Further Crisis Towards Conceivable Futures
A collection of Europe’s sustainable and inclusive paths
4 December, 2025
Bologna, Italy
We are in a historical moment of severe environmental, economic, social and geopolitical crisis. Although the complex term crisis does not originally have a negative etymological meaning, it has assumed it over time because of man’s difficulty in dealing with change and transformation (Koselleck 2012).
In particular, the simultaneous occurrence of all these epochal changes in different fields on which our civilisation was built, is creating a situation that is particularly complex and difficult to approach. Of all these, the most alarming and urgent seems to be the ecological-environmental one.
It was in the nineties that we became conscious of the destructive impact humans were having on Earth’s delicate equilibrium. Indeed, the 1992 Report, published after the inaugural gathering dedicated to Climate Change, explicitly outlines our responsibility in this respect. Time after time, it is reiterated that the construction industry carries a substantial amount of this responsibility. As architects, urban planners, designers and at the same time researchers, our role as a bridge between past and future, research and practice seems even more crucial currently (Ferlenga 2023).
Albeit the situation is truly worrying, steps have been taken to improve it with the implementation of projects, initiation of policies and the proposal of raising awareness measures. And it is precisely on these positive and propulsive initiatives for enhancement that our conference originates from.
The theme proposed by the conference and the call for abstracts is intended to initiate a critical and optimistic discussion on the good practices in Europe that have been made in the last 50 years, at the turn of the old and the new century. The discussion tracks will mainly concern three macro-themes:
- Territorial actions/transformations_ Strategic visions/policy analysis and systemic transformations in the supra-urban territory
- Urban actions/transformations_Sustainable projects/strategies for the future city
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Design actions/transformations_Site-specific design experiments
Scientific Committee
The Scientific Committee is composed of the members of the
Academic Board of PhD Programme in Architecture and
Design Cultures, Department of Architecture, Alma Mater
Studiorum, University of Bologna.
Organising Committee
XXXIX PhD Cycle in Architecture and Design Cultures: Alessia Bertuca, Fangyu Chen, Zhouyan He, Noemi Irmi, Yannick Cornelis Petronella Henriette Johannes Joosten, Iuliia Kozlova, Yehui Peng, Martino Pietropoli, Haruna Saito, Emma Veronese.