Professor Jacopo Galli, IUAV / Venice Sustainability Foundation to speak at our Venice forum

Above: Professor Jacopo Galli, Università Iuav di Venezia (IUAV) and Venice Sustainability Foundation

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Professor Jacopo Galli, Università Iuav di Venezia (IUAV) will be speaking at our forum in Venice this September and he is also representing Venice Sustainability Forum in its plan for an extended masterplan for university students.

He will be joining - among others - Generali, SUMus, Teatro San Cassiano, Pilbrow & Partners, Scott Brownrigg, Jon Greenwood Architecture, Ca'Foscari University and VeniSIA, among others to talk about how Venice is adopting new models for economy and development, as well as a sustainable way of living with respect to climate change.

Jacopo will be speaking about the plans to adapt the old port area, which is now largely redundant with the re-location of cruise ships to Maghera, for the development of a new part of the city of Venice. This plan will include provision for the expansion of university students studying in the city. Currently Venice has 30,000 students but it wants to double that number. The old port area represents a seventh of the total area of Venice and the proposal is to include an area of islands in the development. There have been fourteen entrants to the feasibility study competition and which is being handled by the port authority. The winner's name is to due to be announced in September.

Traditionally, Venice has had a very low number of graduates each year, often because of studying for seven to eight years. Now Venice needs to expand the number of students to engage in the 'construction of new knowledge' around the subject of water. At the moment there are no undergraduates studying energy, biodiversity or food production that is connected to water, but it may take around ten years to create the new city port district and provide accommodation for students and also the general population in the city, where there is a housing crisis. It is hoped that this new area of study and research will - in time - help solve in part the city's challenges with flooding and sustainability, as well as provide insights for other international cities.

Jacopo Galli (Crema, 1985) received his PhD in architectural design from Università Iuav di Venezia.

He was curator of the architecture section for the “Africa Big Change – Big Chance” exhibition at La Triennale di Milano and CIVA Brussels; the author of the book "Arturo Mezzedimi. Architetto della Superproduzione" (with Benno Albrecht and Filippo De Dominicis) and project manager for the “Makoko Floating School II” project by NLE Studio which was awarded the Silver Lion at the 2016 Venice Biennale.

Jacopo was assistant director of the Venice Program at the University of Virginia and visiting professor at Escola da Cidade in Sao Paulo and École Nationale d'Architecture Paris Val de Seine. He is currently an associate researcher at FEEM Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and project manager for the Venezia Sustainability Foundation-VSF.

Since 2014 he has been dealing with the topic of 'urbicides' and reconstructions, organising the “Urbicide Syria” conference, promoting the “Sketch for Syria” initiative and coordinating the international workshop WAVE 2017 “Syria the Making of the Future”.

He has provided consultancy on reconstruction issues to private companies, international agencies such as UN-ESCWA, UNDP, the World Bank with the “Building for Peace” project and public administrations. These research experiences have been collected in the book "Cities Under Pressure" (with Benno Albrecht).

Università Iuav di Venezia is one of the leading universities in Europe and across the world in the fields of architecture, design, fashion, visual arts, urban and regional planning, and theatre. Established in 1926 as one of the first Architecture Schools in Italy, Iuav combines a renowned tradition with a strong commitment to permanent innovation while putting the design process at the core of the whole educational experience. Degree programmes and courses in English, a wide network of worldwide partners in teaching and research, a number of visiting academics and professionals and vibrant student community from all over the world make Iuav an international university.