Tonight IAAC welcomed the italo-american architect Marcella Del Signore, who gave a lecture about PROTOTYPING THE TEMPORARY CITY Today the notions of temporality and event play an important role in the strategic definition of the contemporary city. The concept of the temporary city unfolds out of an understanding that the city as our social, economical, and ecological environment is rooted in a  four dimensional scenography. In contrast to static master plans and technocratic top-down strategies, designers, artists and more recently city planners are exploring temporary tactics to provide immediate response to urban issues and to act against  the lack of local urbanism.

  Marcella Del Signore is an architect and Assistant Professor at Tulane School of Architecture in New Orleans. She holds a Master in Architecture from University La Sapienza in Rome and a M.S in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in New York. She is the principal of X-Topia, a practice networked in USA and Europe that explores the intersections of architecture with digital processes, urban space and art. Her research focuses on the production of  public / urban space through performative actions, applied technology and responsive systems. Also, part of her work focuses on the application of computational methodologies and information media to multiple scales of design, from objects to architecture to urban interventions. She has practiced in Rome, Madrid, New Orleans, and New York. In New York she worked for Eisenman Architects and Richard Meier & Partners. She taught at Barnard College at Columbia University, LSU School of Architecture and since 2008 she is Assistant Professor of Architecture at Tulane University. She has published and exhibited widely. Next lecture scheduled for the of the Iaac Lecture Series – Fall Term will be Mette Ramsgard Thomsen on the 6th of November at 7:30PM.