IE University Experts Join Global Leaders at the Festival of Ideas 2025 in Madrid
Cristina Mateo and Clara Llamas will conduct panels on sustainability, community, and innovation in the built environment.
Madrid, 8 September 2025 - Faculty members of the IE School of Architecture and Design will take part in key conversations at the Festival of Ideas 2025 (Festival de las Ideas), a platform for interdisciplinary exchange, taking place from 18 to 21 September in Madrid.
This year’s edition, curated by philosophers Javier Moscoso and Marcela Vélez will be held under the theme "Labyrinths. Meanings, Non-Meanings, Counter-Meanings" ("Laberintos. Sentidos, sinsentidos, contrasentidos"). Organized by Círculo de Bellas Artes and La Fábrica, and with the support of the City and Community of Madrid, Spain’s Ministry of Culture, and several international cultural institutions and embassies, the festival will feature world-renowned thinkers including Adriana Cavarero, Victoria Camps, Michael Ignatieff, Michel Houellebecq, and Pankaj Mishra, among others.
The program offers public conversations, speaker’s corners, philosophical walks, and concerts throughout the city, as well as in emblematic locations such as Plaza de España (Allianz Stage) and the Círculo de Bellas Artes.
"We believe creativity alone is not enough. It’s through collaboration, context, and real-world engagement that ideas gain purpose and power."
Cristina Mateo, Associate Dean of the IE School of Architecture and Design
"Our participation in the Festival of Ideas 2025 reflects this ethos—bringing design into public dialogue, where innovation meets community and imagination becomes action. We seek individuals who want to create, innovate, and inspire; who value tradition but are ready to pave new paths. The city becomes our shared canvas, and the festival, a living laboratory where we explore inclusive, sustainable futures together", said Cristina Mateo, Associate Dean of the IE School of Architecture and Design.
The fact that the festival is organized openly for the public and within the urban space, highlights the belief that full meaning is only achieved when placed in dialogue with citizens. It signals that ideas are not confined to academic or professional circles, but in a dialogue with citizens, and in the neighborhoods where life unfolds”, Mateo added.
Dialogues on Inclusive and Sustainable Cities
The panel titled "Living Together” (19 September, 19h) will be moderated by Cristina Mateo, Vice Dean of the IE School of Architecture and Design and will include Iñaki Alonso, CEO of Distrito Natural and sAtt, and Hubert Lionnez, architect and member of the Belgian cooperative Karbón. This conversation will address new cooperative housing models, collective ownership structures, and architectural practices rooted in environmental responsibility, social cohesion, and continuity with existing contexts.
In the second session, titled “Making Cities: Design, Productive Fabric, and the Power of the Local” (19 September, 20h), Clara Llamas, Academic Director of the Bachelor in Design at IE University, will moderate a dialogue featuring Álvaro Matías, Director of Madrid Design Festival, and Marta Pascual Caballero from Tetuán CREA, a community initiative that promotes creative production in the Madrid district of Tetuán. The conversation will focus on the role of design in cultivating inclusive, participatory cities through local networks, creative platforms, and citizen-driven innovation.
For more information about the Festival of Ideas 2025 and the full program, visit the Festival de las Ideas’s website.