Mediazione giovani
Mediazione Giovani 2025/2026: From school to public space
Design, build, participate: a journey through the culture of the built environment that brings students' ideas into the city.
In the 2025/2026 school year, Mediazione Giovani – Urban Culture Workshops involved, for the first time, students from the Centro Professionale Tecnico Lugano-Trevano in a programme dedicated to the design and regeneration of public space.
The project, promoted by the Istituto Internazionale di Architettura, was created with the aim of introducing new generations to the culture of the built environment, giving them the tools to read the territory, understand its transformations, and take an active, informed part in shaping it.
Mediazione Giovani develops through dialogue between schools, institutions, professionals and businesses. This network has made it possible to turn an educational experience into a concrete intervention for the city, while also creating a space for exchange between the skills of the school and those of the professional world.
The 2025/2026 edition was carried out in collaboration with the City of Lugano, the Loreto Neighbourhood Commission, Veragouth and Xilema, Lugano Convention & Exhibition, and the Divisione Spazi Urbani, with the essential support of Coop Cultura.
Isole d'Estate 2026: Learning by Building
The theme of the 2025/2026 workshops — "Designing the City in a Changing Climate" — placed the effects of climate change on urban environments at its centre, with a focus on the phenomenon of urban heat islands and strategies for adaptation and sustainability. Students worked on the possibility of temporarily transforming public space through installations capable of improving environmental comfort and encouraging people to meet and share spaces.
The programme began with a site visit to the area around Piazza Castello and the Loreto neighbourhood, in dialogue with the Neighbourhood Commission. Each group then developed a complete design proposal — territorial analysis, technical drawings, scale model — presented publicly at Villa Ciani to teachers, professionals and representatives of the City of Lugano.
In this edition, the process did not stop at the presentation stage. Some of the proposals moved into the execution phase and were transformed into two temporary installations in Lugano's public space, built during the summer of 2026. Students thus followed the entire process, from context analysis through to construction, working in the Veragouth and Xilema workshops and observing the use of computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) machinery. Particular attention was paid to the reuse of materials — wooden pallets, conference panels and plant material from the municipal greenhouses — turning the construction phase into a concrete opportunity to reflect on the circular economy.
The installation built in Piazza Castello was also included in the LongLake Festival 2026 programme, becoming part of the city's calendar of summer initiatives.
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