Thursday, March 19th at 6:00pm
Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago
Free with registration
The Italian Design Day reaches its 10th edition in 2026, with the theme RE-DESIGN: Regenerate spaces, objects, ideas, relations which aims to offer an opportunity for reflection on the role of design and architecture in improving everyday living spaces and the well-being of communities.
On this occasion, Prof. Alessandro Rotta Loria, Louis Berger Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, will introduce the project Underground Climate Change, presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. Developed through a study by the Subsurface Opportunities and Innovations Laboratory (Northwestern University), GEOEG, and ENERDRAPE, the project examines the effects of underground infrastructure and services in cities and the resulting creation of heat islands.
“The ground beneath the Windy City is shifting”
Smithsonian Magazine
This phenomenon, known as an underground climate change, is causing ground temperatures to rise by up to 2.5°C per decade, with local anomalies exceeding 70°C. These temperatures pose risks to building foundations, underground transportation systems, public health, and the environment. However, underground climate change also presents valuable opportunities to retrofit building envelopes and deploy geothermal technologies to reduce the diffusion of waste heat in the urban subsurface and enhance the sustainability of cities.
An architectural engineer by training, Alessandro Rotta Loria is the Louis Berger Associate Professor and Director of the Subsurface Opportunities and Innovations Laboratory (SOIL) at Northwestern University, as well as co-founder of GEOEG, Enerdrape, and MINERALIZE. His work focuses on the subsurface, devising novel ways for the underground to accelerate the renewable energy transition, decarbonize the construction sector, advance infrastructure innovation, and safeguard both natural and built environments. Alessandro is the author of the forthcoming monograph Underground Climate Change (Oxford University Press, 2026) and co-author of Analysis and Design of Energy Geostructures (Elsevier Academic Press, 2019), as well as two book chapters, five patents, and more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles. His work has been featured by media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Scientific American, CNN, BBC, the United Nations, Forbes, and Bloomberg; exhibited at the Venice Biennale of Architecture and the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism; and presented as a TED Talk. He has been named a World Innovator Under 35 (Top 100 list) by MIT Technology Review and one of Crain’s Chicago 40 Under 40, and has received honors including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Northwestern University Curriculum Innovation Award, and the Leonardo da Vinci Award from the Engineering Mechanics Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
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