Your main goal is to create projects with an identity without falling into the usual clichés. What are the clichés you are trying to avoid?

The cliché that we try to abolish from all our projects is that of morphologies without soul, shapes without content. Behind every form must be a story, just like a book. If you have many stories, that book will become indelible. Over time we have developed the idea of being able to enclose this story in four key words: listening, empathy, noise and resonance. They respond to the four moments of the entire process, which constitute our design code. We start from listening – the moment of reflection together with the customer, in which we share common goals ­– we then move to empathy ­– the creation of a connection between the designer and the place, which then translates into design and content ­– noise follows – the moment in which you begin to touch the content transmitted in previous chapters, from which arises, in fact, noise – up to the resonance, the actual result of what has been created so far. The resonance is the final perception of the whole journey.

How important is multidisciplinarity in the contemporary ridefinition of architecture? Which areas not striclty related to design and architecture affect the way you design?

Our muse has always been nature. In nature there is nothing to invent, but only to observe. We often enjoy taking a magnifying glass and getting near a leaf or a stone, analyzing them and entering their souls. It is fascinating because from there, from observation and from research, emerge themes such as textures, colors, palettes, contrasts between shapes. It is an ever-changing world that never gives in to the standard. The truth is that our style is what we draft each time on the customer, on the architecture and on the territory, and emerges for most of the cases from nature. Then, there are always contaminations that are part of the research and that arise from theater, cinema or art. We have several collaborators from the world of art and writing with whom we are able to be increasingly transversal, thus moving away from the standard of the architect’s way of thinking.

 Another element that characterizes our modus pensandi is the use of dialogue. Behind every story there is not a brainstorming made of images only. On the contrary, images are often the consequence of dialogues, and that is what I want to emphasize. The dialogue generates principles, terms and words that can be used in any living room. However, each of us can make them our own in a different way. When we talk, for example, about the idea of applying compositional freedom to see a long and endless road, I translate it into an architectural language that gives me a long corridor as the main actor of the project. At the end of that corridor there will then be a day-lit room, incredibly emotional, which will be the finishing point of my architecture. The beauty is to be able to convey in the design vocabulary the terms of the common language. These words then become the hinges around which the project develops. 

Lighting design is an essential component of design. What new frontiers are emerging in lighting technology?

For us, lighting design is a key ingredient in design. Architecture is based on three physical dimensions, and light represents the fourth, that of experience and sensations. For this reason the real frontier for us is not so much on the illuminating body, but on the methodological approach of light as an art element. In our way of designing we always start from the twenty-four hours, the study of natural light, the exposure and the way in which the customer lives the house. That of the architect is a task of great responsibility, because we generate spaces where men live, and in this light is a fundamental ingredient. If you disconnect the man from the light it is like closing him in a capsule devoid of time.

The light project must always connect to the outside, to nature. How? In our conception of light it must always be dynamic, that is, it must vary during the hours of the day according to what happens outside. For example, the morning hours require a colder light, which gradually degrades to warmer tones and tends to contrasting tones at sunset. Talking about borders in this case is complicated, because from a commercial point of view we have two sides: that of decorative light and that of architectural light. In terms of market, decorative light is increasingly moving towards a fusion of art, technology and design, while the direction of architectural light is to integrate light into architecture. Our dream would be to have a light without an illuminating body: we do not lack passion for new challenges.

Speaking of installations – another area in which you work – how does the approach change in this case?

The artistic part is necessarily dominated by creative culture. However, our approach is always linked to the connection between the three components we use, namely design, art and architecture. We always try to contextualize the artwork. In the case of the Mercedes star installation, for example, it was necessary to combine the brand’s commercial objectives, the respect for the territory and the story to tell. It is a model of experimentation in art as it combines the figure of the craftsman, the metal expert, the glass expert, the architect and the commercial figure. The Mercedes star is a fitting example of how experimentation between light and material has an incredible effect, as the work of art is completely transformed at night, when it loses its materiality. Through the light it becomes a very light system, suspended in the air, or rather a system of points.

Are there any recent or future projects you wish to share?

A project that certainly explains our design thinking is a resort in South-Eastern Europe where the source of inspiration was, as usual, nature, but more specifically the seabed. Thanks to the analysis and study of this fascinating world, submerged, where a series of shells and living beings of different shapes and sizes coexist on a completely neutral sandy soil, we were able to combine the architecture part. We created a dialogue within a system of volumes that refer to textures, shapes and contrasts in this submerged world that can be discovered only when lived.