Alberto Alessi studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, ETH Zürich, Ecole de Architecture Paris-Villemin. In 1994 he opens his Atelier in Rome (since 2004 in Zürich), working as architect, teacher, critic and curator.

As architect, he works on projects at different scales: exhibit design, residence, city projects.

As teacher, he taught at the ETH Zürich, IED Roma, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Cornell University Ithaca. Currently he teaches Theory of Architecture at the HSLU Luzern, Theory of Architecture and Design Studio at the University of Liechtenstein. He was invited as Visiting Critic and Lecturer at the Syracuse University, NJIT New York, TU Delft, TU Berlin, Tsinghua University Beijing.

His publications include the books Heinz Tesar (Edistampa, 2002), Shared Architecture (Libria, 2006, with Jo Coenen), Italy now? Country_Positions in Architecture (Cornell AAP Publications, 2007), Singular Plural (Birkhäuser / InFolio, 2011), as well as many articles for international reviews such as Domus, Abitare, Der Architekt, WA. Since 2009 he is director of the architectural review materialegno.

As curator, in 2001 he initiated the international architecture dialogues Transalpinarchitettura between Switzerland and Italy, and in 2002 the event MittelArchitetture between Austria and Italy. He is co-founder of IsAM Institute for the Mediterranean architecture. In 2004 he realized the international event Costruire Identità?, and in 2005 the exhibition Italy now? Country_Positions in Architecture. In 2006 he curated the international Colloquium Spaziarte on contemporary art and architecture, and the exhibition Architetture di Passaggio. Sguardi sulla architettura dal Ticino for the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2009-2015 he curated the web-platform www.italian-architects.com.