Biographical notes
Alberto Ferlenga, architect, was appointed Rector of the IUAV University of Venice in 2015 after previously holding the post of Director of the Graduate School, and is Full Professor of Architectural Design at the same University. He is the founder of the Association Villard d’Honnecourt, which organises an eponymous seminar and international doctorate. A visiting professor at several American and European universities and winner of the Stone Lion Award at the Venice Biennale in 1984, he also worked as editor of the magazines Lotus International (1981-1996) and Casabella (1996-2006). He has authored numerous publications including monographs on Aldo Rossi, Dimitris Pikionis, Hans Van der Laan and Joze Plecnik (Electa) and a volume entitled “ Città e Memoria” (Marinotti editore, 2016). He has curated several exhibitions for the Milan Triennale including “L’Architettura del mondo”, “Comunità Italia” (with M. Biraghi) and “Ricostruzioni” (with N. Bassoli) and served as the show’s Director of Architecture and Territory from 2011 to 2017. He has been a member of the Accademia di San Luca since 2019.
Biographical notes
Silvia Foglia is Country Operations Manager at Houzz Italy, the leading platform for home remodelling and design, providing people with everything they need to improve their homes from start to finish.
Previously she was Country Manager Italia and then Head of Community Management at twago, Europe's leading platform for outsourcing projects and online work. She also worked first in Stockholm and then in Barcelona for Cint AB, a Swedish market research company specialised in online searches - as responsible for Italian customers.
Since 2012 she is a lecturer at MADE, the Master in Digital Entrepreneurship at H-Farm.
biographical notes
Lord Foster (in 1999 he was honoured with a life peerage as Lord Foster of Thames Bank) was born in Manchester in 1935. He graduated from Manchester University School of Architecture and City Planning in 1961, then gained a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Yale University. After setting up the practice Team 4 in partnership with Richard Rogers, and his later wife Wendy with whom in 1964 he founded the firm Foster Associates in London. This led to the partnership of Foster + Partners which now has studios in more than 20 countries worldwide. In 1999 Norman Foster won the Pritzker Architecture Prize and in 2000 the Praemium Imperiale Award for Architecture.
Some of his best-known works include the Willis Faber & Dumas headquarters (Ipswich, UK), the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (Norwich, UK), the Hongkong Bank Headquarters (Hong Kong), Hong Kong International Airport and Stansted Airport (UK), the Bilbao metro system (Spain), the Torre de Collserola (Barcelona, Spain), restoration of the Reichstag building (Berlin, Germany), the Carré d’Art (Nîmes, France), the London City Hall (UK) and the Swiss Re headquarters at 30 St. Mary Axe (London, UK).
His latest works include the Millennium Bridge in London, the Millau Viaduct in France, the Hearst Tower in New York, Beijing International Airport, Masdar City in the UAE and Apple Campus 2 in Cupertino, California.