Flavia Saggese is an architect whose work focuses primarily on housing projects and design practices related to contemporary ways of living. Since 2015 she has been working professionally and has collaborated with various practices between Zurich and Rome. She studied at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio and, since 2022, has been an assistant at Atelier Sergison. She currently works between Zurich and Rome, pursuing independent projects. She is regularly invited as an external critic and lecturer at workshops and ateliers across various institutions.
Wunder is a group of adventurous creatives who enjoy experimenting at the intersection of design and society, focusing on urban commons and vulnerable territories. We emerged from collective design interventions in the Milan and Bergamo regions and are interested in projects that bring people and space together. Spanning the fields of architecture, carpentry, art, design and photography, we see ourselves as facilitators who create opportunities for different communities to connect and learn from one another. We like to engage in collective forms of knowledge exchange and work together to curate and implement site-specific interventions in the form of intensive design and co-living experiences.
Giuseppe Barbera is an expert in Arboriculture, a field he taught as a full professor at the University of Palermo. His work focuses on trees, ecosystems, and rural landscapes in the Mediterranean. He is the author of numerous scientific publications. His books include: L’Orto di Pomona (2000), Ficodindia (2002), Abbracciare gli alberi (2009, 2017), Qualche cosa del mondo (2010), Conca d’oro (2012), I paesaggi agrari tradizionali (2014), and Breve storia degli alberi da lettura (2016).
On behalf of the FAI, he served as scientific director for the restoration of the Kolymbetra (Valley of the Temples Park) and the Donnafugata garden on the island of Pantelleria. He is an honorary member of AIAAP. He is a member of the scientific council of the “National Observatory of the Rural Landscape” and of the Scientific Committee of the Benetton Foundation for Studies and Research.
For Aboca Edizioni, he has published *Tuttifrutti: A Journey Among Mediterranean Fruit Trees, Between Science and Literature* (2018) and *Anthropocene, Agriculture, and Landscape: Reflections on a Trip to China* (2020)
Muck Petzet is an architect, curator and since 2014 professor for sustainable design at USI. He held teaching positions at Hochschule Vaduz as guest critic and lecturer abroad and as a visiting professor at the TU Munich for “Architecture as Resource”.
He graduated from TU Munich after studying philosophy at LMU Munich and architecture at HdK Berlin and TU Munich. After initially working at Herzog & de Meuron in Basel he founded his own office in Munich 1993 - working in different partnerships. Since 2013 he is also practicing in Berlin. Muck Petzet was general commissioner of the German pavilion “Reduce/Reuse/Recycle” at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia 2012.
Muck Petzet’s extensive engagement with transformation projects set the basis for his development of a 'minimal intervention - transformation theory' and his dedication to propagate a reevaluation of existing buildings as a valuable resource for our future through lectures, exhibitions and publications. In 2023 he founded the international platform ReduceReuseRecycle Architecture
Fondazione Studio Rizoma is a transnational hub based in Palermo, developing artistic production, research, and political activism. Teatro Garibaldi, under the management of Fondazione Studio Rizoma (FSR), is a civic and cultural commons: a shared resource open to all who wish to create, participate, and imagine together. It is not a theatre of consumption or spectacle, but a living space of collaboration and co-creation, a house where art, politics, and community meet to shape the collective life of the city. Teatro Garibaldi is first and foremost a common good: a civic and cultural space open to local and international communities who wish to create, meet, and imagine together. Not a place of passive consumption, but a home shaped by relationships, shared practices, and collective visions.
Through a co-curated program that weaves together theatre, dance, music, visual arts, cinema, and literature, Fondazione Studio Rizoma support artistic creation and social innovation, giving space to voices capable of questioning the present and generating meaningful dialogue, making Teatro Garibaldi a reference point for the city’s most experimental scene and for the Mediterranean at large.
The italian Rangers Association, Sicily Section (ODV), has managed the “Monte Pellegrino” Nature Reserve since January 27 of 2017, under an agreement signed with the Regional Department of Territory and Environment. The association carries out its volunteer activities throughout the Sicilian region through various operational units, including those in Palermo, Acireale (CT), Castelvetrano (TP), Montevago (AG), and Messina.
Specifically, the Rangers engage in activities aimed at safeguarding, conserving, and enhancing the natural environment and its various ecosystems, as well as plant species, varieties and animal species. In addition, they engage in informational and educational activities, awareness-raising, and training on environmental education topics, with particular emphasis on sustainable development, the fight against pollution, quality of life, renewable energy sources, the circular economy, material reuse, and waste elimination, as well as the monitoring of areas of natural interest.
Francesca Chiorino (1978) is an architect, an author and a curator. She studied architecture at IUAV University in Venice where she graduated in history in 2003 and in Spain, at ETSAB Barcelona.
Since 2005 she is member of Casabella magazine editorial board. She published books and critical texts in magazines and monographic volumes, she has been invited lecturer in conferences in Italy and abroad and she took part in juries of national architecture competitions.
In 2011 she opened her own architecture studio in Piedmont, first as carpano/chiorino architetti and then as Francesca Chiorino Architettura, which develops accurate projects on a small scale, with a particular sensitivity for dialogue with the landscape and cultural context.
Giulia Colletti is a curator and art historian. She serves as Curator of Programs and Digital at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. She is Co-curator of the 5th Industrial Art Biennial, supported by the 13th Italian Council.
Her recent curated group and solo exhibitions include Allegory of Public Happiness, 2024 (Galleria Civica – Mart Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto); Dominique White: The Fugitive of the State(less), 2023 (Art City – MAMbo, Bologna); and Fragile Soil, Fertile Souls, 2022 (United Nations College, Turin).
Colletti lectures in Contemporary Art and Curatorial Practice at Abadir Academy, and is currently a Visiting Lecturer at Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien. She was also Inaugural Curatorial Fellow 2019 at The Glasgow School of Art. She has lectured at art and educational institutions and universities including Columbia University (CAMS), NYC; La Sapienza, Rome; Gallerie d'Italia Academy, Milan; IUAV, Venice; NABA, Milan; Tec de Monterrey, Mexico City; University of Glasgow; among others.
Currently, Colletti delivers New Media Special Projects for CURA. Her essays, reviews, and compiled readers have also been featured in museum catalogues and published by Flash Art, OnCurating, and e-flux, among others. She is an honoree of Forbes Under 30 Europe 2021 and an alumna of the Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course.
Consorzio Acque Santa Tecla was established on 12th of August, 1915, in the northeastern part of Acireale (CT), in a flat area characterized by an underground aquifer fed by water from Mount Etna. The goal was to ensure irrigation for the area’s citrus groves (over 700 hectares of lemon trees in the Acireale area) by utilizing the groundwater that emerges in that part of the territory. Initially, the pumping stations were powered by steam (early 20th century) and coal. Later, a large fuel-oil engine was installed, which was locally known as “u muturi ranni” (“the big engine”). Since the 1990s, a system of submersible and surface electric pumps has been in operation, the water table is stable at a depth of about 4 meters, fed by water flowing down from the slopes of Mount Etna. The site is considered a gem of industrial archaeology, a place where agricultural history, technology, geology, and the environment intersect. The consortium exemplifies how a volcanic and agricultural region was able to develop a water infrastructure dedicated to irrigation over 100 years ago. It preserves fascinating historical elements (steam pumps, oil engines, early 20th-century architecture) that speak to the technological changes related to water. It is part of local history not only as an engineering feat but as a component of Acireale’s citrus-growing regional identity. It continues to address modern challenges today: climate change, water resource management, and the interaction between agriculture, the environment, and public services.