Giorgi Serena

Serena Giorgi is a researcher at the Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and Built Environment (DABC) at the Politecnico di Milano, within the LifeCycleTEAM unit. She participates in numerous national and international research projects, including as Project Manager, focusing on environmental sustainability, the circular economy, and the application of Life Cycle Assessment methods and tools at the building and product scale. She has been a Visiting Researcher at Loughborough University (UK), the University of Southern Denmark (DK), and the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (BE). She coordinates the "LCA in Buildings" Working Group of the Italian LCA Network Association. She teaches at the School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Construction Engineering (AUIC) and the DABC Doctoral School at the Politecnico di Milano, and teaches continuing education courses at the Politecnico di Milano, professional associations, and GBCItalia. She has presented her research at national and international conferences and is the author of numerous scientific publications.

Career

PhD with honors in Architecture, Construction Engineering, and Built Environment from the Polytechnic University of Milan (2020). PhD thesis title: "Circular economy and regeneration of building stock. Policy improvements, strategic partnerships, and life-cycle decision-making tools."

Master's degree in Architecture, majoring in Technological and Environmental Design, from the Polytechnic University of Milan, School of Architecture and Society (2015).

Research

Research in the CEAR-08/C disciplinary sector for the innovation of technological solutions from a life cycle sustainability perspective. Specialized in the following areas:

• Circular economy in the construction sector: resource management strategies (material reuse/recycling, product life extension, traceability systems); design strategies (eco-design, design for reversibility, design for adaptability, design for disassembly); digital technologies for resource and information exchange (material passports, digital web-based platform); circularity criteria and indicators; policy recommendations to encourage circularity in the built environment.
• Environmental sustainability assessment: application of LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA) methods and tools to evaluate the environmental performance of buildings; LCA assessment of building products to define environmental optimization strategies for production processes, including the preparation of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs); Green Building Rating Systems (LEED, BREEAM, Level(s), etc.) as design support tools; definition of Whole Life Carbon (WLC) benchmarks for buildings; support for the definition of policies for decarbonization and reduction of environmental impacts.

Selected Publications

Giorgi S. (2024). Progettare la circolarità. Strategie e strumenti per l'economia circolare nel settore edilizio. Franco Angeli, ISBN: 978-88-351-5773-1

Giorgi S., Lavagna M., Wang K., Osmani M., Liu G. and Campioli A. (2022). “Drivers and barriers towards circular economy in the building sector: Stakeholder interviews and analysis of five European countries policies and practices”. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 336, p. 1-16, ISSN: 0959-6526

Giorgi S., Atta N., Dalla Valle A., Viscuso S., Lavagna M. and Talamo C.M.L. (2025). “Pilot Projects to put Reuse and Remanufacturing into practice in the tertiary building sector”. Sustainability 17, 10374

Giorgi S., Parma A., Bernardini C., Bellini O.E., Paganin G. and Campioli A. (2025). “Confiscated assets as an opportunity for internship on construction sites aimed at professional qualification and social integration of vulnerable people”. Social Science, vol. 14, n. 491, p. 1-30

Giorgi S., Hamidkhani S., Lavagna M., Kanyilmaz A. and Campioli A. (2025). “Design and process LCA-based optimization of Metal Additive Manufacturing for building products”. IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 1546 (2025) 012022

Giorgi S. and Lavagna M. (2024). “Italian Regulations and Local Initiatives for Circular Economy in the Construction Sector”. In: (a cura di): Viorel Ungureanu, Luís Bragança, Charalambos Baniotopoulos, Khairedin M. Abdalla, 4th International Conference “Coordinating Engineering for Sustainability and Resilience” & Midterm Conference of CircularB “Implementation of Circular Economy in the Built Environment”, p. 615-624, Springer, ISBN: 978-3-031-57799-4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57800-7_57

Lavagna M., Dalla Valle A., Giorgi S., Fasciolo M., Hamidkhani S., Michelotti S., Tirelli D. and Röck M. (2025). “Life Cycle Assessment of building stocks across world regions: a systematic literature review of existing studies and prevalent approaches”. IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 1554 012098

Giorgi S. (2023). “Technological Innovation for Circularity and Sustainability Through Buildings Life Cycles: Policy, Initiatives and Stakeholders’ Perspective”. In: (a cura di): Arbizzani E. Cangelli E. Clemente C. Cumo F. Giofrè F. Giovenale A.M Palme M. Paris S. (Eds.), Technological Imagination in the Green and Digital Transition. p. 357-366, Springer, The Urban Book Series, ISBN: 978-3-031-29515-7

Giorgi S., Lavagna M. (2022). “Traceability system to support sustainable reuse and re-manufacturing process”. In: (a cura di): C.M.L. Talamo, Re-manufacturing networks for tertiary architectures. Innovative organizational models towards circularity. Ricerche di Tecnologia Dell'architettura, p. 227235, Milano: Franco Angeli, ISBN: 9788835142232.

M. Lavagna, S. Giorgi, D. Pimponi, A. Porcari (2023). “Enabling technologies for circular economy in the construction sector”. TECHNE – Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment (25), p. 214-224, ISSN: 2239-0243.

Grants, awards and Honours

2020. Grant: Winner of a Short-Term Scientific Mission at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. Funding received from the European Union for funding and COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) for supporting the COST Action CA15115 “Mining the European Anthroposphere (MINEA)”. Research title: “Enablers and barriers of reuse/recycling of building and demolition waste”.

2024. Grant: Winner of financial support for a publication in a Springer volume and for participation in the CircularB Mid-term Conference, at the Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania, from May 29, 2024, to May 31, 2024. Funding received from the European Union for funding and COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) for supporting the COST Action CA21103 “Implementation of Circular Economy in the Built Environment (CircularB)”.

2024. Award: Winner of the “Design for Circularity - Call for Challenges” Workshop, promoted by MADE Expo 2023 and the School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Construction Engineering (AUIC) of the Polytechnic University of Milan to promote innovation and the ecological transition of business processes towards principles of circularity and naturalness. Project title: CIRC-FLOOR Circular strategies for life cycle extension of raised floor systems.

Community Service

Member of the Editorial Board of the TECHNE Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, during the following Editorial Teams: 2017-2020 / 2020-2023 / 2023-2026.

Member of Cost-Action CA21103 Implementation of Circular Economy in the Built Environment (CircularB);

Member of "IEA EBC - Annex 89 - International Energy Agency - Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme - Ways to Implement Net-zero Whole-Life Carbon Buildings".

Member of the Italian Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ICESP). Member of the Polimi LCA network.

Participation in working groups for the definition of new CAM for buildings (Ministerial Decree 24.11.2025).

Member of the Italian Society of Architectural Technology (SITdA).

Member of the Italian LCA Network Association, for which he coordinates the “LCA in construction” working group.