Lecture Series: Good News: Women in Architecture

Curated by MAXXI's Pippo Ciorra, Elena Motisi, and Elena Tinacci, the Buone Nuove/Good News exhibition in Rome, Italy, brings together the work of groundbreaking designers from across history and the globe, showcasing the critical work of historical architects, collectives of the 1970s, and contemporary practitioners.

Following the success of the exhibition at MAXXI last summer, Pippo Ciorra will be joined by Maria Claudia Clemente, co-founder and director of Labics (Rome), one of the protagonists of the exhibition and an outstanding designer, researcher and educator in Italy, to discuss the expansive issues that informed the exhibition.

This Lecture Series is in collaboration with DSAI (Diamond Schmitt Architects).

About Maria Claudia Clemente

Maria Claudia Clemente (1967) graduated in 1992 from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” where she has been Associate Professor since 2022 and is responsible for a Design atelier on the subject of Public & Exhibit Design. Over time she has been an adjunct professor at Cornell University, Rome and Ithaca. She is the author of numerous texts on the role of public space in the contemporary city.

Presently, she practices in Rome, where in 2002, she founded Labics together with Francesco Isidori. Labics has won several national and international architectural competitions, including MAST in Bologna (2006-2013) and Città del Sole in Rome (2007-2016), both completed and selected for the Mies van der Rohe Awards.

In 2021, Labics won two important competitions: one for the realization of the new arena plan for the Colosseum in Rome and the second one for the realization of the new Womb tower in Milan. In 2023, Palazzo dei Diamanti was completed and widely publicized.

Labics showed its works in several collective exhibitions, among which the 11°, 12° and 14° Venice Architectural Biennale and the Make City Festival in Berlin in 2015 and in two monographic exhibitions: “Structures” held at Studio Stefania Miscetti and at MAXXI in Rome and “La Città Aperta” at the Laboratorio Casabella, Milano.

Maria Claudia Clemente is regularly invited to give lectures on Labics projects and research and to lead design workshops at various Italian and international universities, including Università La Sapienza, Università Roma Tre, Cornell University, The University of Iowa, University of Syracuse, Tulane University and University of Hannover.

About Pippo Ciorra

Full professor at SAAD (UNICAM), critic, writer, director of the PhD program “Villard d’Honnecourt” at IUAV. Author of books and essays, a member of CICA (International Committee of Architectural Critics), and advisor for the EU Mies van der Rohe Award for architecture. Co-director of the MAXXI-Triennale Italian Prize for Architecture. He was part of the 1991 Architecture Venice Biennale curatorial team and juror for the 2016 edition. He has curated exhibitions in Italy and abroad. Since 2009, he has been the Senior Curator of MAXXI Architettura in Rome, where he curated, among other shows, Re-cycle, Energy, Food, Piccole Utopie, and The Japanese House. In 2018, he co-curated Bruno Zevi. History and Counter-History of Italian Architecture, in 2020, the collection display At Home. He curates the Italian edition of YAP, the MoMA PS1 international program for young architects. He also co-curates Demanio Marittimo km 278 (Senigallia), a yearly festival dedicated to culture and arts, is a co-founder of Future Architecture, a European platform for young talents, and has co-directed the inter-disciplinary research program Housing the Human, based in Berlin.