Italian Radical Design - Studio 65: 50 Years of Future

On the occasion of the Italian Design Day 2026

To celebrate Italian Design in the World, the Consulate of Italy in Brisbane, with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney and the Consulate General of Italy in Sydney, is organizing a public lecture by architects Franco Audrito and Athena Sampaniotou, founders of Studio65, an experimental and vanguard group that revolutionized design in Italy from the 1960s and 1970s.

The lecture, in English, will be held on the 27th February at the Edge Auditorium, Queensland State Library. A "Divano Bocca" will be on display.

Admission is free, but reservations are required through our Humanitix profile.

• Friday, 27 February 2026

• 5:00 PM Welcome

• 5:30 PM Lecture moderated by Consul Luna Angelini Marinucci, followed by a Q&A session

• Edge Auditorium, State Library of Queensland, 31 Cultural Center Tunnel

Bio

Studio65 was founded in Torino by Franco Audrito in 1965. An experimental vanguard group which, through its ironic and irreverent design, participated actively in the revolution of cultural and architectural languages during a season (’60 –’70) of liberation in creativity and imagination, interpreting these times of change with objects (Bocca sofa, Capitello, Mela) and architectures which are still nowadays a fresh testimonial of this revolution.

Towards the end of the ‘70s, Franco Audrito and Studio65 ventured abroad, moving in and around new architectural languages throughout the world with the same freedom, imagination and curiosity for knowledge, operating in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia, where they still currently work.