Isotta Cortesi, architect and landscape architect, concentrates her academic and research activity in the field of design applied to different scales, landscape, urban and architectural building, with particular attention to combining and experimenting with the theme of the landscape dimension with that of the architectural project up to the detailed survey.
Since 31.12.2014 she is appointed Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture at the Department of Architecture DiARC of the University Federico II of Naples. Since April 2005 she has been a university researcher in ICAR 14-Architectural and Urban Composition at the University of Catania, Faculty of Architecture of Siracusa until 30.12.2014.
Since 2005 she has taught as a structured and contracted lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture of Syracuse in the Project Laboratories of both the Master's degree and the one in Science of Architecture and Building Engineering. From 2010 to 2014 she was a six-month substitute for the Architectural Design course in the Bachelor in Architecture degree course in English at the Milan Polytechnic, Leonardo.
From 2005 to 2008 she completed the course of the Contemporary Gardens II at the Degree in Architecture in Genoa. From 2005 to 2008 he belongs to the ARP department of the Faculty of Architecture in Syracuse, while since 2010 she has been part of the DARC of the Syracuse Faculty of Architecture, now a Special Didactic Structure. She has been a thesis supervisor on the architectural and landscape projects carried out in the Faculty of Architecture of Genoa, Syracuse, Naples and the Polytechnic of Milan.
Previously from 1999 to 2004, the Architectural Composition courses of the Design Laboratory in the 1st and 2nd years, at the Faculty of Architecture of Genoa, were awarded to the contract, while for the academic year a. 2002-2003 was awarded the courses, always on contract, of Theories and Techniques of Composition, at the Polytechnic of Turin, II Faculty of Architecture, and was Visiting / Critic Professor at Syracuse University in Florence. At the Faculty of Architecture of Florence for the academic year 2001-2002 was given the course of Analysis of Urban Morphology and Building Types and from 1999 to 2001 the course of Theory and Techniques of Architectural Design.
Visiting Professor and Visiting Critic, in 1998, 2005 and 2009 at the University of Virginia Architectural Design Master; invited to the United States presided over the evaluations of the final works.
In particular, her research reflects the architectural culture that is at the center of a vast and articulated knowledge of the evolutionary lines of contemporary design, with careful references to the relationship between innovation and tradition. Her activity is aimed at exploring, through the project, She has participated in numerous design competitions receiving prizes and mentions. She has made works in Italy, some of which have been published in the main trade magazines. Already from the first researches, he studied and deepened the themes of the project of the open space in the contemporary city with an independent vision in the observation of urban spaces.
After graduating in 1993 in Architectural Design at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence, she continued his studies in the United States, in 1995, thanks to the grant of a scholarship by the same faculty, for a year of specialization in 'abroad, where, at the University of Virginia, he obtained the Master in Architectural Design.
In 1995 she obtained a doctorate scholarship in Architectural and Urban Design (XI cycle) at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence, concluding the cycle in 1999 with the thesis discussion: "The park as a theme of urban planning. Project experiences in Europe from 1970 to today ". (The in-depth study of the thesis took the form of a publication in Italy in 2000 with the publisher Motta and in France with the publisher Acte Sud).
At the Faculty of Architecture in Florence she obtained the funding for the "Young Researchers Project", for the year 2001, with the research entitled: "The public space: the street, the city and the park", renewed for the year 2002, which in 2004 established a new publication that explores the relationship between infrastructure and urban project entitled "The vacuum project. Public Space in Motion ", editor Alinea.
In 1997 she won the Fulbright scholarship - the most important international cultural exchange program in the United States - which allowed her to spend a year as a scholar in Rome at the American Academy. During this period he carried out a project theme: "The invisible landscapes". This research was presented at the American Academy in 1998 and provided for the observation of Rome from the Janiculum to the Celio hill, through the Botanical Garden, documenting species and returning them with photographs and maps.
From 1996 to today she is editor of the magazine «Area», international magazine of architecture and arts of the project, a magazine placed in Class A. Here she has responsibility for the research and preparation of articles on urban places with particular attention to the representativeness of open spaces, public spaces, infrastructures in the landscape, bringing to the attention of scholars in the sector current issues and often even partially unpublished, triggering deepening processes; in particular in 2017 she edited the number of «Area» 152, a monograph entitled "Public Nature".