Silvia Susanna is an architect and independent researcher. She works within an interdisciplinary art-based practice that encompasses spatial practices, community-driven projects, speculative design research, and filmmaking.
Her focus is primarily on projects that explore the established assumptions about the built environment and its social, cultural, and political implications. She has collaborated with architectural firms and informal collectives, often in multidisciplinary groups, serving as an architect, design researcher, assistant curator, project manager, and, more recently, filmmaker in Italy and abroad.
Currently, she is exploring the relationship between matter, cultural production, value, and memory.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
2022 - DAAS Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Studies postgraduate at Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, SWE
2020 - Short term diploma in Filmmaking, New York Film Academy / New York City, USA
2019 - Materia Abierta: Theory, Art, and Technology, independent program / Mexico City, MX
2010 - Urban Research, LiveinSlums / Cairo, ET
2010 - Master’s Degree in Architecture, with honours, University of Architecture, La Sapienza / Rome, IT
2008 - WAT Unesco - Chair in Landscape & Environmental Design / Jinze, Qinpu-Shanghai, CHN
2007 - Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture, University of Architecture, La Sapienza / Rome, IT
WORK EXPERIENCE
since 2018 - founder of SPAN agency
2020 - guest researcher at CNR - Istituto per le tecnologie applicate ai beni culturali, Rome, IT
2018-2013 - architect at dekleva gregorič architects, Ljubljana, SI
2018 - 16th Venice Architecture Biennale - assistant architect “Unveiling the Hidden”, Venice, IT
2016 - 15th Venice Architecture Biennale - curators’ assistant Slovenian Presentation [Home at Arsenale], Venice, IT
2017 - 57th Venice Art Biennale - architect - Future Generation Art Prize, Venice, IT
2017 - 57th Venice Art Biennale - architect - Tunisian Pavilion “The Absence of the Path”, Venice, IT
2014-2017 - researcher at nanotourism, international platform
02/2011 > 05/2011 - architect at nio architecten, Rome, IT
06/2011 > 12/2011 - architect at Sab Studio, Rome, IT
2009 > 2011 - architect at Sciatto Produzie, Rome, IT
03/2009 > 07/2009 - architect at Ma_Architecture, Rome, IT
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS/CONFERENCES/LECTURES/WORKSHOP
2024 - What is the tickness of coloniality?, conference, Matter Materiality, 36th Congress of the Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art, Lyon, FR
2024 - Beyond the Façade of Fascism: On heritage, care, and repair, lecture, IASPIS, Stockholm, SE
2024 - 2 cm the tickness of fascism, Entity of Decolonisation, lecture, Borgo Rizza, Carlentini, Sicilia, IT
2023 - Diffractive Windows, exhibition, dieDAS, Saaleck, DE
2023 - LYNX Summer School, Dissonances. Re-interpreting and re-assessing difficult heritage, IMT Lucca, IT
2023 - 2 cm the tickness of fascism, After festival, lecture, Borgo Rizza, Carlentini, Sicilia, IT
2022 - 2 cm the tickness of fascism, Entity of Decolonisation, exhibition, Borgo Rizza, Carlentini, Sicilia, IT
2022 - nourishing conversations, Borgo Rizza, workshop, Carlentini, Sicilia, IT
2022 - St(r)aying together, discursive exhibition, Ground, Stockholm, SE
2022 - St(r)ay, KKH, discursive exhibition, Berlin, DE
2021 - St(r)ay, Casa Punto Croce, discursive exhibition, Venice, IT
2018 - nanotourism, exhibition/lecture, Vienna Design Week, AUT
2014 - BIO50 @ Atelier Clerici, exhibition, Milan Design Week, IT
2014 - BIO50}hotel, exhibition, Museum of Architecture and Design of Ljubljana, 24th Biennial of Design of Ljubljana, SI
2014 - nanotourism, exhibition, 24th Biennial of Design of Ljubljana, SI
2012 - BaBeL 2, Independent Festival on Critical Housing, Rome, IT
AWARDS/GRANTS/FELLOWSHIP
2024 - Mobility Grant - Istituto Italiano di Cultura Lione, Francia
2024 - IASPIS Studio Grant -
Swedish Arts Grants Committee's international programme for visual
and applied arts
2023 - dieDAS - Design Akademie Saaleck, Germany
2022 - Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, Germany
2020 - FSE European Grant Tornosubito, Italy
2019 - Goethe Institut Milano, Italy
2014 - 1st prize 24th Biennial of Design Ljubljana, Slovenia
2014 - 3rd prize competition “CENTER ZAŠČITE IN REŠEVANJA” Ljubljana, Slovenia
2014 - 4th prize competition “Studentenwohnheim Weihnstephan” Germany
2013 - Grant “Urban Sustainable Architecture II” by INARCH Roma, Italy