altro_studio

Profile of altro_studio

Business Name

altro_studio

Location

Italy

Services

Architecture

Website

http://www.altro-studio.it

Principal(s)

Annarita Emili (born 1959)

• Graduaded at University of Rome "La Sapienza" Faculty of Architecture in 1989
• From 1990 to 1994 she worked for the "Tecnark Italy" office.
• From 1996 she taught Architectural Design as an assistant to Alessandro Anselmi at the Faculty of Architecture of the "Roma Tre" University.
• In 1998 she became Contract Professor of Theory and Techniques of Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of Ascoli Piceno University, as an assistant to Cristiano Toraldo di Francia (Superstudio).
• From 2002 she has been Contract Professor of Architectural design at the Naples Art Academy.
• In 1996 she started her collaboration with Stalker Team (laboratory of urban art).
• In 1997 she took a PhD in Architectural Design at "La Sapienza" University in Rome.
• In 1999 her book The Covering as an Architectural Theme was published by Diagonale (Rome).
• In 2003 her book Richard Buckminster Fuller and the New Avant-garde was published by Kappa (Rome).
• From 2004 she has been a researcher at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Ascoli Piceno.
• altro_studio's monography, altro_studio from the temporary house to the living unit, was published in 2005 and from 2006 the firm's designs are presented on its web site.

Barbara Pellegrino (born 1975)

• Graduaded at the University of L'Aquila Faculty of Engineering-Architecture in 2002

Stefania Sacco (born 1979)

• Graduaded at the Third University of Rome Faculty of Architecture in 2007

Philosophy

Our architecture can be defined experimental that is we experiment the impact a particular space has on people. Those effects, mainly related to the phenomenological and perceptive aspect, as Merleau Ponty meant, take their inspiration from a series of phenomena inherent to the contemporary reality that influence the conception of the living space.

We are talking about phenomena permeating the urban area (mobility, speed, complexity, etc...), natural phenomena (desertification, floods, earthquakes), or events concerning the whole world which, even interacting with different cultures and races, all share common elements underlined by terms such as information, consumerism, emigration, globalization etc...Our research is therefore intended as a possible response to a series of events, or, in some cases, rather like predictions sometimes approaching utopian solutions.

The concept of phenomenon is influenced by some fundamental philosophical theories (Foucault, Deleuze, Merleau Ponty) based on the connection environment-subject-individual, but also by mathematical or scientific rules, which have always been considered instrumental for the architecture.

We thus work on spaces characterized by those contrasts as closed-opened, outside-inside, visible-invisible, chaos-order, rational-organic, under-above, etc.

We use the movement as an instrument that shows a complex, but most of all, non static architecture.

We base our research on this matter along two main directions: the individual movement, which refers to the wandering space and which is represented by the empty, the smooth space on which the visual perception is based and in which the fundamental element is the route.

Crossing the territory the individual perceive the space so architecture becomes a cloth to wear and to bring with us, to be soon left on the territory once used.

The movement of architecture as it acquires subjectivity replacing the individual.

Moving parts and elements through operations such as rotating, sliding, flowing, overturning etc. it is possible to reach infinite spatial conditions in a short time no one of which prevail.

According to us this represents an alternative and different way of perceiving the space in which architecture expresses itself, not only through the searching for a form, which for us has a deductive character, but through pure and simple gesture. Just through action you can always reach different expressions.

Our architecture assumes a poor character; we use simple and essential forms, supported by the use of materials that are simple and economical.

All this does not exclude the scenic and illusory side of architecture, through this real use of its daily gestures: sliding serigraphic glass doors, drawing rotating walls, lighting elements that, moving change the perception of the space and create unique optical effects. Each structure becomes a theatrical work with no end and no beginning and without a specific plot, indeed it expresses without a script. In this sense we can define all our projects as 'kinetic architecture'

It is interesting the study and the resolution of the architectural detail related to the composition rules. For example the 'Mies Van der Rohe's cross pillar is divided into four parts to let the walls slide, or the volume itself is broken to reach the same effect.

New living types arise such as the semi-duplex, the double-face space and the holo-space, etc. Finally it is fundamental to notice that all structures are thought as the right answer to bio-compatibility and self-sufficiency. In particular the first group of architectures (architecture of movement) is characterised by natural and recycled materials while the second group (architecture in motion) is defined through automation systems, intelligent systems able to answer to the new technological living comforts.

Background

• Founded: 1998
• Offices: 1
• Design team: 3

Key projects

• Bunker House, Anguillara, Rome (Italy), in progress, 2007, Single family house
• Well house, Skyscraper 07 architectural competition, New York, 2007
• Architecture pierced, international competition, 2006, Single family house
• GRA citta anulare, International competition in Japan, 2005, Living unit
• Architecture of the void, Bienal of Miami competition, 2003, Single Family House
• Horizontal living unit in Aomori, Japan, 2002, Living unit
• Holiday living unit in Sentina, Ascoli Piceno, Italy, 2002, Living unit
• The invisible house, international competition in Manchester, 1999
• Inflatable house, Milan, 1998, Temporary house
• The abode of the outside, international competition in Japan, 1998, Single family house

Key publications

• altro_studio projects, Arca n. 229, October 2007
• Project of Holiday living unit in Sentina, Arca n.226, 2007
• altro_studio projects,Vision Magazin n.8, 2007
• altro_studio projects, Wallpaper n.90, august 2006
• altro_studio projects, Metropolis Magazine, April 2005
• Inflatable house, Il Messaggero daily paper, 10 Nov 2004
• The Abode of the outside project, Double-sided space, Infinite modular structure, Parametro n.243, 2003
• The abode of outside, The Japan Architect n. 32, 1999
• The abode of outside, Progetto n.6, 1999
• altro_studio projects, Controspazio n.5, 1996

Key awards

• 2007, Honourable mention, Competition Housing Skyscraper07, E Volo, New York, USA
• 2007, Honourable mention, Skyscraper 07, E Volo, New York, USA
• 2007, final project, Competition "Menoepiu3", Municipality of Rome
• 2006, second prize, Widening of Archeological Museum of Ascoli Piceno Competition, Municipality of Ascoli Piceno
• 2003, final project, Bienal Miami+Beach competition, Miami
• 2002, first prize, Camping in Collalto Sabino, Ordine degli Architetti di Roma
• 1998, Honourable mention, A House as a Poetic Space, Shinkenchiku Residential Competition, Tokyo
• 1998, final project, Salonicco: New Collective Spaces in Contemporary City Competition, Salonicco
• 1998, final project, Premium Schindler Competition to rise the city: Naples and its museums, Naples
• 1998, first prize, UNESCO Competition: A Square in Salonicco, Salonicco