At Milan Arch Week for the talk “Architecture of Resistance: The Right to the City”
On Friday, October 31, 2025, at EFM in Milan, the architects will participate in the two-day talk “Architecture and Human Rights. Cities of Resistance, Inclusion, and Justice,” organized by Eleonora Carrano.
Two days of meetings, debates, and visions to explore the relationship between architecture and human rights. Focus: urban inequalities, social housing, cultural practices of resilience, reconstruction in conflict contexts, spaces for welcome, digital innovation, and new forms of urban regeneration. Curated by Eleonora Carrano with Massimo Cardone, Silvia Serreli, and Jorge Lobos.
Program
Moderated by Eleonora Carrano
Opening Talk
2:30 PM – Massimo Cardone, Eleonora Carrano, Silvia Serreli – ARCH+HR Architecture and Human Rights
Panel 1: Urban Inequalities
3:00 PM – Art, Inequalities, and Resistance: The Experience of MAAM Giorgio de Finis – Anthropologist and curator, director of the Museum of the Suburbs of Rome and creator of MAAM, expert in cultural practices that transform the city into a space for community and experimentation. Art and housing and cultural occupation as a form of resistance and the generation of new models of citizenship.
3:30 PM – Speculative Construction and Land Consumption. The Case of Salerno. Featuring: Massimiliano Amato, professional journalist and essayist. He is co-editor of the magazine “Critica Sociale.” The case of Salerno offers a prime example of speculative construction in Italy, with urban expansion driven more by real estate profit than by genuine housing needs or sustainable planning.
4:00 PM – Rebuilding Rules to Promote Urban Inclusion Paolo Berdini – Urban planner and essayist, former Councilor for Urban Planning in Rome. Author of “The City for Sale” and “Failed Cities.” Rebuilding clear and transparent rules of urban governance, capable of restoring space for common goods, social justice, and the right to the city. A call to imagine new urban planning policies that combat exclusion and inequality, restoring cities to their function as places of cohesion and inclusion.
Panel 2: Equitable Cities
4:30 PM – Public Spaces and Social Housing: Designing Open and Sustainable Suburbs Camillo Botticini – Architect (ARW) and PhD at the Polytechnic University of Milan, expert in urban regeneration and the redevelopment of peripheral public spaces. Urban redevelopment, creation of new community spaces, and integrated social housing projects. Case study: Brescia – public spaces, collective services, and integrated infrastructure for a more inclusive city.
5:00 PM – “Living, Healing, Re-educating” Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra – founders of the Barreca & La Varra firm. Architects with expertise in architectural and urban design, with a particular focus on morphological and compositional aspects, closely intertwined with context, sustainability, and natural elements. Designing projects such as urban regeneration, social housing, public hospitals, and dignified prisons means impacting the distribution of rights and opportunities, reducing inequalities and discrimination.
5:30 PM – The age-old battle between “individual” and “type”: inclusiveness and specialization of architectural space. Cino Zucchi – architect and professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan, founder of CZA. Cino Zucchi Architetti is the author of numerous urban and residential projects and represented Italy at the Venice Biennale as curator of the Italian Pavilion (2014). The fragmentation of humanity into categories (gender, ethnicity, age, health) impacts urban design: it allows for targeted responses but risks breaking the continuum of the city, undermining its inclusive nature.
6:00 PM – Conclusions and discussion with panel speakers
Eleonora Carrano, architect, Massimo Cardone, architect, Silvia Serreli, professor – ARCH+HR Architecture and Human Rights
Architecture and Human Rights website
