Patricia Ferro
Piacenza, Italy

Patricia Ferro, architect, designer and Ph.D, is an expert in energy efficiency architecture and environmental sustainability. Argentine-born with European roots, she moved to Italy in 1988 with a scholarship to continue her studies in the field of sustainable architecture. Afterwards she worked many years in important Italian research centres and universities in topics related to energy, architecture and  environment. She teaches bioclimatic architecture and building physics at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Roma Tre, the Polytechnic of Milan and in the University of Maputo, in Mozambique. She has always been involved in the environmental sector, working in the ‘90 for the International Solar Energy Society and later at the Kyoto Club Association where she is currently the head of the training sector.

She designs buildings with low environmental impact in Italy and Argentina and she participates in several national and international competitions, winning important awards.

In 2012, she entered in the world of the Blue Economy, working on national projects aimed at reducing CO2 emissions . She took part in some television and radio programmes and wrote for the most important magazines on the topic.

Her experience in the environmental world leads to patent the idea of dynamic / active furniture, or SMARTh FUrniTURE, that means furniture that allows to accumulate and release thermal energy. This represents a paradigm shift for the furniture industry that enters fully into the field of energy efficiency. The idea has been awarded  with the special prize city of Piacenza, within the Spinner StartCup in 2013.