Antonio Villani
Managing Director
MEng, CEng, MICE, MSc, Dott.Ing.
About us
The impossible just takes a bit longer
A young design practice with a flat, dynamic structure — key decisions processed quickly under a robust internal quality control framework.
Who we are
Engineers who stay close to the craft
Research, experiment and get it built is our motto. We aim to achieve this with the wide range of expertise AVILAStudio provides — no matter the size or scale of the project.
At AVILAStudio we measure success by the satisfaction of our clients and the number of architectural practices and contractors we have helped through their project journey.
We rely on sharp, experienced and young structural engineers with top-level experience in geotechnical engineering, earthquake engineering and seismology, bridge and infrastructure engineering. Our work covers traditional structural solutions as well as advanced systems — cable nets and fabric structures, structural glass, and deep basement excavation projects.
All team members and consultants are encouraged to steepen their learning curve through technical conversations, design reviews and frequent internal training and research — keeping our analytical and computational skills aligned with industry advances.
Leadership & team
The people behind the practice
Across European and UK offices, AVILAStudio draws on engineers, CAD and IT specialists — with senior profiles summarised below.
Leonardo Villani
Senior Design Manager
Dott.Ing. · Site coordination & execution
Massimiliano Bellinzoni
Consultant · Metamorphosys
Dott.Ing. · QA reviewer & seismic design
Matteo Martino
Consultant · IT Administrator
Dott.Ing. · FEM, seismic & computational tools
Profiles
Experience that travels
Antonio Villani — Founder & MD
Chartered Civil and Structural Engineer in Italy and the UK. Founded AVILAStudio LTD in London in 2017 after over ten years in the industry. Previous experience includes Studio Calvi s.r.l. (seismic specialists, Pavia), the engineering division of Foster + Partners, COWI UK (bridge engineering) and Fluid Structures. Expertise spans seismic engineering, dynamics, natural hazards assessment, buildings, bridges and large infrastructure — from concept through completion — with work across Italy, France, Denmark, Ecuador, Panama and China.
Leonardo Villani — Senior Design Manager
Chartered Civil Engineer in Italy, responsible for construction site coordination and execution control in the UK and across Europe. Experience includes high-end commercial projects such as Hotel Lacoste (Senegal), Hyatt Hotel (Paris) and Gucci stores in Paris, London, Birmingham, Mykonos and Amsterdam — managing construction teams through to handover on residential, commercial and art-related installations.
Massimiliano Bellinzoni — Consultant
Practising Chartered Structural Engineer in Italy since 2001. Reference consultant and QA reviewer for AVILAStudio, contributing pragmatic structural solutions and execution insight. Director at Metamorphosys Studio; experience with Canobbio Spa (fabric structures) and Studio Calvi. Designs new RC and steel buildings in seismic areas and assesses existing masonry buildings. Teaches architecture and engineering applied to architecture at the University of Pavia and ITS Milano.
Matteo Martino — Consultant & IT
Civil and structural degree from Politecnico di Bari. Focuses on structural modelling, seismic engineering and IT applied to computational structural engineering. Skills in BASIC, FORTRAN, C++, HTML, CSS and PHP; develops analytical and numerical algorithms for FEM assessment. Experience in residential seismic assessment and retrofitting (RC and masonry), and geotechnical support tools for optic fibre construction sites. Interests include form-finding and the Load Path Method.
Our partners
Future is under construction
Through partnerships and collaborations, AVILAStudio extends specialist engineering capacity. A long-standing relationship with the Structural Engineering faculty of Pavia and EUCENTRE (seismic engineering and natural hazards) supports expertise in risk management for earthquake, wind, tsunami, flooding and more.
Metamorphosys
Structural engineering partner based in Italy. Reference QA and design collaboration.
metamorphosys.eu →Andermann Engineering
Specialist engineering partner — collaboration on infrastructure including Copenhagen Cityringen.
andermanngroup.com →MPN UK Limited
Engineering collaboration on major commercial centres including Westfield Milan.
mpnuk.co.uk →
Work with us
Let’s discuss your next structure
Whether you need full design, peer review or construction-phase support — we respond quickly.