The project of the University of Florence: ‘bring young people’ closer ‘
In Italy, restoring architecture often means building new projects on pre -existing tracks of ancient architecture. It is from this idea that it was born ‘let’s play at the Renaissance together!’, The project of the University of Florence in collaboration with the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore Florence 1296, with the Leonardian Museum of Vinci and with the Dida, Department of Architecture of the University of Florence, presented at the Italian Pavilion of Expo 2025 Osaka.
The workshop allowed the participants to relive what Filippo Brunelleschi did with his design proposal for the Dome of the Florence Cathedral. “We wanted to approach the younger generations with those that are of the icons of our classic Italian architecture with contemporary language with contemporary language,” explains the teacher Susanna Caccia Gherardini to Ansa. The participants reconstructed multiple Brunelleschian domes using paper models printed by Mandragora, a Florentine publishing house that deals with art books. An attempt – says Andrea Innocenzo Volpe – to “pay homage to the Japanese tradition with these paper architecture, building models that bend origami like”. But the paper also wants to report “that the monumental heritage is absolutely fragile and therefore expresses this short circuit between very serious concepts and very playful concepts, to learn by making” adds Volpe.
In addition to the paper constructions, the participants intrigued was the inflatable reproduction of the Dupola of Brunelleschi, to pay homage to both the Florentine monument and the movements of the radical design that flourished at the end of the sixties in Japan, Europe and especially in Florence.
Finally, the Did Lxr laboratory was told, which is dedicated to Extended Realities. “We took care of a multimedia presentation, immersive” explains Professor Giorgio Verdiani. The aim of the project is to allow the visit of the environment of the Cathedral of Florence, the work of the Opera del Duomo “with a bridge between tradition, the classic and traditional and quality operations and the digital present that allows you to treat, to have effective maintenance of the monument and also guarantee greater safety to visitors” adds Verdiani.
The project was presented within the events of Make Italian Culture Alive (Mica), an initiative financed by the Ministry of the University and Research, which brings together five Italian universities for Expo 2025 Osaka: the leader Ca ‘Foscari of Venice, the University of Florence, the L’Orientale University of Naples, the University of Milan (State), the La Sapienza University of Rome and with the participation of the Changes Foundation.
