June 2017

74 BUILD / June 2017 , The Architecture of Movement altro_studio, part of the Architecture Top 50, was founded in 1998 by a group of people prepared to work in an interdisciplinary environment. From the very start, altro_studio began to researchmovement as applied to the home, ranging from temporary housing to major urban projects. In an interviewwith the firm’s Anna Rita Emili, she reveals more about the firm’s work and research. altro_studio was founded in 1998 by a group of people prepared to work in an interdisciplinary environment. From the very start, altro_studio began to research movement as applied to the home, ranging from temporary housing to major urban projects. Anna Rita Emili begins the interview by offering her thoughts on being part of the Architecture Top 50, the firm’s focus on research and what sets them apart from other companies in the industry. “To be a part of the Architecture Top 50, I’m flattered to take a part. BUILD it a very interesting magazine. It is the place to promote innovative construction categories and innovative architectures and it is in line with our aspirations. The magazine’s focus explores the investors keen to pour their money into new projects staying ahead of the curve and keeping up with the latest, most promising real estate markets in the world. This aspect is very important for us “We mainly addressed new concepts of flexible, transformable, eco living space, to understand the new, functional and structural needs of the individual. For this and other reasons, altro_studio focused its research on new technologies (mainly linked to automated systems) and innovative materials, and investigated the problems of environmental sustainability. “Our approach is based on intimate knowledge of the architecture, of new materials and technologies about sustainable architecture. We think architecture can recapture an ethics, an ability to represent based on society’s new values but, above all, I think the different architectural cultures can recover the identity and critical thought that went lost with the phenomenon of globalisation. But that takes a lot of work.” Anna then goes into detail about the firm’s overall aims and what strategies they employ to achieve these. “Whereas architecture is considered a perfect synthesis between art and science, we aspire on the one hand to facts and phenomena close to the real world surrounding us (expressed by new techniques and materials) and, on the other, to interdisciplinary studies involving music, philosophy, literature and, above all, the figurative arts. “Art has always expressed political, cultural and social thought and has always been considered as avant-garde compared to architecture. Figurative art has always been an essential part of architecture. This is the tool, which distinguishes a true architect from a simple technician of architecture. Our ambitions come from closely observing the world around us and projecting it into the future. “Additionally, our objective is to offer concrete answers to the numerous problems, which affect the real world in which we live. We are speaking of a phenomena, which involves the entire planet, such as immigration, mobility and complexity, or of natural phenomena due to climate change, such as desertification, hurricanes and the rise in water levels, or even events, such as virtual communication via the creation of networks, computerisation and the computer. “Lastly, we aim to concentrate our observations on the transformations produced by social change in recent decades, and on new ways of living public and private, collective and individual space.” Anna then tells us that in terms of ensuring the firm creates innovative solutions to maintain their success, understanding and studying the phenomena that is taking place around the world, regarding both positive and negative phenomena are key. She then turns her thoughts towards what the future has in store for your industry and how she sees the market changing over the next 12 months. “It is very difficult to build for Italian architect. there’s a lot of bureaucracy a lot of general government competence. For example, there is much constraint around urban planning that allows a city to change. We live in a very big historical museum. In terms of our future aspirations for the company, we think that important it is important to study to enable humanity to have a good life.” Research by altro_studio The firm’s architecture can be defined as experimental, in the sense that they analyse the perceptive and emotional aspects applied to architectural space. These intuitions, linked mainly to the phenomenological factors as Merleau Ponty understood it, take their cue from a series of events connected to contemporary identity. These events modify the architectural space, the place in which the person lives and dwells collectively and individually, by influencing the thought and behaviour of the individual Anna tells us before expanding on this most interesting research point. “We are speaking here of phenomena concerning the metropoli. These include mobility, institutions, public spaces, or natural phenomena caused by climate change, such as desertification, floods and earthquakes, or else events which, although they interact with different 1702BU31