Franco Zagari

Franco Zagari is a graduate architect and landscape architect from Rome's Faculty of Architecture "La Sapienza". He is Full Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, where he founded and directed the Oasi Department and was Coordinator of the Doctorate in Architecture of Parks, Gardens and Territory. He is Professor of "High Qualification" at the University of La Sapienza.

Course

Throughout his career, Franco Zagari has combined academic research, which has led to numerous publications and books, with the design and realization of just as many public space and landscape architecture projects.

From the 2000s onwards, he worked to set up partnerships with various national and international faculties of architecture, and played an active part in the development of international networks such as UNISCAPE (European network of Universities for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention). A founding member and permanent scientific director of this network, he has promoted the definition of qualitative approaches to research, stemming from the "design-approach".

In 2010, he accepted the position of President of the Jury for the Vie Biennale Européenne du Paysage in Barcelona. In the same year, he was appointed Honorary Member of the AIAPP (Associazione Italiana Architettura Del Paesaggio).

Achievements

Numerous works and projects have been presented in Italy, France, Scotland, Georgia, Japan and Jordan. His works include: the Osaka Garden (1990); Piazza Montecitoro in Rome (1998); the "Lungomare" in Porto St Elpidio (2003), Castiglioncello (2006-07), the Eur-Rome Park (2005-07), three squares in Saint-Denis-Paris (2005-07), the underpass at Bergamo railway station (2009), the cupola of the Presidential Palace in Tblisi (Rep. Georgia 2008), the Z5 Garden in Rome (2010), the Landscape of the T3 and T7 districts in Marsa Zayad and Aqaba - Jordan (2012), Piazza Matteotti in Catanzaro (2015), the Commercial Park in Formia (2015), "Hortus", Expo Milan (2015), Peace Park in Vicenza (in progress), and more.

Several monographic exhibitions have been dedicated to his work and activities as a researcher, designer and intellectual in continuous interaction with societal mutations: in Pisa in 2016 "Franco Zagari, architettura e paesaggio. Progetti", a cura Di Fabio di Carlo e Associazione LP (Pisa,Bastione Sangallo); in Barcelona in 2018 "La parola ai Progetti", di rectionFabio Di Carlo e Sarah Amari, as part of the Xth Barcelona Landscape Biennial (COAC, collegi d'arquitectes de catalunya, Barcellona).

He is currently continuing his activities as a scientific interpreter of architectural, urban and landscape qualities through numerous assignments for various universities and national and international administrations.

Distinctions

• Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (France, 1998)
• Gubbio European Prize (2009)
• Prix " Great Italian Landscape Tree " (2013)
• Roma-Architettura Architectural Career Award (2014)