VENICE (ITALPRESS) – In 2026 the Iuav University of Venice celebrates one hundred years since its foundation, confirming itself as a public university of excellence and an international reference point for the culture of the project. Radiated in the heart of Venice, a laboratory of innovation and experimentation, Iuav has interwoven since its origins research, teaching and design, making the project a critical tool to understand and transform the contemporary world. Throughout 2026, an articulated program will animate the University and the city, involving different publics and strengthening the sense of belonging to a broad and plural scientific community. The Centenary, however, represents not only a celebratory occasion, but a moment of reflection on the identity of the public university, the value of its roots and the ability to consolidate and renew a role of scientific, design and cultural leadership in the fields of architecture, urban planning and planning, design, fashion and arts.
“Celebrating the Centenary means looking at the past with gratitude and the future with responsibility – says Rector Benno Albrecht. Iuav University has always been able to combine tradition and innovation, opening its doors to students and researchers from all over the world. Today more than ever, our commitment is to strengthen the international vocation of the University, develop innovative teaching and research programmes, promote sustainability in projects and foster interdisciplinary collaborations. We want to consolidate Iuav as an open laboratory, capable of forming critical, creative and responsible professionals and citizens, able to face the global challenges of the future and contribute to the cultural and social development of the city, the country and the world.”.
The rich calendar of events, conferences and exhibitions was designed and designed to actively involve not only the academic community, but also the city of Venice and a wider audience – explains Alberto Bassi, Project Manager and Scientific Coordination of the Centenary – we want to tell the story and identity of Iuav, highlighting its deep roots and at the same time opening a space for dialogue and discussion on contemporary and future challenges of the University. This plurality of initiatives reflects the interdisciplinary and international nature of the University, which aims to be an open and innovative laboratory, capable of producing knowledge and stimulating new visions in the fields of architecture, urbanism, design, fashion and arts”.
Among the main initiatives are planned in Magazzino 6 in Santa Marta two important exhibitions. In spring, “100 drawings x 100 years”, curated by Gabriella Liva, Marzia Marandola and Gundula Rakowitz (from 16 April to 31 July) will exhibit largely original drawings from the Iuav Project Archive, documenting the plurality of cultural positions that characterized the history of the University: architects, urbanists, designers, artists, talents of fashion, theatre and performing arts and scholars of the different disciplines. In autumn, the photo exhibition “Guido Guidi all’Iuav”, curated by Stefano Munarin, Antonello Frongia, Michele Buda and Andrea Pertoldeo, will be dedicated to one of the most renowned Italian photographers, who crossed an important part of the history of the Iuav University.
The University will also organize a cycle of monthly conferences, “Dieci per cent – the Iuav conferences of the Centenary”, with the participation of prominent personalities of the national and international scene, every first Monday of the month. Seminars, workshops, public events and publications will be disseminated between university spaces and symbolic places of the city, to consolidate the link between Iuav and Venice and reaffirm the international vocation of the public university. The Library will open to the public as an instrument of reading the past century, disciplines, ideas and visions that have marked the history of the University: an exhibition itinerary, divided into eight thematic sections, will tell the relationship with Venice as a city-laboratory, international networks, theoretical reflection, city research, environment and historical centers, editorial practices, teaching and interdisciplinary.
On the occasion of the hundred years, Iuav has promoted an invitation contest among the design teachers of communication, in collaboration with AIAP, to renew its visual identity. The new logo, the user manual and the coordinated applications represent not only a graphic update, but a true cultural project, able to tell and interpret this important historical passage. The Centenary is configured as an open laboratory, rooted in history and projected towards the future, reaffirming the role of the Iuav University of Venice as a public university and place of critical elaboration and advanced production of the culture of the project, in dialogue with Italy and the world.
– photo press office Iuav –
(ITALPRESS).
