Vanni Pasca(1936-2021), architetto, storico e critico del design, docente, consulente strategico di numerose aziende del design italiano, curatore di mostre, collaboratore delle principali riviste del settore in Italia e all’estero, è stato tra i protagonisti della cultura del progetto in Italia. Professore ordinario di Storia e teoria del design in scuole pubbliche e private(tra cui l’università di Napoli, la facoltà di Architettura di Palermo, il Politecnico e lo IULM di Milano, l’ISIA di Firenze) è stato dal 1999 al 2009 presidente del Corso di laurea triennale in Design e del Corso magistrale all’Università di Palermo, dove è stato anche coordinatore del Dottorato di ricerca. È stato direttore scientifico dell’Accademia di Design e Arti visive Abadir di Catania. Nel 2009, con Raimonda Riccini ed Enrico Morteo, ha fondato A/I/S/Design, l’Associazione Italiana Storici del Design, di cui è stato il primo presidente. Tra le mostre di cui è stato curatore sono di particolare rilievo quelle dedicate a La cultura e i mobili degli Shaker(Milano 1984), cui si sono aggiunte Vico Magistretti(Milano 1997),Achille Castiglioni. Design tra magia e ironia(Palermo2004),Gae Aulenti. Gli oggetti e gli spazi(Triennale di Milano, 2013).Socio e attivo partecipe delle iniziative di ADI Associazione per il Disegno Industriale, ha per molti anni animato come coordinatore le iniziative del Dipartimento Generale, creando e seguendo in particolare gli incontri Design da leggere, dedicati ai libri e ai periodici di design. Tra le sue opere più importanti La cultura e i mobili degli Shaker(1984),Christopher Dresser 1834-1904(2001, con Lucia Pietroni) e il recente Manuale di Storia del design(2019, con Domitilla Dardi), che mette in pratica il metodo di ricerca e didattica elaborato nella sua esperienza di docente e di storico: l’attenzione alla molteplicità delle componenti e delle linee di sviluppo del disegno industriale al di là di ogni classificazione teorica tradizionale. Ha ricevuto nel 2020 dall’ADI il premio Compasso d’oro alla carriera, con una motivazione che sintetizza la molteplicità delle sue prospettive: “[Vanni Pasca]rappresenta un anello fondamentale di raccordo tra architettura e design, discipline che nel costante impegno universitario si confrontano e si integrano in una visione che supera il consueto approccio disciplinare, per riconsegnarci anche attraverso la sua ricca opera saggistica una visione complessa di un progetto di modernità civile”.

ANDREA MI è stato docente universitario di Nuovi Media, giornalista, esperto di musica elettronica e di cinema sperimentale. Ha dedicato la sua vita alla pratica della Remix Culture, creando format interdisciplinari per festival, club, talk, radio e agenzie di comunicazione. Salentino di nascita, è vissuto a Firenze dall’inizio degli anni ’90 con l’avvio dei suoi studi in Architettura ed è nella sua città d’adozione che ha sviluppato il suo progetto di vita, contribuendo in modo fondamentale alla rinascita culturale della città. Da docente ha insegnato in prestigiosi Istituti come la Libera Accademia delle Belle Arti (LABA), l’Istituto Europeo di Design (IED), Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Fondazione Toscana Spettacolo, materie quali: Storia dell’Architettura Contemporanea, Teoria e metodo dei Mass Media Linguaggi Multimediali, Storia della Comunicazione Pubblicitaria, Management per la Cultura e lo Spettacolo. Ha contribuito alla progettazione di eventi culturale con diverse istituzioni internazionali, quali l’Istituto di Cultura italiana a Tirana e l’Ambasciata Olandese a Roma. Ha collaborato nell’ideazione e diretto festival dalla caratura internazionale che hanno riguardato la musica, le immagini, i media, come: Videominuto al Centro Pecci di Prato dal 1997-2007, Citymix all’interno di Fabbrica Europa, Streamfest: festival di cultura eco-digitale, Fosfeni: Musica: Elettronica e Arti Digitali. Da giornalista ha collaborato per quasi trent’anni con Controradio e ha scritto su diverse testate nazionali, tra cui Il Manifesto, Amarcord, Blow up.

Giovanni Bartolozzi, is an architect and designer who carries out his activities in Florence and Milan. He is co-founder of studio Fabbricanove in Florence, with which he recently built the headquarters of the Milano Luiss Hub and the new Auditorium of the B.C.C. of San Cataldo (CL). He heads the Architectural Design II Lab at the Faculty of architecture of Florence. In 2008 he founded ‘Soqquadro Design’, a line of self-produced design that has collaborated with various companies and produces prototypes. He has written for numerous journals, among which L’architetto italiano, Anark, Paesaggio Urbano, and Opere. He recently curated for Giunti T.V.P. Editori the info-sheets and texts on modern and contemporary architecture of the volume ‘ART PLUS 5’. In 2013 he published the book Leonardo Ricci. Nuovi modelli urbani, for Quodlibet Macerata.

Britta Wikholm is the Art Director and Founder at Visulent AB with a big passion for Architecture, communication and the Art. Finding solutions to the customers needs by using the creative and visual skills is her daily motivation. With her accumulated work life experience and a constant pursuit of developing, she has digged deep into the creative process and how to really use it to develop the architecture visualisation-skills. In addition to delivering the best quality, the main focus is a dynamic communication with the client.After her degree at the Higher Vocational School she started as an in-house visual designer at White Architects, Gothenburg. Britta eventually moved on to Tomorrow and became in charge of their creative process. Simultaneously she studied Art Direction at Berghs School of communication, Stockholm.During the summer of 2018, she started Visulent the new and most exciting chapter of her career began.

Michela Tonelli graduated in Architecture from the University of Florence. She has always been fascinated by the role of communication in the development of architectural projects. Michela is constantly collecting reference material and as often as possible is out and about taking photographs with her smartphone and looking for inspiration. She loves nature and biographical documentaries. In her next life she wants to be a professional squash player. During her free time, she is a visiting professor at IED Florence and IAAD Bologna.

Leonardo Zaffi is an architect who carries out research on the processes of building and urban regeneration, on technologies for temporary systems and strategies of the project in its executive phase. He directs public research programmes and is co-director of the Architecture and Self-construction Lab and a member of the FAL Florence Accessibility Lab research unit, of CORE Community Resilience and of UD Urban Design Lab. He teaches topics included in the Technological Area of the University of Florence and has held courses and lessons at the University of Ferrara, as well as in Master’s degrees and specialisation courses.

From the South of France, he is an architect living in the city of Montpellier. From a young age, he has always loved to draw and create any kind of story. His background is in Architecture, but his passion led him to imagine and produce a wide variety of visuals and scenarios. Very enthusiastic, he loves sharing ideas and working on interesting projects. His carrer lead him to work as a creative director on several projects and he continues doing so thanks to fruitful collaborations.

Karim Mousa’s Egyptian ethnicity led to many “descendant of the Pharoah” jokes in the five years he lived in Bergen, Norway working for the highly regarded design studio Mir. If only his colleagues had known his true claim to fame as a former international Taekwondo champion… Karim has lived abroad for more than a decade as he was based in Dubai for six years before Bergen, developing architectural work for global project design consultancies such as Dar Al-Handasah. Today, Karim is still kicking the martial arts sandbag and using his powers of art direction and worldly experience to bring unbuilt architecture to life via his visual design experiences and explorative approaches.

Architect | Phd in Development, Restoration and Design. Architect and PhD ICAR 19 Development, Restoration and Design in Archeological and Ambient areas gained in University of Rome La Sapienza. She has coordinated several contemporary art installations in Rome – Sant’Alessio Historical Garden with Fondazione Roma arte e Musei. She has designed Nora’s Archeological park in Sardinia and several public works in Rome, Bari, Cagliari. She is Co-Founder and Scientific Coordinator of LWCircus, the Italian – Mexican Operative Shared Program born in the 2016 and focused on experimental modalities in searching new strategies for sustainable urban and rural development on sensitive natural areas and the revitalization of cultural landscapes inside Mediterranean and the developing Countries.

Annacaterina Piras is architect and cartographer and has a PhD in Landscape Architecture gained at the Alghero School of Architecture, University of Sassari (2011). She obtained the first degree in Architecture at the Florence School of Architecture (1999). Since 2004 she has coordinated several international operative workshops, experimenting shared practices in urban interventions trough the art medium as a vehicle for the redevelopment of open spaces, with the collaboration of local artists, communities and cultural foundations, as Museo Nivola, Orani (2004) and Fondazione Stazione dell’arte, Ulassai (2006). During last years she collaborated with different Universities, Foundations and Cultural Institutions, such as the Cornell University in Rome (2009), the Master in Landscape Architecture of Barcelona at ETSAB_UPC (2010), the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation (2011), the RMIT University, School of Architecture and Design, Melbourne (2013-19), the ENSP, Ecole nationale supérieure du Paysage, Versailles (2013-14-15-16), the Universidad Marista, Merida (2016), the Chinese Universities of SCUA, SCUT, GAFA in Guangzhou and PKU, Beijing (2017), the UHM, University of Hawaii at Manoa (2017), Tonji and Jiao Tong University in Shanghai (2018), TURENSCAPE Academy (from 2018). From 2009, She coordinated several workshops for the II Level Master in Mediterranean Landscape Urbanism, at the Alghero School of Architecture, University of Sassari, where she worked as Academic Coordinator for the second edition of the Master MMLU (2014-2015). She has been Co-Founder and scientific coordinator for the first six editions (2011-2016) of LandWorks-Sardinia. She is Co-Founder and Scientific Coordinator of LWCircus, the Italian – Mexican Operative Shared Program born in the 2016 and focused on experimental modalities in searching new strategies for sustainable urban and rural development on sensitive natural areas and the revitalization of cultural landscapes inside Mediterranean and the developing Countries. She has been juror at the World Landscape Architecture Award 2019 and has been nominated for the American Academy in Rome Italian Fellowships 2019-2020.

LWCircus is the Italian – Mexican Operative Shared Program born in the 2016, following to a critical rereading of the guide lines delineated along the pluriannual experience of coordination inside of successful international operative programs and looking for a systematization of alternative methodologies based on social practices and an improvement of tools and devices, able to give life to long term process in term of sustainable development and responsible valorization. The Program focuses specifically on experimental modalities in searching new strategies for sustainable urban and rural development on sensitive natural areas and territories under transition (anthropologic, socio-economic and environmental aspects), together with a responsible valorization of cultural landscapes inside Mediterranean and the developing Countries.

He lives and works in Yamagata, Japan. He graduated at the Tokyo University of the Arts, (formerly, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music), where He received M.F.A. of Inter Media Art course in 2008, Japan. In 2009 He Joined Niigata Water and Land Art Festival 2009 Niigata, Japan, selected by Fram KITAGAWA.
Also “No man’ s land” Ambassade de France au Japan, Tokyo, Japan in 2009-2010, directed by the Franch embassy. After Joined Tokyo Midtown Award 2010, Tokyo Midtown, Tokyo, Japan in 2010, He received a grant Shou Foundation (private) from Okayama Japan. With the grant traveled around Asia to study the source of own my culture, especially Animism, Shinto-ism and Buddhism for a year, 2013. Back to Japan and Founded a studio and an art production corporation, in Yamagata in 2014.
Awards and Grants are Second place for Graduated Exhibition Tokyo University of the Arts 2008, Tokyo Midtown Award 2010, Shou foundation 2011, International Photography award 2012,PX3, etc. In 2016, joined ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE 2016 at Japanese Pavilion in Venice, Italy, cooperation with SHINGO MASUDA and OTUBO KATSUHISA.

Manfredi LEONE, has a Ph.D. and is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo. He is Director of LandLab PA, research group and community that developes landscape design based in Sicily.
Landscaper and architectural designer, he is Vice-president at the Sicily Section of the Italian Landscape Architects Association, AIAPP. He is Founder and Board member of I-ASLA, Italian Academic Society of Landscape Architecture.
He is one of the authors of the Parco Uditore in Palermo, has to his credit numerous interventions on landscape and the built envinronment and participations in urban planning designs. He is author of several publications and has been Visiting Professor in the USA, Australia, Spain, Argentina. At the University of Palermo he is director of the Laboratory of Landscape Architecture and he teaches also Architectural Design.
Board Member of the Erasmus Plus European Research Network for Sustainable Management of Cultural Landscapes. Along many years he has been developing research topics on various landscape themes, with a focus on the theme of coastal landscape, landscape of defenses, hydraulic landscape and public space. Most of his works are focused on low cost and low impact technologies. He won national prizes for landscape architecture and architectural design projects. He has been Team Leader during the first ChinaLab018 at TURENSCAPE Academy in Xixinan, Anhui Province, China and Team Leader during second edition of ArnoLab019 in Florence.

Sandra Piesik is an award-winning architect, author and researcher specialising in technology development and transfer as well as the implementation of global sustainable legislation. She is the founder of 3 ideas Ltd and a Visiting Professor at the UCL Global Institute for Prosperity, initiator of several RD&D groups and consortia including HABITAT Coalition.
She is collaborating with the Paris Committee on Capacity Building of The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), CTCN, UNCCD, UN-HABITAT on The Guiding Principles for Urban-Rural Linkages for Advancing Integrated Territorial Development, The Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) and the European Space Agency.
Her published work includes Arish: Palm-Leaf Architecture (Thames & Hudson 2012) and she is the general editor of the encyclopaedia, HABITAT: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Planet (Thames & Hudson, Abrams Books, Flammarion, Editions Detail and Blume, 2017).

This encyclopaedia is the first contemporary global review of vernacular architecture carried out in the past twenty years. The culmination of years of specialist research, it gathers together an international team of more than one hundred and forty leading experts from fifty counties across a diverse range of disciplines to examine what the traditions of vernacular architecture, and its regional craftspeople around the world, can teach us about creating a more sustainable future.

Elena Barthel is graduated in architecture (University of Florence 2000), member of the Institute of Architects of Florence (2001) and PhD at the Department of Urban Planning (University of Florence 2010).
She taught Urban design thesis studio (Planning Department, Florence School of Architecture 2001-8) and Architecture Design Studio at the Architectural Association in London (2006-7). In 2008, for the Architectural Association, she co-designed the ‘Hooke Park Design & Make Strategic Plan’: a ‘on the ground’ program, developed in consultation with West Dorset local Perish and Planning Authorities. The project focused on the ethical, social, environmental, and economic impact of the design and built program on both, the London based AA institution, and the local rural community in Hooke. Since 2012, the Design & Make program has been teaching students from all over the world.
She is currently Adjunct Professor at Auburn University School of Architecture Rural Studio: a community based, design and build program located in west Alabama where she has been working full time as Assistant professor from 2008 until 2016.
During this period, She run the Rural Studio Farm: a prototypical homestead as a laboratory for organic farming and passive architecture strategies.

Since 2008, she has been lecturing in architecture programs and different venues from Tel Aviv Eco Week, Quito Biennale, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Alabama, Bergen and Amsterdam School of Architecture, Helsinki Art Museum, Turin Polytechnic, University of Roma 3, Trento University of Engineering Milan Polytechnic, Florence School of Architecture, Syracuse and California State University.
In 2014 she co-authored ‘Rural Studio at twenty: Designing and Building in Hale County, Alabama, published by Princeton Architectural Press. In 2018 and 2019 she published the articles ‘Thinnings’ (Harvard Magazine 04/2018) and ‘Taking off’ (Lotus 03/19).
In 2016 with Rural Studio, she co-designed “Forum” for the exhibit “Architecture as art”, at the Milan Triennale and the ‘Theatre of the useful’ for the XV Venice Biennale “Report from the front”, both installations produced zero waste emphasizing on a responsible everyday use of resources.
In 2017, in collaboration with Andrew Freear and Studio Tempi, she won the Jury Prize for the project ‘1 City, 1 Landscape: Re-Call’ in San Giovanni Valdarno.
With the Comunità di Base delle Piagge, and the comune di Fiesole she is currently working on the design of participated community public spaces.
In 2018 she was part of the SIAT YOUNG 2018 competition jury in Turin.

Director and Principal Landscape Architect with Dermot Foley Landscape Architects (DFLA), with over 20 years experience. He is a horticulturalist and landscape architect, having trained at the National Botanic Gardens before studying landscape architecture. He established the practice in 2001 and was awarded Europe 40-Under-40 in 2010. With multiple awards for landscape design, landscape research and landscape conservation his clients include Kennedy Wilson, Castlethorn Construction, Laing O’Rourke, Park Developments, Bennett Construction, SIAC, CIE, Dublin City Council, Cork County Council, NUI Maynooth, HSE, Glanbia, English Partnerships, London School of Economics and Kingston University. He has experience of projects with external works budgets of up to €11m and has completed public realm projects with external works budgets of up to €2.5m. Dermot is an Assistant Professor at University College Dublin (UCD) and lectures internationally. He initiated the EU FP7-funded (€6.7m) research project on Resilient Cities in 2011, titled TURAS, with 25 EU research partners. He edited the practice book Artifice, which is the first comprehensive publication on contemporary Irish landscape architecture. His researched includes Urban Resilience, Sustainable Drainage Systems, Historic Studies and Venturous Practice. In 2016 he was an ‘Adapt-r’ Scholar with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Current projects include the Curragh Racecourse, Bridgefoot Street Public Park, the Paul Marshall Building at LSE and Kingston University.

Professor in History of Architecture, Architecture Faculty , Florence,Italy; she teaches History of Architecture and Country at the Florence Letter and Philosophy  Faculty.

Studies mainly in the history of the city and the country, particularly  referred to the Middle Ages and Modern Times (especially Tuscan and Florentine Areas).

Apart from scientific  studies, related pubblications and participation in national and international metings, since 1988 an intense collaboration  as been carried ont with regional and municipal land authorities towards the realization of museum systems and structures and the protection of the cultural heritage.

Elisabetta Bianchessi is a licensed architect trained at Faculdade de Arquitectura Lisboa – Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid – Politecnico di Milano (with honneurs) She was awarded with a PhD in Landscape Design at Escola Tecnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona – Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (with honneurs) She has been teaching Landscape Design at Politecnico di Milano and Accademia Belle Arti Brescia (2003-2013), and She is Ideator and Founder of the Paesaggi Straordinari – Master in Landscape Design and Public Art, at Politecnico di Milano and NABA Nuova Accademia Belle Arti Milano (2007-2013). Since 2013, She is Scientific Director of Summer School – Bergamo Landscape and Garden Institute and Visiting Professor at the Master in World Natural Heritage Management Unesco – STEP scuola del paesaggio e del territorio Trento. In 2008 she ideated and founded T12-Lab Action-Research Agency for Social Design and Public Space. Ideator and President of Verdi Acque (since 2013), no profit association which mission is sustaining the living conditions of river habitats and their communities. She also serves as Honorary Fellow of Liveinslums ngo (since 2011), being scientific director of operations in their projects about sustainable agricultural habitats in urban megalopolis. She collaborates with the Landscape Study Center – Verbania Landscape Museum.

Architetto, PhD in Progettazione Ambientale, PO di Disegno Industriale presso la SAAD di UNICAM, dove è stata Coordinatore del CdL in Disegno Industriale e Ambientale (2011-15), Direttore del Master in Eco-design (2007-14) e dove ora è Referente del CV in Design per l’innovazione del Dottorato in Architettura, Design, Urbanistica. Socio fondatore della SID; Vice-presidente e poi Presidente di ADI Delegazione Marche Abruzzo e Molise (2011-18); dal 2013 è Presidente di EcodesignLab Srl, spin off di UNICAM. Ambiti di ricerca: Design sostenibile e bio-ispirato; processi d’innovazione guidati dal design.

Architetto e Designer, Assegnista di ricerca in Disegno Industriale della Scuola di Architettura e Design “E. Vittoria” dell’Università di Camerino. Parte del team di EcodesignLab è uno spin off universitario dell’Università di Camerino, cioè un’impresa che nasce dalla ricerca. Il team è formato da professori e ricercatori, esperti di design per la sostenibilità ambientale, di eco-innovazione di prodotto e di materiali innovativi, giovani designer diplomati al Master in “Eco-design & Eco-innovazione” attivato dalla Scuola di Architettura e Design “E. Vittoria” dell’Università di Camerino.

Born in Tunisia and raised between Tunisia and Paris, Henri Bava started his studies with a degree in plant biology from Paris-Orsay University. Showing a keen interest in the living world but from different perspectives, he enrolled afterwards in the École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage (ENSP) in Versailles in 1980, following at the same time a stage design course at the Jacques Lecoq École Internationale de Théâtre in Paris. He graduated as DPLG landscape designer in 1984 with Michel Corajoud as supervisor, and worked for one year in his agency in Paris. In 1986, with his current associates, he founded Agence Ter. Just three years after obtaining his degree, he returned to the ENSP Versailles as a teacher, in parallel to his professional activities, for a period of ten years. As of 1989, after the departure of Michel Hössler for French Guyana, he headed the Agence Ter office in Paris together with Olivier Philippe. From 1993 to 1997, he combined this with work as a State Consultant Landscape Designer for the DDE of the Eure County. Henri Bava was elected president of the French Landscape Federation, a position held between 1996 and 1998.
It was at this time that he initiated his work in Germany. He lead the execution of the Aqua Magica Park project near Hanover and was appointed at the same time, under a European recruitment process, as full professor and director of the Landscape department of the school of architecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), where he is still teaching today. In 2000, he created an Agence Ter office in Karlsruhe, from where he directed large cross-border territory development projects, rehabilitation projects for derelict industrial sites or the realisation of major public venues, such as in Duisburg. Six years later he was elected a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts. After returning to Agence Ter Paris in 2007, he was elected president of the governing board of the École Nationale de la Nature et du Paysage, Blois (ENSNP) in 2010. That same year, Henri Bava was invited to the Harvard University Graduate School of Design by Charles Waldheim, director of the landscape department, where he often teaches in the frame of design studios until today. In 2014, following the winning of the competition for Barcelona’s “Plaza Glories Catalanes”, a Spanish office was set up. In 2016, Henri Bava led the winning team for the renewal of Pershing Square, and has opened the first American office of Agence Ter, in Downtown Los Angeles.

Paesaggista, è stato professore associato di progettazione degli spazi aperti presso il Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università di Firenze. Dal 2013 al 2017 è stato il Direttore scientifico del ciclo di Conferenze internazionali “OPEN SESSION ON LANDSCAPE” promosso in collaborazione tra Fondazione degli Architetti di Firenze, Prato e Pistoia e DIDA. Attualmente è Membro della Società scientifica italiana di Architettura del Paesaggio e membro dell’INU. Dal 1975 ad oggi, ha fatto parte di numerose organizzazioni internazionali per la tutela dell’ambiente (IAIA, Fondazione europea per le città sostenibili ) e dell’Architettura del paesaggio, tra le quali Uniscape, IFLA e Landscape Learn Londra. Attualmente dirige la collana editoriale “Maestri del Paesaggio” presso la Casa Editrice Libria, Roma ed è Direttore del Blog “ Landscape First”.

Artista, geografo, architetto paesaggista e giardiniere. È tra i fondatori di Coloco, atelier nato in Francia nel 1999 e costituito da paesaggisti, architetti, botanici, artisti, tutti giardinieri praticanti. Coloco è un collettivo che, a partire dal nostro quotidiano, ci invita a coltivare il paesaggio nei suoi diversi piani come un bene comune. Si è diplomato in Teorie contemporanee architetturali e geografia urbana, conseguendo poi il Master in Teorie Contemporanee dell’Architettura. Insegna alla Scuola Nazionale Superiore del Paesaggio di Versailles e alla Scuola di Architettura di Paris La Villette.

Neville Mars is the principal of MARS Architects in Shanghai, a sustainable planning and architecture studio with over thirteen years of experience in Asia. MARS Architects have won national and international architecture competitions, including the winning entry for the national image museum in Chengdu, and the winning entry for a brand headquarters in Sofia, currently under construction. MARS has developed over a dozen integrated planning projects across Asia, including the Sino-Dutch Ecocity in Shenzhen, currently under construction, the Beijing 798 Art District, Vision United Mumbai, and the integral master plan for Caofeidian Ecocity. Recently MARS has been invited by UN HABITAT to collaborate on the planning of Tacloban in the Philippines, the city ravaged by typhoon Haiyan. Neville Mars is also the director of the Dynamic City Foundation (DCF), a not-for-profit research platform investigating rapid urbanization in Asia. Starting his career at OMA, a distinct research-driven approach has become the trademark of the DCF, spawning collaborations with a range of educational, commercial, artistic and research institutes worldwide. Working across scales and disciplines DCF produces projects that bridge the traditional gap between theory and practice, art installations and technology, research and design.

Mars is a lecturer at the China Academy of Art and has a PhD from RMIT, focused on urban theory. He is a member of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, and fellow presenter at the TEDglobal_INK conference. Mars is the author of the book The Chinese Dream – a society under construction (010 Publishers, N. Mars, A. Hornsby, Rotterdam 2008). The 800 page tome proved to be a prophetic analysis of the correlation between city building and society building in China, inspiring the theme of China’s 12th FYP. Winter 2016, Mars published his second book “Manifesto of Mistakes – urban solutions for the new world”, this ecocity design manual rethinks the fundamental principles of the urban discipline, to arrive at a comprehensive strategy for process-driven integrated urban planning.

Born in Bologna. Assistant since 1973, associate professor of architectural history from 1983, professor in 1987 and full professor since 1990. His research interests are primarily oriented towards the history of contemporary architecture and, in particular, the architecture of the Napoleonic era in Italy, the architecture of the Art Nouveau in Paris and the Secession in Vienna, the architecture of historical avant-gardes (Futurism and De Stijl). He also played in the field of industrial archeology research the results of which were presented at international conferences. Part of his scientific work has been devoted to the problem of conservation and restoration of contemporary architecture. From 1986 to 1994 he was a member of the Expert Group UNESCO engaged in the study of the problem of the restoration and conservation of the architectural heritage of the Art Nouveau and from 1989 to 1990 he was a member of the Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe responsible for drawing up the recommendation, addressed to the ministers of all member states, on the conservation of the architectural heritage of the twentieth century. Since launch in 1992 was a founding member of Eurocultures Observatoire européen du développement socio-cultural de la ville (Brussels). From 2002 to 2005 he was in charge of a group of scientific researcher of the Department of History of the Florence University, a partner of the European project Patrimoines partagés: savoirs et savoir-faire appliqués au patrimoine architectural urbain et des XIXth et XXe siècles en Méditerranée, since 2006 he has coordinated another group of researchers of the same department partner of the European research project Musomed, engaged in the development of a model of the database “architecture and the city on the Mediterranean in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries”. Since 2008 he has organized, taking care of the catalogs, the three exhibitions promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Italian Architects for Syria and Lebanon in the twentieth century, Italian Architects and engineers in Egypt from the nineteenth to twentieth century , Italian architects in Morocco from the beginning of the French protectorate to today. He has organized two international conferences: The Presence of Italian Architects in Mediterranean Countries (Alexandria 2007) and Architectures et architectes italiens au Maghreb (Tunis 2009). He was a member of the Scientific Committee of the Groupement de recherche international Architectures Modernes en Méditerranée constituted by the French CNRS. He is a partner of the European project Arching and member of the scientific committee of the Cost European architecture beyond Europe.

Walter Hood is the Creative Director and Founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, CA. His works often explore elements of race, identity, social justice, and environmental design. He is also a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and lectures on professional and theoretical projects nationally and internationally. Hood Design Studio is tripartite practice, working across art + fabrication, design + landscape, and research + urbanism. The resulting urban spaces and their objects act as public sculpture, creating new apertures through which to see the surrounding emergent beauty, strangeness, and idiosyncrasies. The Studio’s award winning work has been featured in publications including Dwell, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, Architectural Digest, Places Journal, and Landscape Architecture Magazine. Walter Hood is also a recipient of the 2017 Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award expression and multiple forms of media.

Ila Bêka trained as an architect with a degree from the Università Iuav di Venezia of Venice and the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville, where he studied with Aldo Rossi, Manfredo Tafuri, Vittorio Gregotti, Massimo Cacciari, Bernardo Secchi, Ugo La Pietra, Henri Ciriani and Jacques Lucan.

Since 2005 he has been working in collaboration with Louise Lemoine with whom he founded the research and creation platform Bêka & Lemoine. Described by The New York Times as “cult figures in the European architecture world”, Bêka and Lemoine focus their work on experimental new narrative and cinematographic forms in relation to contemporary architecture. Koolhaas Houselife, the first film Bêka co-directed with Lemoine in 2008, has been acclaimed by the international critique as “The architectural cult movie”.

Bêka has been invited to lecture and present his films at many international cultural institutions and prestigious universities such as Venice Biennale (2008, 2010, 2014), MoMA (New-York), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New-York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Barbican Art Gallery (London), Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montréal), NAi (Rotterdam, NL), MAXXI (Rome), SALT (Istanbul), Harvard GSD, Architectural Association School of Architecture (London), Mextropoli (Mexico).

According to ArchDaily, one of the most visited architecture websites worldwide, their films “alter the face of architectural criticism”.

Ila Bêka is currently teaching at AA School, Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.

Bêka & Lemoine’s complete work (16 films) was acquired in 2016 by MoMA, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and is now part of its permanent collection. The acquisition of a complete work by MoMA, Museum of Modern Art is an extremely rare event for a living artist.

Lemoine lives and works between France and Italy. Since 2005 she has been working in collaboration with her husband Ila Bêka with whom she founded the research and creation platform Bêka&Partners.

Presented by The New York Times as “cult figures in the European architecture world”, Lemoine and Bêka mainly focus their research on experimenting new narrative and cinematographic forms in relation to contemporary architecture.
Koolhaas Houselife, the first film she co-directed with Bêka in 2008, has been acclaimed by the international critique as “the architectural cult movie”. They self-financed the film in order to assure creative freedom.

Following the success of Koolhaus Houselife, Bêka and Lemoine shot the four other films that would make up their Living Architectures series. This series, which comprises Koolhaus Houselife; Pomerol, Herzog & de Meuron; Xmas Meier; Gehry’s Vertigo; and Inside Piano, follows the mundane realities of maintaining buildings by renowned architects, including Rem Koolhaas (the Bordeaux house), Frank Gehry (the Bilbao Guggenheim), and Auguste Perret.

Her films have been selected and awarded in some important international film festivals such as CPH:DOX, Chicago International Film Festival, DocAviv, Torino Film Festival, FIFA, etc.
She has been invited to lecture and present her films in many international cultural institutions and prestigious universities such as Venice Biennale (2008, 2010, 2014), MoMA (New York), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New-York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Barbican Art Gallery (London), Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montréal), NAi (Rotterdam, NL), MAXXI (Rome), Harvard GSD, Architectural Association School of Architecture (London), Mextropoli (Mexico).

Her films are part of important art collections, the CNAP have acquired in 2014 a copy of Koolhaas Houselife and in 2015 a copy of the video installation La Maddalena for the French national collections. The video work Spiriti has been commissioned by Fondazione Prada for their private collection.

In 2016 Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine’s complete work (16 films) has been acquired by MoMA, Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Anton James is one of three directors of the Sydney based landscape architectural practice, James Mather Delaney Design and Professor of landscape Architecture at RMIT. JMD Design seeks a creative synthesis between numerous concerns across the disciplines of landscape architecture, engineering, visual arts, horticulture and ecology. The resultant works demonstrate a dynamic and sophisticated response firmly grounded in a close attention to the existing site character and materiality specificity of each site.

Anton, who trained as a landscape architect and visual artist, has over a period of 20 years designed projects in Australia, Europe and the USA. His work continues to focus on design as a means to explore a site’s spatial, environmental and material tension for their potential to enrich the urban experience. He has recently received his Doctor of Philosophy from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Design, and been appointed Professor of landscape Architecture at RMIT.

Anton has won numerous awards, nationally and internationally for his competition entries and built projects.

Claudia Pasquero is an architect, curator, author and educator; her work and research operates at the intersection of biology, computation and design. She is founder and co-director of ecoLogicStudio in London, Lecturer and director of the Urban Morphogenesis Lab at the Bartlett UCL, Professor of Landscape Architecture and founder of the Synthetic Landscape Lab at Innsbruck University.

Claudia has been Head Curator of the Tallinn Architectural Biennale 2017, and she has been nominated in the WIRED smart list in the same year.

She is co-author of “Systemic Architecture – Operating manual for the self-organizing city” published by Routledge in 2012.

Her work has been published and exhibited internationally: at the FRAC Centre in Orléans, the Venice Architectural Biennale, ZKM Karlsruhe and the MilanoExpo2015 among others. ecoLogicStudio has in recent year completed a series of photosynthetic architectures, such as, the BioTechHut Pavilion for Expo Astana 2017, HORTUS Astana 2017, Urban Algae Folly Aarhus 2017, PhotoSynthEtica Dublin 2019, HORTUS XL 2020 for the Center Pompidou in Paris, PhotosSynthEtica Helsinki 2020 upon others.

Marco Poletto is an architect, educator and innovator based in London.

He is co-founder and Director of the architectural practice ecoLogicStudio and the design innovation venture PhotoSynthetica, focussed on developing architectural solutions to fight Climate Change.
In the past 10 years ecoLogicStudio has designed and built several living installations and architectures, demonstrating how microorganisms such as algae can become part of the bio-city of the future.
Marco holds a PhD Degree from RMIT University, Melbourne.
His thesis on the “Urbansphere” argues that the increased spatial integration of non-human systems within architecture is crucial to evolve higher forms of urban ecological intelligence.

He is also co-author of “Systemic Architecture” a book published by Routledge in 2012.

Marco has been Unit Master at the Architectural Association in London, Visiting critic at Cornell University and Research Cluster leader at The Bartlett, UCL.

He currently Lectures at the University of Innsbruck and the IAAC in Barcelona.

Francesco Careri (1966) is architect and Associate Professor at the Dipartimento di Architettura of the University of Roma Tre. Since 1995 he is a founding member of the Stalker/Osservatorio Nomade urban art workshop. He invented the cours of “civic art” a peripatetic laboratory founded in the walking exploration of the neglected zones of the city and actually he is the Director of the Master Studi del Territorio / Environmental Humanities. He is working actually with the LAC Laboratory of Civic Art explorig the multicultural possibilities of Roma inclusion in the housing rights movement. He’s main publications are the books Constant. New Babylon, una città nomade, Testo & Immagine, Torino 2001; and Walkscapes. Walking as an aesthetic practice, Editorial Gustavo Gili, Barcellona 2002, Einaudi Torino, 2006.

Stalker Is a collective subject, found in 1995, that engages research and actions within the landscape with particular attention to the areas around the city’s margins and forgotten urban space, and abandoned areas or regions under transformation that are referred to here as “Actual Territories.” In may 1999, Stalker, with the Kurdish community of Rome, occupy the building of the ex-veterinarian in Campo Boario (ex slaughter house), naming it “Ararat”, in order to experiment a new shape of contemporary public-space, based on the acceptance and hospitality. Since 2002 Stalker promotes a is an interdisciplinary research network named Osservatorio Nomade. A net shaped each time around a research and action site. Just like it happened for G.R.A Geografie dell’Oltrecittà (2009), Suilettidelfiume (2007), Campagnaromana (2006) and Immaginare Corviale (2003 – 2005) in Rome. Along the via Egnatia (2003 – 2004) from Rome to Istanbul, across the Roma world from Rome to the ex Yugoslavia, with Campus Rom (2008).

LAC – Laboratorio Arti Civiche (LAC) is an interdisciplinary research group founded in 2011, which aims to interact creatively with the citizens through action research and projects, looking for a collective and shared transformation of the built environment. Starting from many experiences led by Stalker, Laboratorio Arti Civiche has lately been involved in studies and projects on informal settlements and squat-occupied spaces in Rome; other projects focused on inclusive dwelling and housing emergency, possibilities of self-construction, re-creation and reappropriation of public spaces. A particular focus has been on the social and spatial exclusion of Roma people and the redefinition of their right to the city.

He has been the Artistic Director of the Macro Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome. Creator and curator of the MAAM Museum of the Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove Metropoliz_città meticcia and of the -1 art gallery of the Casa dell’Architettura of Rome. He founded and directs the diffused DiF Museum of the city of Formello. He has conceived and edited as event manager the Rome Architecture Festival. He was editor and director of «ARIA [rivista d’artisti]. He is currently the (ir) respondabile director of “FART i fogli della Fabbrica dell’ARTe”.
Among the latest publications we report the volumes: Diari urbani (Prospettive edizioni, introduction by Marc Augé), Forza Tutt*. La Barricata dell’arte, Exploit. Come rovesciare il mondo ad arte. D-istrizioni per l’uso (curated with F. Benincasa e A. Facchi), Space Metropoliz. L’era delle migrazioni esoplanetarie (curated with F. Boni), Rome. Nome plurale di città (with F. Benincasa), Il Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz (Boprdeaux editions) and Il museo dovunque (edizioni Inside art). He is also the author of numerous photographic books including: Umani, Urbani & Marziani (Postcart). He has also curated exhibitions and art catalogs and is the author of numerous critical contributions.
The MAAM Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz_città meticcia is the first inhabited museum of the Planet Earth (or rather of the Moon). Son of the film and art gallery Space Metropoliz, the MAAM was founded in 2012 to protect the house of 200 migrants and temporary workers from all over the world. Today it boasts a collection of over 500 works.

Jenny E. Sabin is an architectural designer whose work is at the forefront of a new direction for 21st century architectural practice — one that investigates the intersections of architecture and science, and applies insights and theories from biology and mathematics to the design of material structures. Sabin is the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Architecture at Cornell University where she established a new advanced research degree in Matter Design Computation. She is principal of Jenny Sabin Studio, an experimental architectural design studio based in Ithaca and Director of the Sabin Design Lab at Cornell AAP, a trans-disciplinary design research lab with specialization in computational design, data visualization and digital fabrication.

In 2006, Sabin co-founded the Sabin+Jones LabStudio, a hybrid research and design unit, together with biologist, Peter Lloyd Jones. Sabin is also a founding member of the  Nonlinear Systems Organization (NSO), a research group started by Cecil Balmond at PennDesign, where she was Senior Researcher and Director of Research. Sabin’s collaborative research including bioinspired adaptive materials and 3D geometric assemblies has been funded substantially by the National Science Foundation with applied projects commissioned by diverse clients including Nike Inc., Microsoft Research, Autodesk, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, MoMA & MoMA PS1, the Centre Pompidou, the American Philosophical Society Museum, the Museum of Craft and Design, the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and the Exploratorium.

Sabin holds degrees in ceramics and interdisciplinary visual art from the University of Washington and a master of architecture from the University of Pennsylvania where she was awarded the AIA Henry Adams first prize medal and the Arthur Spayd Brooke gold medal for distinguished work in architectural design, 2005. Sabin was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts 2010 and was named a USA Knight Fellow in Architecture, 1 of 50 artists and designers awarded nationally by US Artists. In 2014, she was awarded the prestigious Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and was named the 2015 national IVY Innovator in design. Recently, Architectural Record’s national Women in Architecture Awards selected her for the 2016 Innovator in design.

She has exhibited nationally and internationally including in the acclaimed 9th ArchiLab titled Naturalizing Architecture at FRAC Centre, Orleans, France and most recently as part of Beauty, the 5th Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial. Recently, her work was on view in the exhibition, Imprimer Le Monde at the Centre Pompidou. Her work has been published extensively including in the NY Times, The Architectural Review, Azure, A+U, Metropolis, Mark Magazine, 306090, American Journal of Pathology, Science and Wired Magazine. She co-authored Meander, Variegating Architecture with Ferda Kolatan, 2010. Her book titled LabStudio: Design Research Between Architecture and Biology co-authored with Peter Lloyd Jones was published in July 2017. Last year, Sabin won the internationally acclaimed MoMA & MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program with her submission, Lumen.

Architect, PhD in Architectural Technology, associated professor at the University of Florence and researcher at the Department of Architecture of Florence since 1996. Currently, he teaches at the English curriculum iCAD – International Course on Architectural Design, School of Architecture. He taught in different degree courses:  Architecture; Industrial Design; Visual Design and Multimedia; National and International postgraduate degree courses.

He is director of Mailab – Multimedia Architecture and Interaction, a joint laboratory between university and private companies dealing with the digital scenarios in architecture, multimedia and  environmental interaction. The laboratory also supports the institutional activities of the Architectural Technology courses on specific aspects of architectural/energy/functional computational modeling; robotic and new media; Near Zero Tolerance Crafting.

As an architect, he worked for large scale architectural buildings, project planning and urban planning related to schools, universities and hospitals  assessing clients’ needs, providing feasibility studies, developing project briefs and design programs, design production management, attending the construction phase and communication. His experience also covers public construction contracting and procurement.

As a researcher, he has been consultant and still held advisory roles at public administrations, universities and Ministries of Health, Education, University and Research. He has been scientific coordinator for research of national interest; responsible for third parties, public and government research concerning technical regulations, reorganization of school buildings, feasibility studies and university master plans. He is the author of scientific publications on design reliability, project and construction management, real estate assessment and plannig. He has carried out research in collaboration with national and international study and research centers including: Centro Interuniversitario Tesis – Tecnologie per la Sanità (Italia); CNR (Italia); Council Educational Facility Planners (USA); CSPE (Italia); Design Share (USA); Health Facilities Research (USA); Hospital Association (USA); Medical Architecture Research Unit (Gran Bretagna); School Construction News (USA); Uni (Italia).

In Digital technologies he produced tools, relational data base and board games to support evaluation and decision-making in building and urban projects  as well as other multimedia systems for installations and scenography in electronic music, dance and communication.

He is the author of videoclips for fashion; stereoscopic documentaries for marketing; architectural video projections and interactive installations for art now documented in the «Museo del Novecento» recently founded by the City in Florence. He realized the virtual museum “Kontact-Reflections of art” in Meran as a result of an international competition. He was the winner and received mentions on national and international competitions. His work has been published in books, catalogs and magazines.