Italian Design Day in Tunis: Valentina Ciuffi and Chacha Atallah on Urban Regeneration

On February 26, 2025, the Italian Embassy and Italian Cultural Institute in Tunis organized two events for Italian Design Day, focusing on urban regeneration. Valentina Ciuffi, founder of Studio Vedèt and co-founder of Alcova, led a masterclass at the École Nationale d'Architecture et d'Urbanisme de Tunis. Alcova, launched in 2016, has gained international recognition for transforming abandoned spaces into cultural experiences at Milan's Salone del Mobile and Miami Art Week. Later, Ciuffi held a conversation with Tunisian architect and designer Chacha Atallah at Bardo Collections, a gallery affiliated with Selma Feriani Gallery. They discussed spontaneous, low-cost design emerging from everyday life, using simple materials to make spaces more human. The audience included young Tunisian architects, designers, artists, curators, and international collectors. The events highlighted the urgent need for urban rehabilitation in Tunisia, where industrial archaeology and adaptive reuse of old factories remain underdeveloped, contrasting with Italy's tendency toward excessive preservation of historic centers.