The second edition of our new Talking Architecture series will feature Ajay Manthripragada, the 2024 Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize Fellow in architecture, and principals from Supervoid, a Rome-based architecture firm.

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

Ajay Manthripragada is the 2024 Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize Fellow in architecture. His practice, based in California, is recognized for buildings that are at once conceptually and experientially rich. He has been nominated for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize as an emerging practitioner and has taught design and theory at several institutions, including the Rice University School of Architecture and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

Supervoid is an architecture office based in Rome, led by the architects Benjamin Gallegos Gabilondo, Marco Provinciali, and Anna Livia Friel. Supervoid’s work focuses on space as a material and cultural construction. The office has realized projects at various scales in Italy, Chile, France, and the United States. Their work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Milan Triennale. Supervoid’s principals have published projects and essays in international magazines and books, including San Rocco, Domus, the Real Review, Vesper, and Area, among others. They have taught at Università Iuav di Venezia, Technische Universität Dortmund, and Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome. Supervoid also curated the EUPavilion research project.

Talking Architecture No. 2 is moderated by Justyna Profaska, an architect and a PhD fellow in landscape and environment at La Sapienza University of Rome. Her research, titled “Virtual Landscapes,” focuses on the significance of nature in contemporary society through the analysis of artistic manifestations. Her study explores the landscape in visual arts as a subject, medium, and potential field for action, unveiling its role as a social construct. Profaska graduated in 2020 from Poznan University of Technology in Poland and studied architecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. She has worked for Wenzel+Wenzel Freie Architekten in Berlin and Studio Fuksas in Rome.