SEED 23: The seed of forward thinking is planted in Umbria.

From April 24-30, the first international architecture festival dedicated to sustainable ecology and human regeneration will take place between Perugia and Assisi.

This is not the first time that I AM Blog, the container that gives voice to the worlds, interests and most authentic essence of CIAM, has covered topics such as Sustainability and Nature. We also did so with a contribution signed by Andrea Margaritelli, president of the National Institute of Architecture, who for the occasion opened the issue of I AM dedicated to nature as an element that forms the CIAM DNA. An intervention that ended by quoting the words of artist Joseph Beuys:

“Man must reconnect with other forces: he must look to the ground to re-establish relationship with nature and other living beings; he must look up to reconcile with angels and spirits.”

A phrase that not by chance we find again today as the premise and invitation of the first edition of Seed, International Festival of Architecture, which will take place from April 24 to 30 in Perugia and Assisi, a fundamental appointment to promote and lay the foundations of a human ecology understood as a perspective of reconstruction of a balanced relationship between man, spirituality and the rest of nature. Seed is a seed, an action, a methodology, a community that invites personalities and professionals from different worlds to meet and confront each other around the same table. An appointment that is characterized above all by a multidisciplinary approach that serves to look frankly into each other’s eyes, exchange ideas, share experiences and propose concrete actions to be put on the ground to open the doors to a different future. “Because today,” says Margaritelli, “it seems clear that it will be precisely the rapid modification of mentalities and behaviors-much more than the imposition of regulatory limits-that will be the only effective tool to deal with the environmental crisis and its effects, which do not so much invest the future of the planet as that of our survival.”

Organized by the Guglielmo Giordano Foundation and promoted by the National Institute of Architecture and the Umbra Foundation for Architecture, with the support of the Region of Umbria, the Province of Perugia, the Perugia Foundation, the Municipality of Perugia and the Municipality of Assisi, the festival aims to embrace the entire territory of Umbria, not just Perugia and Assisi, “Two cities”-Margaritelli continues-“united by very strong symbolic values that evoke art, culture, respect for the environment and spirituality. The festival declines these deep historical roots into the contemporary and builds a great bridge to the future. The central theme of Seed 2023 will be that of human regeneration, a vision that aims to reconcile man with heaven and earth: with his spiritual dimension and with the other forces of nature.”

Umbria at the center of a multidisciplinary reflection that will involve nature and spirituality. With an intense program in which architects, engineers, urban planners, artists, scientists, philosophers, psychologists and economists will dialogue, the nature and sacredness proper to our territory will frame a “universal” stage that aims to turn the spotlight on the future of design, architecture and the environment.

For further information: seed360.org