THE ARCHITECTS

Aidel is an architecture duo by Cristina Gallizioli and Marco Ferrari. Their work focuses on materiality and spatial experience approached in both haptic and conceptual ways. Their projects include Sottosopra (Periferica, 2016), Spaces like Actions (2017), Wearing bricks (Oficinas do Convento, 2018), Paesaggi/Forti (Caritro, 2019), Casa/Paisagem (nctm, 2020).

SOFT ARCHITECTURE

“If you think about architecture you think about mass, while what we happen to experience in real life are just surfaces surrounding the space where we move, boundaries defining areas made of air. What if we concentrate on boundaries in architecture, instead of its mass?”

Since 2019 Marco Ferrari and Cristina Gallizioli have been working on a research called Soft Architecture, which imagine an architecture in which walls and slabs are replaced by textile surfaces hanging from thin structures: a 2D fabric architecture challenging building conventions and exploring new spatial possibilities. Traditional architectural logic and constructive principles are inverted to provide warmer feelings, flexibility and more space for living.
A field of experiment and creativity capable of reimagining traditional spatial concepts and challenging usual approaches to materiality and architecture.

Developed during a residency at the Danish Art Workshops in Copenhagen with the support of Statens Kunstfond and Kvadrat, in July 2020 the research has been taken further during a 2-week residency at Lottozero.

THE RESIDENCY

The residency at Lottozero was the occasion to get to know the industrial scenario of Prato with its industrial archeology (in particular the typology of the industrial shed of which Lottozero is an example), and to test new application solutions in scale, regarding different hypotheses of internal partitioning of spaces through the use of fabric.
Deformable rooms, "hanging" rooms that open up like curtains, net ceilings that allow the passage of light, soft floors to be folded and removed, mobile walls that can be rolled up if necessary: these are some of the practical applications investigated during the residency, using fabrics sourced in the textile district of Prato, with the collaboration of two of the most interesting and highest companies for furnishing fabric: Luilor and Decobel.

Aidel invites to look at construction as a temporary mark, a changeable process. A lighter, unstable and flexible architecture that creates intimate connections with the domestic environment and allows us to engage with architecture elements, such as textile walls that must be touched to pass through.

This kind of approach suggesting to reshape existing buildings with a light interaction due to the use of soft materials, is also meant to be a form of respect towards the existing industrial heritage of Prato.

open air open studio

The restitution of the research carried out during the residency took place at Villa Romana in Florence, in the form of a talk open to the public, part of the dense program of meetings of the Scuola Popolare, which took place outdoors in the garden of Villa Romana, from June to September 2020.
In times of pandemic fight, The Scuola Popolare involved more than 80 artists, scientists, activists, and thinkers from artistic /social /urban /ecological /political fields, who have been invited to share, discuss and exchange ideas in a safe and open air environment, respecting hygiene distances and disinfection measures.

Aidel Interview