Contributors

Architect, designer and curator, and partner of Stefano Boeri until 2017 and co-founder of SBA China. Since 2011 he has led, together with Marco Brega, the practice DONTSTOP Architettura, with which he has realised projects in Italy and abroad, notably “Abitare in Maggiolina”, the new Master Plan for the Municipality of Pordenone, and the restyling works at the San Siro Stadium and the Inter and Milan sports centres. His work sits at the intersection of architecture, design, research and international cooperation, with particular attention to relations between Europe and Asia, which he promotes as creative director of the Sino European Innovation Institute and through curating international programmes, including Across Chinese Cities at the Venice Architecture Biennale and XPort at Suzhou Design Week. In 2022 the practice was transformed into Dontstop Architettura srl, broadening its corporate structure and joining Progetto CMR International, a leading Italian integrated design group. Since 2016 he has been founder and creative director of the Sino European Innovation Institute in Milan, and co-curator of the research programme Across Chinese Cities, with which he has taken part in the Collateral Events of the Venice Architecture Biennale. He has held workshops and lectures at international institutions such as the AA School in London, Graz University of Technology and the Politecnico di Milano, combining his design practice with a long-standing editorial collaboration with magazines such as Domus and Abitare. He teaches on the “Architecture CO2=0” (Architectural Carbon Neutral Balance) master’s programme at IUAV, Venice.

An expert in adult pedagogy, Gestalt counsellor and coach, Barbara Binelli works with organisations and entrepreneurs to facilitate the development of mindful relationships conducive to wellbeing and results. She integrates philosophical study with contemplative, somatic and artistic practices (Danza sensibile®).

Luisa Damiano, PhD, is Full Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at IULM University in Milan, where she directs the PhD School for Communication Studies and co-directs the CRiSiCo research centre (Research Centre on Complex Systems). She was previously Associate Professor at the University of Messina, coordinating the research group in the epistemology of artificial sciences. She is among the leading international experts in social robotics and the philosophical, ethical and communicative implications of interaction between humans and artificial systems. Her research spans the epistemology of complex systems to the philosophy of mind, with particular attention to social and cognitive robotics. Central to her work are the questions that arise when robots cease to be mere tools and become relational agents: the expectations, emotions and social dynamics activated in the encounter between human and artificial, and the ontology that emerges from the creation of machines capable of behaving as social beings. Her thinking also addresses ethical questions concerning the use of robots in care, assistance and education, opening fundamental questions about human identity and models of coexistence in a post-anthropocentric era. She collaborates with researchers in robotics, cognitive science and philosophy on international projects exploring the boundary between biology and technology, and between the natural and the artificial, and has worked with institutions such as the University of Hertfordshire and Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. She is co-author, with Paul Dumouchel, of Living with Robots (Harvard University Press, 2017), and has curated projects combining art and social robotics, such as ScentDia, presented in 2025 at the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan.

An engineer with a PhD in Architectural and Urban Composition, Barbara Cadeddu works in the fields of strategic planning, local development, and the design, programming and management of complex interventions funded by European, national and regional funds. Her work integrates urban design, social innovation and public policy, with particular attention to territorial regeneration processes, place-based strategies and participatory methodologies. She has held institutional and strategic consultancy positions, including Councillor for Strategic Planning and Community Programming of the Municipality of Cagliari (2013–2016), consultant to the Tourism Councillor of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (2019–2020), and consultant to KPMG Advisory S.p.A. for technical assistance to the Autonomous Region of Sardinia in implementing the Regional ESF+ Programme 2021–2027 (2023–2024). She currently coordinates the drafting of the Strategic Plan for the Province of Sulcis Iglesiente, is a consultant to the Fondazione Cammino Minerario di Santa Barbara for the development and implementation of the Integrated Territorial Investment under the ERDF Regional Programme Sardinia 2021–2027, and to the Union of Municipalities of Barbagia, Fonni and Orani for the development of project sheets relating to the National Strategy for Inner Areas 2021–2027. Alongside her professional activity, she has held an academic post as a contract professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the University of Cagliari, where she taught and conducted research from 2007 to 2019. In the cultural sphere, she curates and coordinates international programmes dedicated to architecture, design and innovation. Since 2021 she has curated SEED. Design Actions for the Future; since 2020 she has coordinated AJU/AJA, a project dedicated to design and craft culture with scientific responsibility held by Triennale Milano; and she was scientific coordinator of FESTARCH – International Architecture Festival, conceived by Stefano Boeri and promoted by RCS MediaGroup. Since 2023 she has been a member of the Steering Committee of the National Institute of Architecture and an associate member of the Italian Institute of Project Management (ISIPM). Since 2026 she has been President of the Sardinia Section of IN/Arch. She is the author of numerous publications.

Composer, artistic director, music critic and radio and television presenter, Nicola Campogrande graduated in composition from the Conservatories of Milan, under Azio Corghi, and of Paris. He is regarded as one of the most important Italian composers of his generation: his music, published exclusively by Breitkopf & Härtel since 2017, has been performed by artists such as Riccardo Chailly, Gautier Capuçon and Lilya Zilberstein in prestigious venues including Teatro alla Scala and the Philharmonie de Paris. His catalogue comprises more than 200 symphonic, chamber and theatrical works, including the operas Opera italiana and #Folon. Since 1998 he has presented cultural programmes on Rai Radio3 and for several years was a television presenter on Classica HD (Sky). He was artistic director of the MITO SettembreMusica festival from 2016 to 2023 and, for eleven years, of the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra; since 2023 he has been composer-in-residence of the Milan Symphony Orchestra and the Bologna Municipal Theatre. He contributes to the culture pages of Corriere della Sera and has written several works of musical popularisation, including Occhio alle orecchie, now in its sixth edition.

Edicola 518 is the rebel newsstand for lovers of fine paper. We, the artists of Emergenze, founded it on 1 June 2016 on the site of a historic newsagent’s in Perugia, and have made it a bookshop without equal anywhere in the world. Its selection offers a range unique in Italy of independent magazines, artists’ books, anarchist ephemera, fanzines and self-produced works under our own publishing imprint, Emergenze Publishing. We have defined the space of Edicola 518 as four square metres of infinite space.

A graduate in Architecture from the University of Florence, after early professional experience with the practice of Alfio Barabani Architects (1997–2004), Gianluca Falcinelli founded his own practice, focusing on architectural design with particular attention to the recovery, restoration and transformation of existing heritage. His practice stems from a profound sensitivity to the historical, material and environmental character of places, developed through long experience in conservation and architectural regeneration. He conceives of recovery not as a simple restitution of original form, but as a process of interpretation and re-signification that brings memory and contemporaneity into dialogue, through careful research into materials, construction techniques and the relationship between the existing fabric and new intervention. Even in new-build projects, the relationship with the past remains central: architecture arises from engagement with the history of places and the search for a balance between building and landscape, between constructed space and natural environment. His work thus explores a dimension of design founded on continuity, careful attention to transformation, and the capacity of architecture to create new ways of dwelling that respect local identities. He is currently working on a digital twin of the monumental complex and its historical and artistic heritage.

Associate Professor at the BioRobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, where he heads the Soft Mechatronics for Biorobotics Lab. He graduated with honours in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pisa in 2007 and obtained his PhD in Biorobotics from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. He is author or co-author of more than 100 international scientific publications and serves as Section Editor-in-Chief for the journal MDPI Actuators, as well as Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and Frontiers in Robotics and AI. He chairs the IEEE Technical Committee on Soft Robotics and has received, among other honours, the Harashima Award for Innovative Technologies at the IROS Awards. His research focuses on the development of soft robotics technologies, with particular attention to actuators, sensors and flexible mechanisms, within numerous EU-funded projects.

Neuroscientist and Full Professor of Psychobiology in the Department of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Parma, having previously served for many years as Full Professor of Human Physiology at the same university. A graduate in Medicine specialising in Neurology, he was part of the research group that discovered mirror neurons in 1992 — the most-cited Italian discovery in the international scientific literature — together with Di Pellegrino, Fadiga, Fogassi and Rizzolatti. He has also developed a neuroscientific model of intersubjectivity known as “embodied simulation”. From 2016 to 2018 he was Professor of Experimental Aesthetics at the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London, and he is Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University, New York. He is the author of more than 300 international scientific publications and of volumes such as La nascita della intersoggettività, co-written with Massimo Ammaniti.

Architect, PhD and lecturer, Anupama Kundoo is among the most authoritative international voices in sustainable architecture. She graduated from the University of Mumbai in 1989 and obtained her doctorate from TU Berlin in 2008; since 1990 she has developed, in Auroville, India, a research practice oriented towards people-centric architecture, based on spatial and material experimentation with low environmental impact and high socio-economic value. Her work was the subject of the solo exhibition “Taking Time” at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. She has taught architecture and urban management at prestigious international universities, including Yale and Columbia, and currently holds a professorship in Architecture at TU Berlin. Her honours include the RIBA Charles Jencks Award, the Auguste Perret Prize (2021), the Building Sense Now Award from DGNB (2021) and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture under UNESCO patronage (2022). Her research into new forms of materiality in architecture questions building habits inherited from industrialisation, focusing not on scarcity but on the abundance generated by human resources such as ingenuity, time, skill and sense of community. Her studios are based in Berlin, Mumbai and Pondicherry.

A psychologist, essayist and scholar of cognitive science, Ugo Morelli teaches Cognitive Sciences Applied to Liveability, Landscape and the Environment at the Department of Architecture of the University Federico II of Naples, as well as Work and Organisational Psychology and the Psychology of Creativity and Innovation. He previously held professorships at the Universities of Bologna, Venice and Bergamo. His research spans work, organisation and knowledge, mind, learning and aesthetic experience, and the themes of liveability and sustainability in landscapes and ecosystems. He is Scientific Director of the Executive Course in Business Models for Environmental Sustainability at CUOA Business School and devised and directed the School for the Governance of Territory and Landscape of the Autonomous Province of Trento, where he currently directs the Master’s programme WNHM / World Natural Heritage Management, designed to train practitioners in the knowledge and management of natural sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list (the Dolomites and other mountain sites). He is the author of numerous publications, including Mente e paesaggio. Una teoria della vivibilità, Incertezza e organizzazione and Eppur si crea. Creatività, bellezza, vivibilità.

An architect with a PhD from IUAV University of Venice, where she is Scientific Director of the “Architecture CO2=0” Master’s programme. A theorist of Eco Generative Architecture, she has developed a design method that unites macro and micro visions of nature to generate sustainable ephemeral and sacred spaces. Her work focuses on strategies for decarbonising the built heritage and on bioclimatic design models, integrating energy performance, spatial quality and environmental responsibility. She has realised numerous carbon-neutral certified pavilions, including “Futura alata e coltivabile” (2025) and various installations for Futura_Economia X l’Ambiente Expo in Brescia, and was invited to the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2025 and in a previous edition. She is the author of several volumes, including Natura d’architettura 1-7 (LetteraVentidue, 2024) and Codex of Temporary (LetteraVentidue, 2018). She divides her time between Milan, Venice and Trieste.