Organization: prof. arch. Lina Malfona, Polittico Research LAB
Polittico Research Lab is a versatile research platform sponsored by the University of Pisa, focusing on architectural theory, epistemology, and the arts. It is a center for creative and experimental research, and promotes seminars, talks, workshops, symposia, exhibitions, performances, and publications. Polittico is a critical workroom that uses architecture as a lens and a mirror through which to read the world of art and media, scientific and technological innovation, and the social, cultural, and geopolitical realms. It aims to explore how the city, urban and suburban processes, built environments, and landscape conditions widen our consideration of architecture not only as an organizational complex but also as a human habitat. Polittico is a creative factory where material products as well as immaterial work are produced. It can also be seen as a theater where research produced at the University of Pisa and at other universities in Italy or abroad can be presented and discussed. It is open to students, scholars, intellectuals, scientists, inventors, and creatives. Meetings and events take place in both institutional and informal venues; they are held alternately at the university and in the city.
Polittico promotes a vision of architecture as a form of knowledge that cuts across different disciplines; at the same time, it functions as an agent that aims to further the development of these disciplinary connections. It theorizes the crucial role of the architect as author, creative engineer, and intellectual.
