Director of Research
Italian–British
"The most important drawing is the one that asks the question, not the one that answers it."
Biography
Sarah Valli is the intellectual conscience of Lumina Architect. Daughter of the studio's founder Elena Valli, she grew up among blueprints and plaster models, absorbing the discourse of space before she had language to describe it. She is, in every sense, the architect's architect.
After completing her doctorate at the Politecnico di Milano — a thesis on the phenomenology of threshold spaces in Italian Renaissance courtyards — Sarah joined Lumina in 2007 to establish the Design Research Division. Her mandate: to ensure that every project is grounded in rigorous investigation of site, culture, material, and the lived experience of future inhabitants.
Under her direction, the research division has produced three award-winning publications, pioneered Lumina's AI-assisted spatial analysis methodology, and developed the studio's proprietary "Luminosity Index" — a system for measuring the quality of natural light at every hour of the year across a given building mass.
Selected Works
Venice, Italy · 2021
Role: Research Lead & Creative Director
A temporary installation at the Venice Architecture Biennale examining the psychological and physical experience of transitional spaces. The pavilion used 847 individually calibrated apertures to create 23 distinct threshold conditions — each studied with motion-tracking technology and thermal imaging.
Kyoto, Japan · 2018
Role: Research Director & Interior Concept
Sarah led the cultural and contextual research for Lumina's most internationally celebrated hospitality project. Her 18-month study of the Japanese concept of ma — negative space — fundamentally reshaped the program, reducing the room count from 24 to 12 in order to amplify the quality of each spatial experience.
Global Application · 2019–Present
Role: Inventor & Principal Researcher
A proprietary computational tool developed by Sarah's research team that models the quality, direction, and emotional temperature of natural light across a building's lifespan. Now integrated into Lumina's standard design methodology for every project above €10M.
In Print
"The Threshold" — Phaidon Press (2022)
"Courtyards and the Italian Soul" — Politecnico di Milano Press (2006)
"Against the Render" — Architectural Review, Vol. 1488 (2021)
"Ma: A Study in Negative Space" — Japan Architects Journal (2018)
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