BEYOND ALL LIMITS

The second edition of BEYOND ALL LIMITS is from the commitment made in 2018 with colleagues of Cankaya University to host the conference at the University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" and is from the need to investigate the theme of sustainability, if possible with new ways or at least to contribute to its deepening trying to follow new paths linked to opportunities and themes suggested by current events. Nowadays the sustainability is a watchword, an unavoidable principle to be taken into account in all areas of our live and overall in those that concern the project. "Sustainability is culture and the culture of the third millennium can only be sustainable" is correctly written in the research I Am Culture 2021 of the foundation SYMBOLA. However, the risk is that, 35 years after its adoption in the report "Our Common Future", the concept of sustainability turns into a hollow slogan, also exploited by marketing and media that speak of "Alliances for sustainability", between brands or banks and dioceses, "Sustainable municipalities", sustainable cars, etc. Sustainability, like every good idea of our time, the more it enters the sphere of a voracious neoliberal economy the more it moves away from its ethical aims through which it was generated. The world itself is probably becoming progressively less sustainable. "[... ] sustainability is no longer only understood as the effort to preserve what existed in the past, but as a series of proposals that can prepare humanity to face an unpredictable future through support for diversity in each of its forms", is indicated in the explanation of the theme of the conference "Re-thinking sustainability through applied anthropology" (December 2022). The shift from an exclusively "technical" idea of sustainability raised from rational and scientific thinking to an idea deeply rooted in human relationships capable of creating a new future could be a decisive factor. "The world is one only family, we are one humanity. We are united by our diversity, intelligence, creativity and compassion", evocatively the environmental scientist Vandana Shiva writes at the beginning of the first chapter of her book (2020). The second edition of BEYOND ALL LIMITS was initially expected in 2020, but it was postponed to May 2022 due to the pandemic. In September 2021, in accordance with the Pro-rector for Information and Technology Innovation of the University, Prof. Maffei, with the Director of the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design, Prof.ssa Zerlenga, and with Prof. Pieter De Wilde of Strathclyde University and Prof. Timuçin Harputlugil of Cankaya University who shared the role of chairs with me, it was courageously decided to hold the conference in presence in May even if COVID variants would have create a very big uncertainty. It is said Audentes fortuna iuvat, so we managed to carry out the conference in presence by introducing the hybrid mode for reasons of prudence. The Italian edition of BEYOND ALL LIMITS which had the aim to address the issue of sustainability by placing it in the current international debate, was inserted in the more general program of OFFICINA VANVITELLI written by its Scientific Manager, Prof.ssa Patrizia Ranzo, and presented to the Rector of the University Vanvitelli, Prof. Giovanni Francesco Nicoletti. That’s way the conference, which embraced the fields of architecture, planning and design, was conceived with reference to the New European Bauhaus initiative. If we had planned the conference at the end of February, we would certainly have put the relationship between sustainability and war at the centre of our reflections because of the tragedy in Eastern Europe, including every side effect over the planet, the New European Bauhaus seems to lose its importance. Nevertheless, this creative and interdisciplinary initiative proceeds without interruption as on. Massimiliano Smeriglio has put in evidence in his paper at the opening of this volume; moreover, it responds to the objectives of the European Green Deal with a human-centered design and promotes a new lifestyle in which sustainability coincides with style, thus accelerating the green transition in various sectors of our economy, such as construction, furniture, fashion, as well as in our societies and other areas of our daily lives. The three inseparable fundamental values that guide the New European Bauhaus (Sustainability, Aesthetics and Inclusion) and that the European Commission intends to project towards every country in the world, were also the guidelines of the conference. The two days of BEYOND ALL LIMITS, inaugurated by institutional greetings and the reports of the two Keynote Speakers, Prof. Ezio Manzini and Prof.ssa Patrizia Ranzo, were attended by speakers from Albania, Brazil, China, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom with 110 presentations divided into 18 parallel sessions and 4 young videomakers who were admitted to the round table “The Future of Sustainable Fashion” coordinated by Prof. Aguinaldo dos Santos of the Universidade Federal do Paraná of Curitiba and Prof. Roberto Liberti of Vanvitelli University. It occurs to thank all the organizations that have granted the patronage, firstly the Italian Representation of the European Commission, in particular the European Parliamentarian Massimiliano Smeriglio and his staff, then the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the Campania Region, the Municipality of Caserta, the Italian University Conference of Design, the Cumulus Association, the PhD in Architecture, Industrial Design and Cultural Heritage of Vanvitelli University, the Learning Network on Sustainability, the Order of Architects of Caserta, the SYMBOLA Foundation and the following Italian scientific societies: PROARCH, SID, SIEV, SITDA, SIU and UID. Finally, it needs to thank the entire staff of Vanvitelli University - the Rector, the Pro-rectors, the Director of the Department, the Directorate General, the Press Office, the Network Centre, Information Systems and Services and the Maintenance Office – then, to the partner universities, the 87 members of the International Scientific Committee, the presidents of the sessions, all the authors and, above all, the 37 colleagues of the DADI/Vanvitelli organizing committee who worked hard for a long time without interruption