USI opens and presents Il Litorale

On April 11, USI officially celebrated the opening of Il Litorale, the new off-campus facility of Università della Svizzera italiana at the Maghetti district, in the heart of the city of Lugano.

In front of over fifty guests – city authorities, citizens, business executives, university stakeholders and members of the academic community – Rector Boas Erez illustrated the concept behind the new initiative of USI: "A seaboard is a place where water meets land. Similarly, in these new spaces in the city centre USI will be able to move out of its campus and meet other realities: civil society, the business world, and cultural organisations.”

The inaugural event was marked also by the participation of interior designer Giuliano Gavin who, together with architect Aldo Coldesina, interpreted the concept and managed the project of renovation and layout of the spaces, and Giorgia Pati, president of Match Strategies, the association founded by students and graduates of USI to which the university has entrusted the activities of 'community building' at Il Litorale. In fact, to implement the concept and achieve the objectives set by USI, Il Litorale will work to forge a "community of practice" where students and academics can meet with the business, social and cultural context in a friendly and informal environment, thus developing an ecosystem that creates value through the effects of "territorial contamination".

Finally, to underscore the contamination between innovation, creativity and society, the event saw a demonstration of the technological creativity of SLUX, the startup born from an idea of young inventor Alessandro Pasquali who showed the potential of transmitting and receiving devices with short-range light he designed to allow non-experts to learn about this fascinating world.

Further information about Il Litorale at: www.litorale.usi.ch