DISCUSSANT
Elisabetta Canepa
Elisabetta Canepa (MS.Eng., Ph.D.) is an architect and researcher from Genoa, Italy. She is currently an EU Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, and winner of the 2020 call. Her research activity focuses on the hybrid connection between architecture and cognitive neuroscience, analyzing topics such as atmospheric dynamics, the emotional nature of the architectural experience, embodiment theory, the empathic phenomenon between humans and space, and experimentation in virtual reality.
Juan López Cano
Juan López Cano is an art historian and architect. Since 2010 he has been part of the studio Orizzontale. He collaborated with One-Works Milano and worked for Medici Senza Frontiere. He combines his professional activity with university and publishing, as editor of the magazine “Vuoto”. His first monograph, “Urbanità Spontanee”, was published with LIBRIA in 2020.
Marcella Del Signore
Marcella Del Signore is an architect, urbanist, educator, scholar, and the principal of X-Topia, a design-research practice that explores the intersection of architecture and urbanism with technology and the public, social and cultural realm. She is an associate professor and director of the Master of Science in Architecture, Urban and Regional Design at NYIT School of Architecture and Design.
Nicola Di Battista
Nicola Di Battista is an Italian architect. He worked with Giorgio Grassi's studio in Milan and in 1986 he founded a studio in Rome, where he still lives and works. Parallel to practising as an architect, he has taught Architectural Design at the Polytechnic University of Zurich and at the University of Cagliari, and was editor-in-chief of the magazines Domus and L'Architetto.
Jon Goodbun
Jon Goodbun’s research develops an understanding of architecture in relation to a wider field of systems theoretic discourses, working in particular with concepts of ecological aesthetics and environmental semiotics that he develops out of the anthropological cybernetics of Gregory Bateson. Jon trained as an architect, and currently is a researcher, practitioner and educator at the RCA, the University of Westminster (MSc Advanced Environmental Design), and the Bartlett (MArch).
Massimo Ilardi
Massimo Ilardi is an Italian urban sociologist and academic, known for his critical analysis of contemporary social dynamics within urban environments. He has taught at the Faculties of Architecture at the University of Pescara and the University of Camerino in Ascoli Piceno. Ilardi has also served as the scientific director of the “Territori” series for Manifestolibri and has directed influential journals such as “Gomorra” and “Outlet”. Ilardi’s work often explores the intersection of urban spaces, consumer culture, and social conflicts. His notable publications include “L’individuo in rivolta” (1995), “Negli spazi vuoti della metropoli” (1999), “In nome della strada. Libertà e violenza” (2002), “Il tramonto dei luoghi” (2007), and “Il tempo del disincanto” (2016).
David Kirsh
David Kirsh is a Canadian cognitive scientist, and Professor / Past Dept. Chair of Cognitive Science at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where he heads the Interactive Cognition Lab. His research interests include interactive design, collaborative environments, cognitive aspects of multimedia design, information architecture, attention management and human-computer interaction.
Panos Mavros
Panos Mavros is an Assistant Professor in Ergonomics, Design, and Digital in the INTERACT team of the Economics and Social Sciences department. He completed his PhD at The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London, where he specialized in the perception and experience of urban spaces, focusing on spatial cognition research, and the use of psychophysiological methods, such as mobile EEG, as a way to understand the interaction between people and the environment. Subsequently, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher for several years at the Future Cities Laboratory of the Singapore-ETH Centre, researching the topic of Cognition Perception and Behaviour in Urban Environments. Panos’s research interest is directed towards the links between design and behaviour, how to understand and simulate the behaviour of people in the built environment, and its implications for the development of new interaction designs.
Marco Mazzotta
Marco Mazzotta is a Senior Associate-Project Leader at the Heatherwik Studio in London. Mazzotta has worked in the famous studio since 2014. He graduated from D'Annunzio University in Pescara and then attended a master’s degree at the Polytechnic University of Madrid in collective housing.
Francesco Molinari
Francesco Molinari is an independent researcher and policy advisor with a 20-year working experience in R&D and innovation projects and programmes at European, national, and regional levels– notably on such topics as Digital Government, Open Data, and Smart Cities. He holds a track record of successful collaborations with European universities, local/regional authorities, and ministries on such topics as Pre-Commercial Procurement, R&D and Innovation Policies, Living Labs, and Smart Specialisation. His research interests range from artificial intelligence to the economy of culture, from user-driven innovation to evidence-based policy making and public service reform.
Roberto Paci Dalò
Roberto Paci Dalò is a pioneer in the use of digital technologies and the Internet for the creation of innovative artistic projects in the name of the relationship between art, technology, and nature. Director, visual artist, composer, and musician, he directs the group and studio Giardini Pensili. He has presented his works in major museums, theatres and festivals and biennials around the world and, among others, Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica Linz, Vienna Opera, Wien Modern, Power Station of Art Shanghai, MAO Museo d'Arte Orientale Torino, Experimental Intermedia New York. He created in 1995 Radio Lada, one of the first web radio art in the world. Artist-in-residence at the Futurelab of Ars Electronica Center (Linz) is the founder and director of Usmaradio Research Center for Radio Unirsm. He is an Expert of the European Commission and is part of the New European Bauhaus design team. He is a member of the Internationale Heiner Müller Gesellschaft in Berlin and of the British Cartographic Society. In 2022, together with Nicoletta Ceccoli, he represents San Marino at the 59. Biennale Arte. His latest book is Ombre (Quodlibet 2019).
Alfredo Pirri
Alfredo Pirri is an Italian artist who lives and works in Rome. He has exhibited his works in numerous national and international exhibitions, including: Castello Maniace; Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Altemps; MACRO; Museo Novecento; London Design Festival; GNAM - Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna; Palazzo Te; Project Biennial D-0 ARK Underground Konjic, Bosnia Herzegovina, where his installation Passi is on permanent display; Reggio Calabria National Archaeological Museum with the permanent work Piazza; Centro Arti Visive Pescheria; Maison Européenne de la Photographie; Havana Biennale; Accademia di Francia - Villa Medici; moma PS1;Walter Gropius Bau. In 1988 he took part in the 43rd Venice Biennale. In 2023 Alfredo Pirri received the Honorary Degree in “Architecture - Architectural Design” from the University of Roma Tre.
Pau Rausell
Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Economics, attached to the Faculty of Social Sciences at theUniversity of Valencia. Director of the Econcult Research Unit Professor in charge in recent years of subjects such as Cultural Management, Economics of Information and Communication, Regional and Urban Policy, World Economic System, International Economic Institutions, and Advanced Tourism Policy.
Davide Ruzzon
Davide Ruzzon is an Italian architect who graduated from the IUAV University of Venice. He has always combined his interest in research with design and dissemination. He founded and collaborated with associations to promote the debate on architecture and the city. He created and directed TArch, one of the first web magazine, born in 2001, was until 2015 editor of Anfione and Zeto, while from 2017 he was co-director of the new magazine ‘Intertwining’, published by Mimesis. In 2000 he founded, in Padua, TA Office, a multidisciplinary design company, with which he built and designed private and public buildings: a municipal pool, a cemetery, various residences, commercial spaces, and offices, as well as urban regeneration interventions. He participated in international and national competitions. With Lombardini22 SpA, in Milan, he has founded and directed since 2016 TUNED, a program for the application of neuroscience to architectural design.
Florian Schneider
Florian Schneider is Professor for art theory and documentary practices at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art within the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Art at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He is a filmmaker, writer, and curator. His work is investigating the border crossings between mainstream and independent media, art and activism, theory and open source technology, documentary practices and new forms of curating.
Belinda Tato
Belinda Tato is an Associate Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo are founding members of Ecosistema Urbano, a Madrid-based group of architects and urban designers operating within the fields of urbanism, architecture, engineering, and sociology. Vallejo and Tato define their approach as urban social design, by which they understand the design of environments, spaces, and dynamics to improve the self-organization of citizens, social interaction within communities, and their relationship with the environment. Since 2000, their work has been nationally and internationally awarded on more than 30 occasions.
Alfredo Vernazzani
Alfredo Vernazzani is a philosopher of mind & perception. He is the Managing Director and Student Consultant of the Msc in Cognitive Science at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum with Prof. Albert Newen. His main object of research is visual perception, with particular emphasis on the nature and structure of appearances. This brings him to pay close attention to issues in the philosophy of cognitive science, visual aesthetics, and more recently the epistemology of understanding. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University. He has been awarded PhD in Philosophy from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Previously, He spent two terms at the University of Cambridge as a Visiting PhD student. He has received an MA degree in Philosophy from the Humboldt-Universität, and a BA from the University of Naples «Federico II».
Claudia Zanfi
Claudia Zanfi is an art and landscape historian, cultural promoter, and passionate about gardens and photography. She has created numerous cultural and editorial projects dedicated to art, society, and landscape, working in various cities in the Mediterranean and the Balkans. In 2001 she founded the international program Green Island, aimed at promoting creative thinking inspired by nature and new urban ecologies, and in 2010 the studio Atelier del Paesaggio, to regenerate abandoned public spaces, creating artist gardens and creative hives. She collaborates with public and private institutions, museums, and foundations, and has been curator at the Galleria Civica in Modena and ‘associated curator’ at the Arnolfini Art Center in Bristol. Since 1999, she has been chief curator for the Bill Owens Photo Archives, focusing on the narrative of urban space and suburbs.
