IDEA 2026 — International Congress on innovation, design and application com o tema Translations

Name: IDEA 2026 — International Congress on innovation, design and application com o tema Translations
Start: 2026-10-02T08:30:00.000Z
End: 2026-10-02T17:30:00.000Z
Location: ESAD — College of Art and Design

Conference organised by esad—idea

02.10.2026 08:30 – 17:30

ESAD — College of Art and Design

IDEA 2026 — International Congress on innovation, design and application com o tema Translations marks the fourth edition of the IDEA international congress, an initiative founded by the Università degli Studi di Genova (UNIGE) and the Università degli Studi di Palermo (UNIPA), with the 2026 edition being hosted and organised by esad—idea / ESAD.

Under the theme Translations, the conference aims to provide a forum for reflection and debate on translation as a process of transformation, mediation and knowledge transfer within design and its relationships with other disciplines.

IDEA 2026 brings together participants from four countries — Portugal, Italy, Turkey and the United States — and from around 10 institutions and organisations, reinforcing the international and interdisciplinary nature of this third edition. Among the institutions represented are ESAD / esad—idea, Universidade de Lisboa, Università degli Studi di Genova, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Politecnico di Torino, Marmara University e Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, among others.

Attendance is subject to prior registration. Registration is free for students and members of the ESAD community.

Programme

08:30 — Registration and Welcome Coffee

09:00 — Welcome and Opening Remarks

09:30 — Keynote + Q&A
(45-minute keynote lecture + 15-minute Q&A session)
— Rosa Alice Branco

10:30 — 15 min Coffee Break

10:45 — Panel 1 + 20-minute discussion and Q&A
From Literary to Physical Experience: Drawing as an Act of Translation
Chair: Vincenza Garofalo (University of Palermo)
— Graphic Interpretations of the Narrated Space
Alessia Garozzo; Francesco Maggio
— Graphic and Symbolic Transition
Ana Santos; José Manuel Saraiva
— 260 cover variations for Ensaio sobre a cegueira
Carolina Lemos; José Bártolo; Sérgio Correia
— Libraries on Screen: Architectural Space between Reality and Cinematic Fiction —
Plans Compared
Gian Marco Girgenti; Eleonora Mancuso
— Beyond Representation: Drawing, Staging and the Autonomy of Visual Worlds
Marta Poeira
—Drawing as a Binding Agent for Interdisciplinary Research: A Translative Operation
on Bilge Karasu’s Essay on a Dark Yal
Melek Kılınç
— Draw Your Childhood Room: A Phenomenological Perspective on Space
Ravza Gözcü

12:30 — Networking Lunch

14:00 — Panel 2 + 20-minute discussion and Q&A
(45-minute keynote lecture + 20-minute Q&A session)
From Language to Digital Space: Technological Translations
Chair: Ana Sofia Cardoso (esad—idea)
— Serious Games and AI as Tools for Mediating Urban Heritage
Ruggero Torti
— Graphic Design and Editorial Identity: Discos Orfeu 1956–1983
José Bártolo
— Translating the language of the blockchain. Interfaces as devices of mediation
between cryptographic complexity and conscious action
Isabella Nevoso
— The Primacy of Feeling: Neuroesthetics, Biophilia, and the Spatial Paradox of Design
as Therapy
Sara Miranda

15:00 — 15 min Coffee Break

15:15 – 17:00 | Panel 3 + 20-minute
discussion and Q&A
Making is Thinking: Translating Thought into Space
Chair: Emílio Remelhe (esad—idea)
— Drawing as Translation. The transversal role of drawing in the industrial design
process
André Tiago Gouveia
— Thinking Atmospheres through Design: Toward an Extended Language of
Atmosphere
Elisabetta Canepa; Riccardo Rapparini
— The Hand that Draws the Future
Ivan Chow
— Interior yacht design as embodied making: translating motion into space
Mariateresa Campolongo
— From Recipe to Space: Food Design as Embodied Translation
Ricardo Bonacho; José Simões
— The Role of Natural Light in Tadao Ando’s Architecture: Church of the Light & Azuma
House
Ruhee Hudda
— Drawing as an act of visual thinking: translating between languages in the
eighteenth-century Portuguese scientific book. Towards an archaeology of
information design
Sofia Carrola

17:00 | Closing Remarks and IDEA 2027 Announcement

Scientific Committee

ESAD
M. Azevedo, M. J. Baltazar, J. Bártolo, R. A. Branco,A. S. Cardoso, A. Duque, J. Lemos, L. Magri, M. Milano, O. Noronha, A. Rainha J. Simões, E. Côrte-Real H. Souto (ESAD);

UNIGE
E. Bistagnino, G. Leandri, L. Marinelli

UNIPA
V. Garofalo, F. Maggio

UNI Vanvitelli
O. Zerlenga

UNIPI
M. G. Bevilacqua)

UNIPD
A. Rossi