He received his PhD in History and Criticism of Architecture at the University of Naples Federico II. His publications and graduate teaching focus on the multicultural dimension of architecture and urbanism in the Eastern Mediterranean during the late Ottoman period. In the academic year 2005-06 he was recipient of the Aga Khan Fellowship at MIT. His publications include Architecture, Identity and Liminality: On the Use and Meaning of Catholic Spaces in Late Ottoman Istanbul, Muqarnas, XXII, 2005, and Sheltering Diversity: Levantine Architecture in Late Ottoman Istanbul in Multicultural Urban Fabric and Architectural Types in the South and Eastern Mediterranean, edited by M. Cerasi, A. Petruccioli, A. Sarro, and S. Weber.