Events

Lecture by Evangelos Kotsioris

 1024 683 Kent State University, Florence Program | College of Architecture & Environmental Design
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Evangelos Kotsioris, Assistant Curator in Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, will lecture on Tuesday 11 November at 5:30 pm.

The lecture is part of the University by Design event series — coproduced by the Architecture Programs of the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Syracuse University in Florence, California State University International Programs Italy and Kent State University Florence — which focuses on the topic of studying architecture abroad. This collaborative forum will consist of two public lectures aimed at reimagining the collective educational space and proposing innovative models for contemporary practice.

Titled The (Secret) Life of Architecture, Evangelos Kotsioris’s talk will expand on the notion that architecture does not end at completion. Buildings gain meaning through the lives that unfold within them—the daily rituals, improvised uses, and personal attachments that animate space. Can exhibitions become tools not only for conveying the intentions of architects, but also for revealing the lived afterlives of buildings? Drawing on recent curatorial research and displays at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, this talk will consider the museum as a pedagogical space, where architectural knowledge is staged, debated, and re-learned. By attending to use, memory, and care, students are invited to reconsider design as an ongoing process — one that continues long after the building is built.

Evangelos Kotsioris is Assistant Curator in Architecture & Design at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. At MoMA he has recently organized the exhibitions The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower (2025–26), Down to Earth (2025), Body Constructs (2024), and Architecture Now: New York, New Publics (2023). Kotsioris holds a professional degree in architecture from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, an MArch II from Harvard University, and a PhD in history and theory of architecture from Princeton University. Among other places, he has taught theory and design at the University of Pennsylvania, Barnard+Columbia Architecture, Princeton School of Architecture, The Cooper Union, and Harvard GSD. He is the author of Kisho Kurokawa: Nakagin Capsule Tower (The Museum of Modern Art, 2025), and a co-editor of Radical Pedagogies, a global history of post-WWII experiments in architectural education during the second half of the twentieth century (MIT Press, 2022).

Lecture by Francesco Garofalo (Openfabric)

 724 1024 Kent State University, Florence Program | College of Architecture & Environmental Design
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Francesco Garofalo, architect and founder of Openfabric in Rotterdam, Milan and Genoa, will be joining us for a lecture on Tuesday, September 16th, at 5:00 pm. His talk, titled Framed natures, will explore Openfabric’s work in landscape across different scales and geographies — from completed projects to large-scale research. The lecture reflects on how “frames” can be understood as design devices: not to fix or limit, but to amplify dynamics, enhancing ecological processes and creating opportunities for people.

Francesco Garofalo is a landscape architect, founder of Openfabric, Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Milano, and Design Critic at Harvard GSD.
Since establishing Openfabric — an international landscape and urban design practice based in Rotterdam, Milan, and Genova — he has led numerous award-winning projects worldwide. His work spans installations, public open spaces, pocket parks, large-scale landscapes, and territorial research projects of significant impact.
The Mediterranean basin and the Alpine mountain range are central to his investigations, where Francesco explores territorial dynamics both in academia and in practice.
He frequently lectures and teaches internationally at renowned institutions, including MIT (Cambridge, MA), Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), Hong Kong University, IAAC (Barcelona), London Metropolitan University, Strelka KB (Moscow), and TU München.
www.openfabric.eu

Lecture by François Chas (NP2F)

 1024 819 Kent State University, Florence Program | College of Architecture & Environmental Design
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François Chas, architect and partner at NP2F in Paris, will be joining us for a lecture on Tuesday, March 25th, at 5:00 pm. His talk, titled Common Architecture, will explore the growing importance of communal and shared spaces in architecture, a theme central to many of his firm’s projects.

NP2F, Adidas Arena in Paris, France – PH 01 – photo © Antoine Espinasseau
NP2F, Adidas Arena in Paris, France – PH 04 – photo © Nicolas Grosmond
NP2F, Adidas Arena in Paris, France – PH 05 – photo © Nicolas Grosmond
NP2F, Adidas Arena in Paris, France – PH 06 – photo © Nicolas Grosmond
NP2F, Base nautique in Ile-Saint-Denis, France – PH 01 – photo © Antoine Espinasseau
NP2F, Base nautique in Ile-Saint-Denis, France – PH 02 – photo © Antoine Espinasseau
NP2F, Center for Circus Arts in Châlons, France – PH 01 – photo © Sebastien Normand
NP2F, Center for Circus Arts in Châlons, France – PH 02 – photo © Sebastien Normand
NP2F, Center for Circus Arts in Châlons, France – PH 03 – photo © Sebastien Normand
NP2F, Center for Circus Arts in Châlons, France – PH 05 – photo © Sebastien Normand
NP2F, Center for Circus Arts in Châlons, France – PH 08 – photo © Christophe Manquillet
NP2F, Institut Méditerranéen de la Ville et des Territoires in Marseille, France – PH 03 – photo © Antoine Espinasseau
NP2F, Institut Méditerranéen de la Ville et des Territoires in Marseille, France – PH 04 – photo © Antoine Espinasseau
NP2F, Institut Méditerranéen de la Ville et des Territoires in Marseille, France – PH 05 – photo © Maxime Delvaux
NP2F, Institut Méditerranéen de la Ville et des Territoires in Marseille, France – PH 06 – photo © Maxime Delvaux
NP2F, Institut Méditerranéen de la Ville et des Territoires in Marseille, France – PH 07 – photo © Maxime Delvaux
NP2F, Adidas Arena in Paris, France – PH 03 – photo © Jeroen Verrecht

François Chas is a partner at NP2F, an architecture firm founded in 2009. The practice now includes a team of around fifteen, based between Marseille and Paris, working on projects across France and internationally. NP2F specializes in both architectural and urban projects, with expertise spanning sports facilities, housing, cultural and educational buildings, leisure and dining spaces, and communal areas. The firm has developed notable expertise in designing sports spaces in the Paris metropolitan area, particularly as the curator of the 2014 exhibition Sports, Portrait of a Metropolis at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal. Recent projects include the Adidas Arena at Porte de la Chapelle, completed in collaboration with SCAU and Bouygues Bâtiment; the Mediterranean Institute of the City and Territories in Marseille for OPPIP, designed with Marion Bernard, Point Supreme, Jacques Lucan, and Atelier Roberta; and the UCPA Sport Station Cathedral in Bordeaux. Currently, NP2F is developing a training center for the French Rugby Federation and recently won the commission for the new Gustave Roussy research building in collaboration with AUC.
www.np2f.com

NP2F, Adidas Arena in Paris, France – PH 02 – photo © Caroline Poulin
NP2F, Cathédrale des sports in Bordeaux, France – PH 01 – photo © Antoine Espinasseau
NP2F, Cathédrale des sports in Bordeaux, France – PH 02 – photo © Antoine Espinasseau
NP2F, Cathédrale des sports in Bordeaux, France – PH 03 – photo © Antoine Espinasseau
NP2F, Center for Circus Arts in Châlons, France – PH 04 – photo © Sebastien Normand
NP2F, Center for Circus Arts in Châlons, France – PH 06 – photo © Sebastien Normand
NP2F, Center for Circus Arts in Châlons, France – PH 07 – photo © Sebastien Normand
NP2F, Institut Méditerranéen de la Ville et des Territoires in Marseille, France – PH 01 – photo © Antoine Espinasseau
NP2F, Institut Méditerranéen de la Ville et des Territoires in Marseille, France – PH 02 – photo © Antoine Espinasseau

Lecture by Denise Costanzo

 1024 576 Kent State University, Florence Program | College of Architecture & Environmental Design
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Denise Costanzo, Associate Professor of Architecture at Penn State University, will lecture on Tuesday 18 March at 5:30 pm.

The lecture is part of the University by Design event series — coproduced by the Architecture Programs of the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Syracuse University in Florence, California State University International Programs Italy and Kent State University Florence — which focuses on the topic of studying architecture abroad. This collaborative forum will consist of two public lectures aimed at reimagining the collective educational space and proposing innovative models for contemporary practice.

Denise Costanzo’s lecture, titled The Problem of Rome: Architecture, Modernism, and Academies, will explore the evolving relevance of Rome as a site for architectural research, particularly in the context of the Rome Prize fellowships. While for centuries these residencies made sense within the framework of classicism as a dominant design paradigm, the city’s role became more ambiguous after World War II, when modernism took precedence and both its classical and modernist heritage were burdened by fascist associations. Despite this, postwar architects continued to engage with Rome, transforming the discipline’s oldest system of postgraduate research and demonstrating how the city remained a source of modern architectural insight.

Denise Costanzo is an associate professor of theory and criticism. An architectural historian with a background in architecture and art history, she explores architecture’s conceptual and cultural dimensions in ways that integrate the distinct languages of design, art history, and critical inquiry. 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 scholarly methods include visual, textual, and systems analysis, social and institutional critique, and historiography. Her most recent book project, for which she was awarded a Rome Prize fellowship from the American Academy in Rome for 2014-15, is titled Modern Architects and the Problem of the Postwar Rome Prize: France, Spain, Britain, and America, 1946-1960. This multi-national, cross-institutional study investigates the intersection and mutual transformation of modernism and academic tradition after the World War II.

Lecture by Annalisa Metta

 1024 881 Kent State University, Florence Program | College of Architecture & Environmental Design
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Annalisa Metta, Full Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Roma Tre, will lecture on Tuesday 11 February at 5:30 pm.

The lecture is part of the University by Design event series — coproduced by the Architecture Programs of the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Syracuse University in Florence, California State University International Programs Italy and Kent State University Florence — which focuses on the topic of studying architecture abroad. This collaborative forum will consist of two public lectures aimed at reimagining the collective educational space and proposing innovative models for contemporary practice.

Annalisa Metta’s lecture, titled Out in the Open. Designing Exposed Landscapes, will explore how designing landscapes means creating open, exposed spaces where the environment is both revealed and engaged with. She will explain that when we design these outdoor spaces, we are not just arranging elements — we are also inviting vulnerability and trust, as both the landscape and the designer participate and evolve together.

Annalisa Metta is a Full Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Roma Tre. She holds a Ph.D. in the architecture of parks, gardens, and spatial planning and was awarded the Italian Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2016–2017). Her research examines the contemporary architecture of open spaces through a blend of theoretical-critical insights and applied inquiry. In 2007, she became one of the founding partners of Osa, a landscape architecture studio based in Rome. In 2023, she curated Nature at Home, part of the Home Sweet Home exhibition at the Milan Triennale. Her publications include Il paesaggio è un mostro. Città selvatiche e nature ibride (DeriveApprodi, 2022) and the entry “Paesaggio” in the XI Appendice of the Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti (Treccani, 2024).

Lecture by Juan Elvira (MURADO&ELVIRA)

 1024 683 Kent State University, Florence Program | College of Architecture & Environmental Design
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Juan Elvira, architect and co-founder of Madrid-based architecture studio MURADO&ELVIRA, will lecture on Tuesday 4 February 2025 at 3 pm at Kent State University Florence CAED. His lecture, titled Myspace: an Architectural Appropriation, will focus on the Teknobyen Student Housing in Trondheim, Norway—a project MURADO&ELVIRA completed a few years ago. As the architects describe, the project “unifies situations of extreme intimacy with those of extroversion and collaboration,” making it a valuable reference for this semester’s Architecture Studio project brief.

MURADO&ELVIRA – Teknobyen – photo Matthias Herzog
MURADO&ELVIRA – Teknobyen – photo Imagen Subliminal
MURADO&ELVIRA – Teknobyen – photo Matthias Herzog
MURADO&ELVIRA – Teknobyen – photo Imagen Subliminal
MURADO&ELVIRA – Teknobyen – photo Imagen Subliminal

Murado & Elvira is a Madrid-based multidisciplinary office founded by Juan Elvira and Clara Murado in 2003 dedicated to innovative architecture and interior design. Their work has been awarded in many national and international competitions, and has been exhibited at prestigious venues such as the Biennale di Venezia and the Bienal de Arquitectura Española. They have been finalists at the Norwegian national architecture prize Staten Byggeskikkpris 2012 and selected at the Bienal Española de Arquitectura y Urbanismo 2013. In 2018 they were nominated for The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award for their Baiona Public Library project.
www.muradoelvira.com

MURADO&ELVIRA – Teknobyen
MURADO&ELVIRA – Teknobyen
MURADO&ELVIRA – Teknobyen

Lecture by Leopoldo Villardi (Architectural Record)

 1024 576 Kent State University, Florence Program | College of Architecture & Environmental Design
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Leopoldo Villardi, architect and managing editor at Architectural Record magazine, will lecture on Tuesday 28 January 2025 at 5 pm at Kent State University Florence CAED. His lecture, titled On the Record, will be introduced by prof. Paola Giaconia.

Architectural Record – 2016-09 – 125th Anniversary
Architectural Record – 2016-09 – 125th Anniversary

Leopoldo Villardi’s lecture will explore the essentials of architectural publishing, offering insights into exclusivity, pitching editors, and the production process of a monthly magazine. The talk will delve into the history of the magazine — one of the most prominent and long-standing architecture magazines in the world — and offer valuable insights for students preparing to enter the profession, highlighting how publishing can enhance professional credibility and unlock new opportunities, particularly for young professionals and small practices.

Architectural Record covers

Leopoldo Villardi is a Brooklyn-based writer and managing editor at Architectural Record. He oversees the magazine’s residential coverage—including the annual issue of Record Houses—and the Design Vanguard award, an accolade intended to identify and celebrate young talent within the profession. Leo joined Record in 2022 after nearly a decade of work as a historian and researcher—he has contributed to several architecture books, co-authored Between Memory and Invention with former dean of the Yale School of Architecture Robert A. M. Stern, and is a New York State Council on the Arts grant recipient. Trained as an architect, Leo holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation and a bachelor of architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s School of Architecture. Outside of Architectural Record, his writings have appeared in Panteon, Faktur, Log, the New York Review of Architecture.
www.architecturalrecord.com

Lecture by Aaron Betsky

 683 1024 Kent State University, Florence Program | College of Architecture & Environmental Design
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Aaron Betsky, critic of art, architecture, and design, will lecture on Monday 11 November at 5 pm.

The lecture is part of the University by Design event series — coproduced by the Architecture Programs of the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Syracuse University in Florence, California State University International Programs Italy and Kent State University Florence — which focuses on the topic of studying architecture abroad. This collaborative forum will consist of two public lectures aimed at reimagining the collective educational space and proposing innovative models for contemporary practice.

Aaron Betsky’s lecture, titled Don’t Build, Rebuild. The Case for Imaginative Reuse in Architecture, will explore the concept of architectural reuse through beautiful and thought-provoking examples. He argues that instead of constructing new buildings, we should repurpose and reimagine our existing built environment, making it more open and accessible. This approach, he believes, is the only truly sustainable path forward.

Aaron Betsky is a renowned critic of art, architecture, and design and the author of over twenty books on those subjects. He was Professor and Director of the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech and, prior to that, President of the School of Architecture at Taliesin. He writes a twice-weekly blog, Beyond Buildings, for Architect Magazine. Trained as an architect and in the humanities at Yale, Mr. Betsky has served as the Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum (2006-2014) and the Netherlands Architecture Institute (2001-2006), as well as Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995-2001). In 2008, he also directed the 11th Venice International Biennale of Architecture.

Lecture by Szabolcs Molnár (Paradigma Ariadné)

 683 1024 Kent State University, Florence Program | College of Architecture & Environmental Design
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Szabolcs Molnár, architect and founding partner of Paradigma Ariadné, will lecture on Tuesday 22 October at 5 pm at Kent State University Florence CAED. His lecture, titled Topological narratives: a guided tour through Ariadne’s landscapes, will be introduced by prof. Paola Giaconia.

Paradigma Ariadné, Rural Geometries. Photo by Szabolcs Molnar
Fall 2024, Lecture by Szabolcs Molnár (Paradigma Ariadné). In the photo: Paradigma Ariadné, Rural Geometries. Photo by Szabolcs Molnar.
Paradigma Ariadné, Blue Signature. Photo by Szabolcs Molnar
Fall 2024, Lecture by Szabolcs Molnár (Paradigma Ariadné). In the photo: Paradigma Ariadné, Blue Signature. Photo by Szabolcs Molnar.
Paradigma Ariadné, Blue Signature. Photo by Szabolcs Molnar
Fall 2024, Lecture by Szabolcs Molnár (Paradigma Ariadné). In the photo: Paradigma Ariadné, Blue Signature. Photo by Szabolcs Molnar.
Paradigma Ariadné, Flying Stone House. Photo by Attila Róbert Csóka
Fall 2024, Lecture by Szabolcs Molnár (Paradigma Ariadné). In the photo: Paradigma Ariadné, Flying Stone House. Photo by Attila Róbert Csóka.
Paradigma Ariadné, Flying Stone House. Photo by Attila Róbert Csóka
Fall 2024, Lecture by Szabolcs Molnár (Paradigma Ariadné). In the photo: Paradigma Ariadné, Flying Stone House. Photo by Attila Róbert Csóka.
Paradigma Ariadné, Flying Stone House. Photo by Attila Róbert Csóka
Fall 2024, Lecture by Szabolcs Molnár (Paradigma Ariadné). In the photo: Paradigma Ariadné, Flying Stone House. Photo by Attila Róbert Csóka.

Szabolcs Molnár’s lecture will discuss some of their recent projects, which include sensitive interventions in natural landscapes. These projects are closely aligned with the design tasks you are engaging with in the Architecture studios this semester.

Paradigma Ariadné, Rural Geometries. Photo by Attila Róbert Csóka
Fall 2024, Lecture by Szabolcs Molnár (Paradigma Ariadné). In the photo: Paradigma Ariadné, Rural Geometries. Photo by Attila Róbert Csóka.
Paradigma Ariadné, Rural Geometries. Illustration by Paradigma Ariadné
Fall 2024, Lecture by Szabolcs Molnár (Paradigma Ariadné). Image: Paradigma Ariadné, Rural Geometries. Illustration by Paradigma Ariadné.
Paradigma Ariadné, Blue Signature. Illustration and photo by Szabolcs Molnar
Fall 2024, Lecture by Szabolcs Molnár (Paradigma Ariadné). Image: Paradigma Ariadné, Blue Signature. Illustration and photo by Szabolcs Molnar.

Szabolcs Molnár graduated from the Department of Public Building Design, Faculty of Architecture, Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 2014. Between 2010-2015 he was a member of the Advanced Architecture College, in 2013-2014 its president. In 2016, he co-founded the Paradigma Ariadne Studio with his two partners, Attile Csóka and David Smiló. He is co-curator of the Hungarian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021. In 2021 visiting professor at Dortmund University of Technology. In 2022 lecturer at the Metropolitan University of Budapest. Between 2021 and 2024, he is a fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Arts Research Institute of Art Theory and Methodology Department of Architecture. Paradigma Ariadné is a studio of 8 years, which has been included in numerous international group and solo exhibitions and published in renowned journals and magazines.
www.paradigmaariadne.com

Lecture by Mia Fuller

 1024 719 Kent State University, Florence Program | College of Architecture & Environmental Design
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Mia Fuller, cultural anthropologist and urban-architectural historian, will lecture on Tuesday 15 October at 5 pm.

The lecture is part of the University by Design event series — coproduced by the Architecture Programs of the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Syracuse University in Florence, California State University International Programs Italy and Kent State University Florence — which focuses on the topic of studying architecture abroad. This collaborative forum will consist of two public lectures aimed at reimagining the collective educational space and proposing innovative models for contemporary practice.

Mia Fuller’s lecture, titled Nation, Colony, Empire, and Expectations: Italy’s Settler Colonial Designs in Context(s), addresses designs for state-sponsored Italian settlements in the modern Italian colonial era (1869-1943), with an emphasis on the 1930s, when the Fascist regime financed and oversaw settlements for relocated Italians within Italy’s national borders and in the formal African colonies too, with only minor variations between the ideas informing their architectural and urban designs.

Do the continuities in design between ‘nation’ and ‘colony’ or ‘Empire’ matter when it comes to our understandings of these sites? (Historians tend to think that yes, while architectural historians not as much.) And does the fact that the government at the time insisted on the expression “internal colonization” mean that we should regard internal-settlement programs as “colonial” ones? (Historians tend to think that no, while architectural historians are more easily convinced.) And, ultimately, how do these decisions about interpretation shape our understandings of Fascist and colonial vestiges?

Dr. Mia Fuller is Gladyce Arata Terrill Distinguished Professor of Italian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. A cultural anthropologist, she writes on Italian colonial and fascist architecture and urbanism (Moderns Abroad: Architecture, Cities, Italian Imperialism, 2007; contributions to Routledge Companion to Italian Fascist Architecture, 2020, and Oxford Research Encyclopedia African History, 2020). She is completing a new book on the post-Fascist endurance of the 1930s land-reclamation and internal settlement program in Italy’s Pontine Marshes, titled Monuments and Mussolini: A Cultural History of Fascist Memory.