Contributor

A journalist who has been at the forefront of the transformation of journalism in the digital era for over thirty years. He was born in Rome in 1965, and wrote for the daily newspaper La Repubblica for fifteen years. Specialising in topics linked to technological innovation and the internet, he was the first director of the Italian edition of Wired and backed the candidature of the Internet for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. From 2014 to 2016 he was the Italian government’s Digital Champion, a role created by the European Union to promote the digital agenda in its Member States.

Founded by Ma Yansong in 2004, MAD Architects is led by Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, and Yosuke Hayano. It is committed to developing futuristic, organic, technologically advanced designs that embody a contemporary interpretation of the Eastern affinity for nature. With a vision for the city of the future based in the spiritual and emotional needs of residents, MAD endeavors to create a balance between humanity, the city, and the enviroment. MAD's projects encompass urban planning, urban complexes, municipal buildings, museums, theaters, concert halls, and housing, as well as art and design.

Adrian Madlener is a Brussels-born, New York-based art, architecture, and design writer. A designer-turned-journalist, he studied at the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Parsons / Cooper Hewitt History of Design and Curatorial Studies programme. Madlener has worked as an editor at Frame magazine, TL magazine, and The Architect’s Newspaper. With a particular focus on topics that demonstrate the best in craft-led experimentation, sustainability, and, he has contributed to numerous European and U.S.

Sara Magni graduated in Stage Design from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, and went on to do a master’s at the Istituto Italiano di Fotografia. She is interested in spaces and colour, and in the interaction between people and places. Her work ranges from architecture to design and portraiture. She works primarily for corporations and publishing. In her personal projects, she likes to use her gaze to catalogue, preferring an approach based on repetition, and the use of sometimes theatrical lighting.  

About Cherine Magrabi Tayeb – Professionally

A natural entrepreneur and businesswoman, Cherine Magrabi Tayeb brings together her creativity, specialized knowledge in design, and her business sense to every project she undertakes. With an academic background in art and design, Cherine has become an avid collector, but is also a proactive contributor and key player on the arts & design scenes internationally and has served on judge panels as well as being on the council of many prestigious international museums and design institutions over the years.

Jessica Mairs is a London-based journalist covering architecture, design and interior design. Originally from Northern Ireland, she moved to London in 2007 where she studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts (University of the Arts London) and in 2014 gained a NCTJ Diploma in Journalism. She went on to work for Dezeen from 2014-18, first as a reporter and then as architecture editor, and in 2018 relocated to Milan to join the editorial team at Domus as web editor.

She gained a classical education at the Liceo Parini, a literature degree from the University of Milan (her thesis was on the 19th century stained glass windows in the Duomo in Milan), and a Masters in Art History from UMass Amherst, in America. This was followed by publishing and research experience with Arnoldo Mondadori Editore Publishing in New York, as assistant to the Vice President and contributor to the Panorama publication. She then worked in Milan from late 1992 onwards, as an editor for the magazines Abitare and Case da Abitare.

British-Canadian Philippe Malouin holds a bachelor’s degree in Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven. He has also studied at the École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle in Paris and University of Montreal. He set up his studio in 2008 after working for English designer Tom Dixon. Philippe has also taught at the Royal College of Art in London between 2012-2015. His diverse portfolio includes tables, rugs, chairs, lights, art objects and installations.

Independent art director and curator of digital narratives. Born in Milan.

After his studies in Fashion and Textile Design, he started out as Assistant Fashion Director, subsequently becoming Head of Art and Content Direction, for the independent magazine Unflop – while continuing to work as a consultant for creative direction agencies.  

His time on photographic sets, in the buzzing publishing world, fuelled his interest in writing, which soon became his means of supporting and narrating – along with his beloved images - inaccessible worlds, chronicling the intimate.  

Hailing originally from the Liguria region, Giulia Marani - journalist, publicist and advertiser – first moved to Milan, then to Paris, where she joined the editorial staff of the magazine Architectures à vivre and failed, despite her best attempts, to grow basil on her balcony.

Paolo Marchi was born in Milan on 20 March 1955; his father Rolly created the Topolino Skiing Trophy and his mother Graziella was a painter. Paolo wrote for the Italian newspaper Il Giornale from December 1979 to February 2011. In January 2004 he came up with a life-changing plan and founded Identità Golose, Italy's first fine dining and pastry-making congress, thanks also to his partnership with Claudio Ceroni, an entrepreneur in major event planning and television production.

danielemari (all one word, as everyone calls him) moved from near the sea in Southern Italy by way of Spain, New York and Paris, to Milan in 2007, where he has made a career out of his passion for photography. His blend of craftsman-like technical skills and his own imagination make for poetics to which he remains faithful in all his projects – from fashion photography to still lifes, travel reportages and creative direction.  

Laura May Todd is a Canadian-born, Milan-based journalist. Originally from the Rocky Mountain adjacent town of Calgary, Alberta, she went on to attend the University of Toronto where she studied English Literature and Art History. A dual British-Canadian citizen, she moved to London, England in 2012 to work in architectural editorial for the Arts publisher Phaidon Press. In late 2016 she then relocated to Milan, Italy, where she began freelance writing full time.

Tuscan by birth, Milanese by choice. While still an art student, she began to immerse herself in the thousand faces of design, which soon became her world. Today she is passionate about writing (she collaborates regularly with AD Italia and has contributed, among others, to magazines such as World and Icon Design), with an eye firmly fixed on the 2.0 universe and new digital frontiers. Curious by nature, she never tires of asking questions and listening to stories. Words are her superpower, through which she narrates people and projects.

42 years old, she is a freelance journalist and media relations executive with a degree in Sociology from the University of Rome La Sapienza. She began her career in 2005 as a communications account and press officer in the television sector, at the MN - MEDIA NETWORK communication agency. After working as a freelance contributor for a number of youth magazines, in 2007 she worked in the press office of the Green parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies and, from 2007 to 2009, she was a journalist, presenter and reporter for the Eco TV channel (Sky 906).