Andrea Ponsi’s activity includes architecture and city planning, design, painting and writing.

Born in Viareggio, he graduated in architecture in Florence in 1974. He then completed the AA Graduate Diploma at the Architectural Association in London and after being awarded the ITT International Fellowship, a Master in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Since the early 70’s he has worked on the relationship between ecology and architecture. In 1977 together with Giovanni Del Signore he published “The Solar House”, a monograph on bioclimatic architecture. From 1978 to 1988 he lived in San Francisco where he worked with Mark Mack , Peter Calthorpe and Sym Van Der Ryn on architecture and city planning projects, focusing on environmental sustainability.

His work has been published in books and international magazines (Casabella, Domus, Interni, Wallpaper) and has been the subject of solo shows (Galleria Iannone and Galleria Internos in Milan, Haus der Architekten in Dresden, Universidad Catolica in Santiago, Chile) and group exhibitions (Museo della Triennale in Milan, Venice Biennale). In 2000 he won the international competition for the design of the Palos Verdes Art Center in Los Angeles. Alongside completing several commercial and residential buildings he has designed and self-produced objects, furniture and exhibiting systems. He currently works between Italy and the United States.

He has taught architectural design and drawing at the University of California-Berkeley, Syracuse University, University of Toronto and the Institut Technion in Haifa, Israel. Since the early 90’s he has been professor of architectural design at Kent State University in Florence and Visiting Lecturer at Washington University in Saint Louis, University of Minnesota, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the University of Southern California. In 2017 he served as Paul H. Kea Distinguished Professor at the University of Maryland 

He is the author of various monographs on his work:“ Elementary Design” (L’Archivolto, 1994),“ The Copper House” (Alinea Editore, 2000) ,“Thinking Lines” (Mandragora , 2002). His drawings, watercolours and essays on the perception and representation of urban space are brought together in the books “Florence-Changing Viewpoints” (Alinea Editore, 2001),“Florence-a map of perceptions” and “San Francisco–a map of perceptions“ (University of Virginia Press, 2010 and 2016). His research on the role of analogical thinking in design is the subject of the books “Analogy and Design” (University of Virginia Press, 2015) and “Drawing Analogies“(LetteraVentidue Edizioni, 2016- 2018).