About Ionel Mărginean.

I work at the intersection of engineering, education, and culture. My background is in structural engineering, and my work expands into research, teaching, and cultural production. Across these fields, I am interested in how structures, institutions, and stories shape the way people live together.

academic work

training the next generations of engineers
I teach at Politehnica University Timișoara, covering composite structures, timber design, and structural robustness. My courses push beyond theory — connecting engineering with architecture, and classroom thinking with hands-on experimentation.

research

designing for structural safety and resilience
I study how steel and composite systems behave under extreme conditions — combining experimental testing with advanced simulations. The goal: buildings that perform better and fail less, in a world where the conditions keep changing.

cultural production

connecting people, place, and memory through civic and artistic practice
I design participatory civic formats, produce immersive cultural projects, and work at the edge where engineering meets art and technology meets community. From site-specific installations to urban storytelling initiatives like Parallel City, the work brings together citizens, artists, and institutions around projects that shape how cities are experienced and remembered.

Also explore:

Cross-sector work
I develop projects that connect universities, cultural organisations, civic actors, public institutions, technology, and urban space. This work often sits between education, cultural production, public engagement, and experimental formats — turning institutional capacity into visible public projects.

Artistic practice
My artistic work comes from theatre, performance, improvisation, immersive storytelling, and site-specific formats. I am interested in how bodies, places, audiences, and urban memory can become part of the same narrative experience.

cross-sector work
artistic practice

Current roles

  • Lecturer, Politehnica University Timișoara

  • Vice President, Politehnica Foundation Timișoara

  • Executive Director, Diogene Cultural Association

Building connections across structures, people, and stories

selected projects

The Parallel City

Producer
An immersive urban storytelling project developed in Timișoara across multiple neighbourhoods, combining theatre, civic research, local memory, and site-specific performance.

Circular Cultures Design School

Co-organiser / Co-Curator
An interdisciplinary school connecting design, circularity, industrial heritage, and urban research through collaborative work in Timișoara.

FAILNOMORE

Postdoctoral researcher
An RFCS research project focused on practical design guidance for mitigating progressive collapse in steel and composite building frames under exceptional events.

 

Let’s connect across fields

I collaborate on academic, cultural, civic, and cross-sector projects — especially where universities, cities, public space, technology, and storytelling meet.

contact me