Lecture by Federica Vannucchi, part of University by Design event series

Federica Vannucchi, Academic Director of the Pratt Rome Program, is kicking off the Spring 2024 University by Design event series, co-produced 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.

Her lecture, titled Rome as a Pedagogical Project, will take place on Tuesday 20 February at 5 pm at the Murate Art District (Piazza delle Murate, Firenze). It evaluates the multiple dimensions of contemporary Italy as a space of enquiry for architecture students today. It will trace the origins of North American university programs in Italy, which continue the tradition of the Grand Tour as established in the 17th century for architecture students to visit the southern regions of Europe. In them, Italy is an open air museum. While the understanding of Italy as an extensive archeological living site should be both acknowledged and preserved, the present life of the country cannot be overlooked.

Dr. Federica Vannucchi is the Academic Director of the Pratt Rome Program. A licensed architect and an architectural historian, her research explores Italian modern architecture, architectural pedagogy, and exhibitions as platforms for cultural, political, and diplomatic exchange. Her work is widely published and includes Architecture’s Afterlife: The Multisector Impact of an Architecture Degree (Routledge, 2023), “The Human Body as Space of Diplomacy: Studi sulle Proporzioni at the 1951 IX Milan Triennale” in Italian Imprints on Twentieth Century Architecture (Bloomsbury, 2022); “In Search of A New Visual Vocabulary: The University of Architecture of Florence (1964-69)” in Radical Pedagogies (MIT, 2022); “The 1968 XIV Triennale of Milan” in Exhibit A: Exhibitions That Transformed Architecture (Phaidon, 2018); “The Contested Subject: The Greater Number at the 1968 XIV Triennale of Milan” in Exhibiting Architecture: A Paradox? (Actar, 2015). Her upcoming book, titled A Disciplinary Mechanism: The Milan Triennale, 1964–1973, focuses on the Triennale di Milano as a space for discussing design with respect to changing political administrations and international policy. She has co-curated a number of design exhibitions, including Radical Pedagogies (2014) which was awarded a Special Mention at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. She has worked in architecture firms, including Peter Eisenman Architects where she co-designed, among other projects, the City of Culture of Santiago de Compostela. She has taught architectural and urban history and theory as well as design studios at Pratt, Yale, Parsons, Princeton, and Columbia GSAPP.
She is a graduate of the University of Florence (MArch summa cum laude), and Yale University where she was granted an outstanding academic performance award, going on to receive her PhD in History, Theory and Criticism from Princeton University.