Elena Catalano is an architect graduated from the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Università della Svizzera Italiana. She has collaborated with Sam Chermayeff Office (Berlin, 2016), Brandlhuber+Michalski&Wagner (Berlin–Palermo, 2017), and OFFICE KGDVS (Brussels, 2020–2022). She is a teaching assistant at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, where she worked alongside Prof. Johan Arrhov (Arrhov Frick, Stockholm) from 2022 to 2025, and has been collaborating with Simona Della Rocca (Studio BDR, Turin) since 2026.
In 2023 she founded her own practice in Palermo. Working across scales—from private residences to territorial planning—she develops projects and research at the intersection of architecture, agriculture, and craftsmanship, with a sustained interest in the relationship between built form, climate, and local materials.
