The keynote address at Cersaie, the international exhibition of ceramic tiles and bathroom furnishings to be held in Bologna, Italy, Sept. 28-Oct. 2, will be given by David M. Childs, President Emeritus and design partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merril LLP (SOM).

Childs’ projects include the Washington Mall, the National Geographic headquarters and Dulles Airport terminal in Washington, as well as numerous projects in New York such as the Worldwide Plaza, the New York Mercantile Exchange, the JFK International Arrivals Building, the JP Morgan headquarters and the complete urban planning project for Riverside South. His most recent projects include the reconstruction of the central section of Ground Zero and remodelling of the railway station located in the historic New York post office.

The keynote lecture will be held Thursday, Sept. 30, as part of the series of meetings entitled Building, Dwelling, Thinking. The emeritus chairman of SOM will discuss the key elements of his architectural vision, which include innovation, quality and management with a view to successfully implementing the grand ideas that are the lifeblood of modern architecture and which for more than half a century have been the distinctive characteristics of SOM - Skidmore, Owings & Merril.

Presented with the Architecture Firm Award by the American Institute of Architects first in 1962 and then again in 1996, in recent years Childs has taught at the world’s foremost schools of architecture. He has also written numerous publications which have been translated into various languages and has been invited to speak at specialist conferences and leading exhibitions in the field of architecture and building materials.