Denise Rao Costanzois an assistant professor of theory and criticism at the Pennsylvania State University. An architectural historian with a background in architecture and art history, her research centers on the exchange of American and European architectural ideas, with a focus on how references to Italy reveal the mechanics of architectural power during the 20th century. Her current book project, for which she was awarded a Rome Prize fellowship from the American Academy in Rome for 2014-15, is titled Eternal City, New Lessons: Modern Architects and the Postwar Rome Prize.
Renato Rizzi is author of the project of the Casa Museo Depero, “medaglia d’oro all’architettura Italiana”2 in 2009, and of Teatro Elisabettiano in Danzica, “medaglia d’oro all’architettura italiana” in 2015. He’s full professor of architecture design at Venice IUAV. After collaborating for a decade with Peter Eisenman, he comes back to Italy to teach, design and research. Among his publications, Il cosmo della Bildung (Mimesis 2016), John Hejduk: Incarnatio (Marsilio, 2010; L’Inconciliabile (Mimesis, 2010) and L’Inscalfibile (Mimesis, 2010). Rizzi has exposed his works at Venice Biennale in 1984, 1985, 1996, 2002, 2010.
Claudio Strinati is a member of the “Accademia Nazionale di San Luca”. He curated several exhibitions, both in Italy and abroad, among which Caravaggio at “Scuderie del Quirinale” in 2010. He published many essays and books regarding art history, the most recent one is Il Giardino dell’ arte, Salani Milano 2020.
He directed several tv and radio shows regarding art divulgation, as Divini Devoti, Rai 5, 2015. He collaborates with the newspaper la Repubblica, and he’s also an “Ufficiale al merito della Repubblica Italiana”, and a member of the” Légion d'honneur de la République Française”.
Adriana is a lecturer at Politecnico of Milan. In 2014 she obtained a PhD in “Design and Technologies for Cultural Heritage” at Politecnico of Milan and the Architectural Association School of Architecture of London. She’s the co-founder of Studio Ibsen (2018), based in Milan.
PhD and architecture historian, is a researcher, editor and curator. Since 2009 she’s been teaching at Università Bocconi of Milan, where she researches about art history of the 20th century and museum studies. She currently teaches at “IUAV”, she’s curator of the public program of the “Triennale di Milano”, since 2016 she directs the art and education centre The Classroom. She curated and directed activities for many institutions, foundations, and festivals, both Italian and international, publishing books and magazines. She’s the author of Diario Psichico (2017) and Castelli di carte. La XIV Triennale di Milano, 1968 (2011).
Historian, critic and architect, he has been ware professor at Università La Sapienza in Rome. Portoghesi directed several architecture magazine, as Controspazio, Materia, Abitare la terra, he published hundreds of papers and books on renaissance and baroque architecture, on Liberty an on contemporary architecture, among which Michelangelo Architetto, 1964; Roma Barocca, 1966; Borromini, architettura come linguaggio. Portoghesi has been the first director of the Architecture Venice Biennale, and he has been also director and president of the Biennale institution. He’s member of the “Accademia Nazionale di San Luca” since 1966, and he’s been the president of it from 2013 al 2019. Among his most famous works, there are “casa Baldi” and the Mosque of Roma.
Riccardo Blumer was born in Nembro, in Bergamo province. He obtained his degree in architecture at Milan Polytechnic in 1982, after that he worked for the Mario Botta Studio in Lugano. He is a professor and the director of the Accademia di Architettura (Università della Svizzera Italiana) in Mendrisio.
As architect, since 1988 he has designed residential buildings, private interiors, projects for exhibitions, service and industrial facilities. He collaborated with interior design firms such as Alias (chairs: Laleggera, Ghisa, Limited Edition, Dinamica), Artemide (lamps: Cricket and Mandraky), Desalto (chair: Entronauta), Poliform (chair: BB), Ycami (chair: Origami), B&B (Cuoio teso), Flou (bed: Rem), Byografia (chair: Arco). In 1997 he is awarded the “Design Preis Schweiz” and in 1998 the “Compasso d’Oro” as well as a series of minor prizes, all for the Laleggera chair of 1994. In 2010 his Laleggera chair for Alias and Entronauta for Desalto were included in the permanent collection at MoMA, New York. Over the years, a number of monographs have accompanied his works, among which “Riccardo Blumer, esperienze di architettura e design” (Skira, 1996); “Riccardo Blumer. Intersezioni” (Skira, 1999); “Dentro la Scala” (Electa, 2008); “Riccardo Blumer” (Hachette, 2011), just to name a few.
Marco Biraghi is Professor of the History of Contemporary Architecture at Milan Polytechnic University, where he graduated in 1986 under Massimo Cacciari. He is the author of remarkable books among which "Progetto di crisi. Manfredo Tafuri e l'architettura contemporanea" (Marinotti Edizioni, 2005, The MIT Press, 2013); "Storia dell'architettura italiana 1985-2012" (with Silvia Micheli, Einaudi, 2013); "Identification Parade: Manfredo Tafuri and Rem Koolhaas" (Textem Verlag, 2011); "Storia dell'architettura contemporanea I-II" (Einaudi, 2008).
Alessandro Melis is the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2020. He’s Professor at the University of Portsmouth since 2016. His specialist teaching, supervisory and research interests are in the fields of climate sensitive design, sustainable strategies for urban mutations, environmental policies, radical theories and criticism, resilience, and sustainable conservation. Previously, at the University of Auckland, he has been the head of the technology area and director of the Postgraduate engagement (School of Architecture and Planning). He hold a PhD in Architecture Design at University of Florence. He has been honorary fellow at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and a keynote speaker at the China Academy of Art, at the MoMA New York and at the Venice Biennale. He has written books and articles published in Europe, New Zealand and USA. In 1996 he founded Heliopolis 21, an architecture and urban design firm based in Italy and Germany (Berlin).
Margherita
Petranzan is an architect and designer, who graduated in 1972 from IUAV,
Venice. Founder and owner of the Petranzan-Bovo architectural studio since
1974, she deals with public, private, restoration, urban regeneration and
design. From 2004 to 2016 she taught Elements
of criticism of architecture. The
drifts of contemporary architecture at the Polytechnic in Milan. In 2018
she is included by the Milan Triennale in a group of international advisers to
report a list of eligible candidates of the VI gold medal of Italian
Architecture. She founded in 1988 and still directs, with the collaboration of
M. Cacciari, E. Benvenuto, G. Mazzariol, A. Natalini, V. Pastor and L. Puppi,
the Architecture and Arts magazine Anfione
e Zeto (AZ). Since 1992 he has been the editor of the philosophy magazine Paradosso, whose executive committee is
formed by M. Cacciari, U. Curi, S. Givone, G. Marramao, C. Sini and V.
Vitiello. Since 2009 she is deputy director of the series Quaderni del territorio. Architetture e luoghi del contemporaneo,
Il Poligrafo. Since 2011 she is a member of the scientific committee of the
French multidisciplinary magazine Oscillations.
Since 2014 she has been the manager of Medioevo.
Rivista di storia della filosofia medievale. She participated and organized
a number of exhibitions, conferences and workshops; she authored books as Gae Aulenti, (Rizzoli, 1996; Skira,
2002), Costruzioni (Il Poligrafo,
Padova, 2013) and edited together with Gianfranco Neri the book Franco Purini. La città uguale (Il
Poligrafo, 2005), among others.
Polit(t)ico Research Lab is a versatile research platform sponsored by the University of Pisa, focusing on architectural theory, epistemology, and the arts.
