, with a short-film competition attached.
“A programme devised and hosted by Pier Moro which, through a contest of three-minute shorts made by a hundred videomakers, offers an intelligent and critical cross-section of the great themes animating the Lombard metropolis.”
An English-language programme on doing business in Russia, seen through the eyes of foreigners working there. Pierangelo’s role as creator and host rests on the programme’s promotional material and his own documentation; no independent external source for that role has been found so far.
Editorial work belongs to the biography as much as the buildings do. Below is the catalogue Pierangelo curated, with the exact roles and patronages as they appear in the volume itself.
Curator of the exhibition and of the catalogue, together with Prof. Arch. Vincenzo Pavan (Gruppo Téchne). The colophon reads: “A cura di / Exhibition by: Pier Moro in collaborazione con Prof. Arch. Vincenzo Pavan”.
About the volume
A bilingual Italian–English catalogue on post-Aalto Finnish architecture: Raili and Reima Pietilä, from the Kaleva church and the Dipoli students’ union to the Finnish Embassy in New Delhi, the “Metso” library and the Mäntyniemi presidential residence. 145 pages, published by Torre Colombera.
Exhibition
The exhibition of the same name: Torre Colombera, Gorla Maggiore (November 1997) → Faculty of Architecture, Politecnico di Milano, Campus Leonardo (March 1998) → Museum of Architecture, Zagreb (May 1998) → Broletto, Novara (October 1998) → MusArc, Ferrara (December 1999).
Essay authors
Giancarlo De Carlo — The essay “My meetings with Reima Pietilä” (signed 19 August 1997). A founder of Team X, creator of ILAUD and of the journal “Spazio e Società”.Treccani
Roger Connah — The essay “Still modern after all these years” (24 August 1997). Author of “Writing Architecture” (MIT Press) on Reima Pietilä.MIT Press
Amedeo Vitone — The essay “The Kaleva church: Reima Pietilä architect and engineer” (August 1997). A structural engineer’s reading of the building.
Vincenzo Pavan — Co-curator of the exhibition with Pierangelo Moro, Gruppo Téchne.
Patronage
Ambasciata di Finlandia, Roma
Commissione Europea — Rappresentanza a Milano
Politecnico di Milano, Facoltà di Architettura — Campus Leonardo
University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture — Helsinki
Historical sources
Fondazione Torre ColomberaThe foundation’s archive of past exhibitions lists as no. 22 “Raili e Reima Pietilä — Pier Moro — L’architettura sconosciuta”, an exhibition with models, drawings, large-format prints and interactive video.
Documents
Diplomas and qualifications
Education and professional licences — the original documents. Titles are given as they appear in the document itself.
