Reinventing the contemporary city, with Elena Cogato Lanza

Elena Cogato Lanza is a senior scientist at EPFL© Alain Herzog / EPFL 2020 Summer series: a calling for research. If you want to predict the future, learn from the past - this saying neatly encapsulates the career of Elena Cogato Lanza, a senior scientist at EPFL and an expert on the history and theory of urban planning. As our video interview gets underway, a small cast iron teapot moves in and out of view in the corner of the screen. Elena Cogato Lanza is reflecting on her studies in Italy, which she spent between her home town of Vicenza and the University of Venice. While sipping tea, she says, "I was interested in everything. For a long time, I couldn't decide between anthropology, art history and architecture. I wanted to understand how the ways in which we occupy space become cultural acts." In the end, it was architecture that won out.