Stanze is the first bilingual architecture book series by Plectica Editrice aimed at disseminating concise contributions on the theme of the stanza (or room).
The collection of this series’ volumes intends to provide a general overview of the multi-faceted interpretations of the topic of the room as both a spatial and temporal element, hence not only material but also immaterial.

In fact, despite being an architectural archetype, the topic of the room opens up various possibilities for a multidisciplinary approach to architectural research. The exercise required for the author to focus their interest on a circumscribed theme allows to go beyond the disciplinary boundaries of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and urban planning, since reducing the scale of investigation to the human being and his relationships with the surrounding environment and vice versa, allows greater interpretative freedom on the subject.

Stanze intends to be a new, but also daring collection of writings on the architecture and nature of the room. The collection of different points of view will make it possible to gather multiple viewpoints on the architectural unit of measure par excellence. This will open up to the series of disciplines, theories and methodological approaches through which architecture is understood and studied today.

The book series is composed of small volumes with theoretical and historical contributions ranging between 15,000 and 20,000 words. The theme of the room will be approached from different angles, such as its representation, its implementation, but also its evolution, perception or characterization. Each of the publications in this series will contribute to a definition of room, or the set of rooms that make up natural, artificial, or unreal landscapes.

The volumes will be published in English or Italian, depending on the author’s choice, and will be distributed both in Italy and the UK. A series of events will be associated with the volumes, such as an official launch both in the United Kingdom and Italy. Moreover, at the end of each annual cycle of publications, a symposium-event will be organized to discuss the theme of the rooms with authors and guests.

A scientific committee of distinguished academics and researchers of various nationalities will guarantee the quality of the publications included in the volumes of Stanze.

What is Stanze?
Check out our Manifesto

Scientific Committee

Claudia Conforti
Professor Emeritus in Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Tor Vergata University, Rome.

Harriet Harris
Professor, Dean, School of Architecture, Pratt Institute, New York City.

Catherine Ince
Chief Curator, V&A East, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Mario Lupano
Professor, IUAV, Istituto Universitario Architettura, Venice.

Antoine Picon
G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology and co-director of Research at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge (MA). President of Le Corbusier Foundation, Paris.

Mark Pimlott
Artist, Architect, Professor, Architectural Design and Interiors "Interior Buildings Cities", TU Delft.

Antonino Saggio
Professor, School of Architecture, Sapienza University, Rome.

Stanze Volume 01
Domestic City Ugo La Pietra

The first volume of Stanze assembles carefully selected images and texts by Ugo La Pietra. An emblematic figure of the Italian Radical Season, La Pietra shares his understanding of the room as a setting for material and visual experimentation involving social processes and objects of domestic use. This retrospective anthology with notes by the author himself reveals the ways in which the act of writing constituted an essential component of his most celebrated designs.

Team

Francesca Romana Forlini
Director of Stanze and Managing Editor

Mariano Cuofano
Director of Plectica Editrice

Magda de Notariis
Editorial Consultant (IT)

Giulia Cenciarelli
Communication and Events

Jacopo A. Colarossi
Assistant editor, communication and events

Stefan Popa
Editor and Proofreader

Magda Tritto
Graphic Designer

If you are a researcher, educator or professional and you are interested in publishing in Stanze please contact us at info@plecticaeditrice.it. Please share in the email your name, surname, affiliations, a biography (150 words) and an abstract of 500 words maximum.