On the 22nd March 2024, Cyprus will celebrate the VIII edition of the Italian Design Day in the World with this year’s theme “Manufacturing value – inclusiveness, innovation and sustainability”.
The Italian Embassy in Nicosia, together with ITA Trade Agency and the University of Nicosia, will host the Italian architect, prof. Paola Scala (University of Federico II Naples-Italy), who in collaboration with Prof. Alessandra Swiny (University of Nicosia) will hold a workshop open to the public and a lecture on ‘Community Design_An Inclusive Process’. The event also underlines the importance of design not as an “authorial” product but as a collective and shared process.
The theme of the day, “Community Design_An Inclusive Process,” aims to focus the discussion on the idea of Design as a process, i. e. an activity that starts from observing reality and interacting with communities, leading to the identification of a need and the construction of a device that responds, in various ways, to that need.
An approach that has distinguished the Italian school of design for over half century and which constitutes one of the main reasons for appreciation and distinction: usefulness meeting beauty..
The event is divided into three moments [see attachments]:
Workshop open to Public at Eleftherias Square in Nicosia, from 15:00 to 17:00:
- The first involves a workshop with students, attempting to activate a user engagement process in the square, aiming to better understand the relationship between the residents of Nicosia and the square Eleftherias designed by Zaha Hadid. Students will bring devices to the square to arouse curiosity and capture the attention of passersby, encouraging them to interact in an “unexpected” way with the spaces.
Lecture and Round table open to Public upon registration*, at the University of Nicosia – from 18:00 to 20:00:
- Professors Scala and Swiny will illustrate in a conference, through examples from Naples and Nicosia, how the legacy of Italian design has today been translated into a design methodology that starts from contexts and interaction with residents to define a design that best expresses the soul of the places. A design perceived by users as close to their needs and at the same time capable of adding value and quality to urban spaces.
- At the end, a round table, which will see the participation of Cypriot and Italian architects and designers, will build a dialogue between professionals and researchers involved in community planning, opening up new paths and research horizons in the sector.
*Registration is mandatory. RSVP until Thursday 21st March 2024 to nicosia.culturale@esteri.it
At the end of the event will follow a Cocktail Reception.
The Italian Design Day is the annual theme-based review launched in 2017 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (the Farnesina), in collaboration and with the support of the Ministry of Culture. It consists of an extensive program of promotional events around the world, created by the network of Embassies, Consulates, Italian Cultural Institutes and ICE Offices abroad: every year, specifically for this occasion, over one hundred testimonials become storytellers, presenting design and Italy’s outstanding creativity. The Italian Design Day has established itself as an effective tool in supporting the promotion of design and the internationalization of a strategic industrial sector for Italian exports.
Italian Trade Agency – ITA supports the business development of companies abroad and promotes the attraction of foreign investment in Italy. ITA Beirut is responsible for the Lebanese, the Cypriot and the Syrian market. Trade Commissioner: Mr. Claudio Pasqualucci, tel +961 5 959640, email: beirut@ice.it, website: www.ice.it
BIO:
Prof. Paola Scala, University of Federico II Naples (Italy):
Paola Scala, Architect, Ph.D, Associate professor of Architectural and Urban Composition at the DiARC_Architecture Department of Federico II in Naples. Member of the University PQA, you taught in the Interior Design Studio Laboratory of the DBE_ Design for Building Environment, Master’s Degree course in English. She currently teaches in the Composition 3 / Landscape Architecture Laboratory of the Five-Year Degree Course in Architecture and in the Project Laboratory for the Sustainability of Habitats at Co.De, a three-Year Degree Course in Design for the Community. She is a College Doctoral member of the ATESIP- Architecture for the Ecological Transition between Internal Spaces and Landscape- of the University of Palermo. She is member of the working group of the T_Lab, the DiARC Tansitional Lab established as part of the Project for the Department of Excellence, where she deals in particular with the Designing & Visioning section. In 2018, she founded the ICDS_Informal City Design Studio, a research laboratory on the design of public spaces starting from the recognition and interpretation of uses and informal relationships between different communities. She is the author of some monographs and numerous essays in national and international journals and publications.
Prof. Alessandra Swiny, University of Nicosia (Cyprus):
Alessandra Swiny is an Architect of British and American origin. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Barnard/Columbia University and her Masters of Architecture from Harvard University in the USA. She was Head of the Department of Architecture from 2012-2018 and is currently a Professor, at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, where she is a tenured faculty member, teaching since 2005. She was selected, with partners Y.Hadjichristou, V.Antoniou, to be the Curator of the Cyprus Pavilion in 2018 at the Venice Architecture Biennale, with the project ‘I Am Where You Are’ and in 2016 at the Milano Triennale, with the project ‘Human Topographies_ Emerging Identities’. In recent years her work concentrates on issues of crisis, emergency and displaced architecture.
