From the City to the Detail: Rethinking the Built Environment

The programme surrounding Cersaie 2026 expands this perspective from interiors to the wider city. One of the most interesting conversations will focus on the architecture of infrastructure, exploring how major public works are becoming increasingly relevant to the quality and identity of urban environments.

On September 23, the cultural programme costruire, abitare, pensare, organised in collaboration with THE PLAN, will look at the new Line 2 of the Turin metro – a project that brings together architecture, engineering, mobility and urban planning. The discussion reflects a growing understanding of infrastructure as something more than a technical response to movement. Transport systems, stations and public structures can reshape neighbourhoods, create new civic spaces and contribute to the regeneration of entire areas.

What emerges is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Cersaie 2026: its attempt to bring different scales and disciplines into the same conversation. Architecture meets infrastructure; design meets construction; digital tools meet manual skills; nature meets the built environment.

In that sense, “A space for architectural design” is less a slogan than a way of describing the role Cersaie wants to play. The fair is becoming a space where architecture can be discussed not simply through images and finished projects, but through the relationships, processes and ideas that make those projects possible.

For an industry navigating new expectations around sustainability, adaptability and quality of life, that broader conversation may be more significant than any single trend. Cersaie 2026 arrives at a moment when architecture is being asked to do more than define how places look. It is being asked to create environments that connect people, support new ways of living and remain open to change.

Bologna, for five days, will be the place to explore what that might look like.