Talking Architecture is a series of talks in collaboration with La Sapienza and Casa dell’Architettura dedicated to new orientations and outstanding achievements in contemporary American architecture. It is an opportunity to explore cross-sections of American architecture, from tradition to innovation, new materials and sustainability, territories and landscapes, and the social role of architecture in its surroundings. Inviting Italian studios to dialogue with American architects, Talking Architecture provides the occasion to discuss theoretical approaches and applied research practices between the two countries. The series will participate further in advancing global contemporary debates around architecture, landscape, and design. 

This series is addressed to a professional audience and provides professional credits. Lectures will be held in English. 

Speakers

Stephen Cassell, FAIA, is Principal of Architecture Research Office (ARO), a New York firm united by their collaborative process, commitment to accountable action, and social and environmental responsibility. Research gives their work purpose and intention. Their architecture unites beauty and form with strategy and intelligence. Their office designs spaces that inspire people, further institutional missions, and advance equity and resilience. This philosophy has earned the firm over one hundred design awards including the 2020 AIA Architecture Firm Award and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture. He is a lecturer at MIT, an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University GSAPP, and has taught at Princeton University, the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, and other institutions. Cassell is the former chair of the board of the Van Alen Institute.

Maria Claudia Clemente served as a visiting critic at Cornell University in Rome and Ithaca, New York. In 2014 she was invited as a visiting critic at IUAV (University of Venice). She is a board member for the PhD program in Design, Art, and New Technologies at the Faculty of Architecture in Rome and one of the founders of its masters course in Exhibition and Public Design. Clemente is regularly invited to give lectures on Labics’s research and projects and to direct design workshops in a variety of Italian and international universities including Università La Sapienza, Università Roma Tre, Cornell University, the University of Iowa, Syracuse University, Tulane University, and the University of Hannover.

The conversation will be moderated by Livio Sacchi, architect and professor of architectural design at the University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara and member of the teaching staff of the PhD program in Project Cultures, Creativity, Heritage and the Environment. He has been responsible for architecture at the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia Treccani. He was a councilor on the National Council of Architects (2016-2021) and president of the Order of Architects of Rome (2013-2016); member of the CTS of the Unione Italiana per il Disegno; and president of the Lazio Section of Inarch (2003-2011). He curated the Italian Pavilion of the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale with Franco Purini and the Inarch Pavilion in 2010. He was awarded the Silver Plaque by the President of the Italian Republic and the Silver and Gold Plaques by the Unione Italiana per il Disegno. His research includes over 450 publications. Among his many books are Il futuro delle città (La nave di Teseo, 2019) and Il mestiere di architetto (Letteraventidue, 2021). He is currently working on the project for the new Italian embassy in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.