I am sure that on your way to this venue many of you have spotted some of the breathtaking examples of Florentine Renaissance architecture: Brunelleschi’s dome of the cathedral, Alberti’s façade of Santa Maria Novella or the Pazzi chapel in Santa Croce.

By overcoming the often convoluted Gothic ornaments in favour of classical principles, Florence transitioned from medieval complexity to the cradle of the Renaissance that we know today.

The Florentine Renaissance showed that progress isn’t about adding additional layers of complexity, but about applying enduring principles such as clarity, proportion and structure.

In that sense the Renaissance was a conscious act of simplification, back from…