There is time until 5^th July 2021 to sign up to Agorà Design, the event dedicated to the culture of architectural design, promoted by the cultural association of the same name with the support of the main sponsor Sprech and the collaboration of other public and private organisations. After the postponement of the 2020’s edition, the event will be back from 30^th September to 3^rd October 2021 in Martano, a village in the province of Lecce, in southern Italy. In addition to a rich program of conferences and themed workshops, the event will feature a competition open to professionals, designers, craftsmen and students. There will be two sections: Agorà Living, dedicated to interior furnishings, and Agorà Garden, organised by Sprech, dedicated to the outdoors and divided into textile structures (covers, tensile structures, awnings, dehors, gazebos) and outdoor furnishings.

Since 1995, thanks to this event, the village of Martano has become a meeting place for a nomadic community of designers, creatives and entrepreneurs from all over Italy, but also a space for the free circulation of ideas on cultural and social issues related to architecture. Dialogue and encounters between different generations and cultures are indeed the soul of Agorà Design, which over the years has become an international event with the participation of Stefano Boeri, Benedetta Tagliabue (president of the jury), Walter Mariotti (editorial director of Domus), Novella Cappelletti (editor of Paysage), Marco Rainò (architect and editor of Icon Design), Florinda Saieva (Farm Cultural Park), Francesco Pagliari (architecture and art critic and editor of The Plan) and many other prestigious names in the field of architecture and design.

«As other festivals and events, the 2020’s edition of Agorà Design also suffered the forced stop due to the health emergency», emphasises Lucia Rescio, president of the Agorà Design association and general manager of Sprech. «Although it has been a complex year, we have never stopped working on the event, improving the various phases of it, gathering ideas, with the aim of making the 2021 edition of Agorà Design a fortuitous trigger for the European production cycle and the economy of our country. It will probably be a hybrid edition, with limited seating, in order to guarantee safety, but largest diffusion through all digital channels: we will guarantee the live streaming of the talks, keynote address and scheduled appointments. The same visibility will be guaranteed to the participants in the competition and the selected projects», she continues. «Take part in the Agorà Design competition also means having the concrete opportunity to turn an idea into a commercial product and at the same time get into the heart of the debate on architecture and design thanks to the possibility of meeting with the major players in the sector. Sprech's support for Agorà Design stems from the awareness that our territory can be the centre of new cultural and commercial exchanges, a fundamental junction for the entire Mediterranean area. For us, Corporate Social Responsibility means managing to involve the area in which we operate, create opportunities, and stimulate discussion, because profit is not only given by turnover, but by the added value we manage to generate for the community».