
Digital futures: Is the future of European buildings smart?
Thursday 22 November 2018 6.30 - 7.30pm
The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
£15, £9
Supported by

A discussion exploring the impact digital technologies are having on the construction industry and the new possibilities they offer.
One of the considerable challenges that contemporary society faces alongside the shift to renewable energy consumption, is that of the digital transition. Today, technology advances at a never-before seen pace, transforming the ways we visualise and understand the world, and providing new tools for designing and building architecture.
In this talk, architect Chiara Tonelli will discuss how our homes, which ought to mirror an evolving society, are seemingly not responding to the digital changes affecting our daily lives. Tonelli points out that societal changes such as an increase of one-person households, nomadic workers, and people living in urban areas call for new ways of experiencing our cities.
She will be joined by Massimo Riggio of The Nice Group who will address the ways in which our homes are being altered by home automation technologies and how these approaches are predicted to become more prevalent in the future. Riggio and The Nice Group see home automation systems as the future of home living, and they key to simplifying our lives and offering new and unexpected solutions to more immediate issues.
Join our participants and hear them discuss the latest innovations in smart technology and how these can be applied in the construction industry.
This event is organised by the Italian Trade Agency.
£15, £9
Supported by

Speakers

Chiara Tonelli is Professor of Architecture Technology at Roma Tre University and Counsellor at Rome’s Architect Register. She is the coordinator of the Italian entry to the Solar Decathlon, coming third in 2012 and first in 2014, and the technical coordinator of the energy plan for the Latium region. Tonelli also coordinates the Great Scientific and Technological Project on Energy and Environment, run by the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which supports an exchange of ideas with Argentina in order to generate knowledge on positive energy buildings for the urban regeneration of informal settlements. She regularly appears on Italian television as a commentator on architecture.

Established in the early 1990s and listed on the STAR Segment of Borsa Italiana, Nice S.p.A. is an international company active in the home automation, home security and smart home sectors, with a comprehensive offering of integrated automation solutions for gates, garage doors, solar shading systems, parking systems, wireless alarm systems and home security, for residential, commercial and industrial buildings. The Nice Group will be represented by its Chief Marketing Officer, Massimo Riggio.
Related events
- Talk
Executive Master in Cultural Leadership
20 February 2025
- TalkFree
InPractice
21 February 2025
- Talk
Building Brazilian Modernism
26 March 2025
- Talk
- Talk
Brazilian Modernisms and Beyond: Symposium
4 April 2025
- Talk
Social Housing in the Balearic Islands
24 April 2025
- Talk
Executive Master in Cultural Leadership
5 June 2025
- Talk
Executive Master in Cultural Leadership
18 September 2025
- Talk
Executive Master in Cultural Leadership
6 November 2025