Università Roma Tre

Villard is an annual itinerant design seminar, involving Italian and foreign Faculty of Architecture and some prestigious cultural institutions: the Faculty of Architecture of Alghero, Ascoli Piceno, Naples, Palermo, Patras, Paris Malaquais, Pescara, Reggio Calabria, Roma Tre, Venice, Milan Polytechnic, the University of Ancona Engineering. At the seminar can participate ten students from each faculty, enrolled in the last years of the course and selected on merit. The program involves the construction of a design project on a topic proposed by municipalities or other institutions, related to various local situations. The theme is presented at the workshop and developed in the year in the different stages. The trip is the backbone of the seminar as a knowledge of the city instrument. During each stage, with the contribution of the participating faculty teachers, they are organized meetings, classes, lectures, guided tours and exhibitions. Each stage lasts 3-4 days. The design work is carried out during the times that the various faculty dedicated to workshops. The meetings in different universities mean that the students come into contact with different physical and cultural places, crossing experiences and knowledge with teachers and students from other locations. The seminar brought to its conclusion at a final event: the exhibition, with the presentation and awarding of the best projects, followed by the publication of the catalog with the work of students and critical contributions collected during the seminar.
The theme of the eighteenth edition of the seminar: "Sustainable urban regeneration", intends to open a debate on urban renewal as an opportunity for meeting and coexistence between cultures. The seminar proposes five key areas of the city of Piacenza.