The Ideal Spaces Foundation and Prof. Ettore Mazzola (School of Architecture, University of Notre Dame, Rome) will spend several days exploring the relationship between architecture and urban development as a prerequisite for identity, culture and active citizenship.
The workshop is based on the premise that a lively and appreciated cultural heritage is crucial for human identity and hence, for human life as such. Cultural heritage is more than tradition, but the root of human existence. The human being needs culture to survive.
Today, this heritage is under threat from different directions. We face not only the loss of architectural heritage, but also of a sociability that is essential for a respectful and tolerant human coexistence. We face social retreat and isolationism; the emergence of a pseudo-outer world triggered by algorithms favouring an addiction to social media and its aligned voyeuristic capitalism; the rise of a kind of AI that replaces human mind and creativity; the rise of fundamentalist movements of different ideological, political, and religious directions; the actual destruction of cities as a base of identity and belonging. In their combined effects, all these forces lead to an actual loss of real citizenship; which is inherent to democracy and essential for human belonging as such.
In this workshop, Prof. Ettore Mazzola will look at different domains of a loss of cultural heritage and their transdisciplinary implications. The starting point is the field of architecture and the city, as both are essential to culture and the majority of today’s global population lives in cities or urban agglomerations.
Dates: 4–6 September 2026 from 12:00–16:00 and 17:30–20:00; on 6 September 2026 from 10:00 until the end
The workshop will be held in English at the Ideal Spaces Foundation, Nesslerstr. 16, 76227 Karlsruhe. Participation is free of charge and can take place online or in person. Further information and the option to register can be found here.
