Conformism, stylistic transgression and detachment from reality are the distinctive traits of modern-day architecture. Best Interior Designers introduce you Alfonso Femia from 5+1AA. The way architecture amazes and astounds has nothing to do with the modern-day approach of seeking approval or being spectacular. More precisely, astounding people is a way of understanding reality. That is the purpose from one of the best architects in Genova! Taking a fresh look at reality. And even though it is extremely hard and painful to come to terms with the land, cities and people, architecture has a duty to envisage the future. A better future. Even romantically speaking. Denying reality, that attitude making modern-day architecture go from being blasé to cynical, must be defeated. This ethical and cultural battle will be waged through a kind of architecture which is carefully targeted and freely designed based on its context and history. Its language is free and contemporary. There is something we need to admit: we cannot have a second childhood. Our generation of architects still has that violence against the land, and the way it was left to oblivion, engraved in its memory. It cannot believe that development can coincide with progress. But it can believe that the only identity possible is the pluralism which characterises our continent, where one single uniform language has never been imaginable. Be ready to meet one more selected architect to feature at “Best architects in the world”

BIOGRAPHY: THE MEN BEHIND THE MYTH

Alfonso Femia is a professor of architectural design. He teaches methodology at the University of Genoa and at the Florence Center of Kansas State University. Gianluca Peluffo is a researcher at the University of Genoa. Together with Alfonso Femia, he’s a partner in 5+1AA. In 2006 they opened a practice in Milan, and more recently one in Paris.

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BACKGROUND & REALIZATIONS: BEST PROJECTS

Retail & hospitality projects and sports

Marseille Docks, Marseille, France (2014)

Real Estate complex, Bordeaux, France (2013)

Le officine, Savona, Italy (2010)

New Retail Park, Milan, Italy (2009)

Redevelopment of the Poste du Louvre in Paris, Paris, France (2012)

New Hotel Duca d’Aosta, Milan, Italy (2012)

 

Interior Design

Tutu restaurant, Milan, Italy (2014)

House between the sky and the sea, Sori, Italy (2011)

Horizontal tower, Milan, Italy (2010)

Milanese ice  factory, Milan, Italy (2009)

Open Care Café, Milan, Italy (2005)

Cultural buildings

Art center of Yuhang district, Shanghai, China (2014)

Palazzo del cinema, Locarno, Switzerland (2012)

State Public library, Barcelona, Spain (2009)

Library gamesroom and auditorium in former Villa Sottanis (2008)

Verbania town theatre, Verbania, Italy (2007)

 

Public buildings

The Louvres grain silos, Louvres, France (2011)

Miami civic center, Miami-Florida, USA (2011)

Health center navile, Bologna, Italy (2010)

East Vesuvio station, Naples, Italy (2009)

Maggiore Hospital, Milan, Italy (2007)

THE MOST ICONIC PROJECTS

*Yuhang Cultural and Art Center

Yuhang is a district of the Zhejiang province, under the jurisdiction of Hangzhou, just 150 km far from Shanghai. The city is the birthplace of Liangzhu Primitive Culture, which boasts the Dawn of Chinese Civilization and is an important prehistoric site of humankind on earth. It is often called “hometown of fish and rice, house of silk, garden of flowers and fruits and land of multiple cultures”. With picturesque landscapes, Yuhang has very rich natural and historical heritages. The client requirement were for a forward-looking project, that at the same time consider the public and commercial needs.

The project had to be a landmark of Linping new town, and one of the most influential public areas of Hangzhou: an artistic cultural center that integrate architecture, water system, plaza, green space with an advanced managing experience, making sure about the sustainability of the overall project. The Cultural and Art Center has to be constituted by three sections: (1) The performance architecture, which includes the grand theater, the small theater and the cultural and art plaza, (2) the culture and art center, which includes the art gallery, cultural center and the library. (3) Shuiting eastern-lake landscape design, including the lake and surrounding.

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*BNL Headquarters

A Specific Context The project of Roma Tiburtina will transform a large area in the east quadrant of the city of Rome with considerable benefits in terms of transport, environment and quality of life. High-speed rail, urban regeneration, improvement of viability as well as expansion of services to citizens and the tourism facilities in the surrounding area are the objectives of the project that will bring new roads, parks, squares, public services, park lanes and bike lanes. The Janus The design of the new headquarters of BNL is part of a particular and unique context. Unique because the nature of the context is a layering of infrastructures that are separated by two important urban areas of the city of Rome, thanks to the construction of the station for high-speed rail, which leads to a new role, not only in terms of services service but also as “urban place”.

The search for a urban and territorial dialogue We consider it important that the new building develops a dialogue with the adjacent complex of Tiburtina railway station, with its main features characterized by size and horizontality. The dialogue does not necessarily have to be direct, but should have references both to perspectives and to the different levels of the station, and also a different role (the horizontal stratification) in the new urban landscape. Our goal is to meet the functional needs with a building that is capable, in its autonomy and identity, to belong to the urban context of the Tiburtina Station and at the same time to be representative both for the city of Rome and for its users.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ALFONSO FEMIA

Besides architect, Alfonso Femia is a professor of architectural design, and uses the  fascinating relationship between drawing and buiding to improve one of his hobbies…writing! In “5 earths+1form: Magic realism”, published by Rizzoli, Alfonso Femia talks about architectural models, long used as tools in developing projects and controlling buildings, or as a way of presenting plans to the client in three-dimensional form, retain all their fascination despite the current predominance of digital images and renderings. The model, in fact, is not just a method of representing a building before it is constructed, but an anticipation of a reality in continual evolution and can be used as a genuine creative instrument, often able to convey an idea in an allegorical or at times abstract way.Through models and their material qualities, projects take on a new dimension, forming an animated landscape open to interpretation that effectively differentiates them from the building that is to be constructed. The models used by the architectural studio 5+1AA for their projects are unique and constitute small objets d’art in their own right.

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TOG – ALL CREATORS TOGETHER

Without doubts one of his greatest architecture works, which gave him the label of “best architects of the world”, the collaboration with Studio Marco Piva (one of the best Milan architects), Yuhang Cultural and Art Center.Based on the client’s brief, 5+1AA, Studio Marco Piva and Arup developed a design concept based on the idea of dynamical forms, able to define functional interlaced spaces but also modulated, to strongly interact with the environment reacting to natural or artificial lights, generating visual surprises and reflection effects.

The inspirations came from History, Local culture, Art and Nature. The client requirement were for a forward-looking project, that at the same time consider the public and commercial needs. The project had to be a landmark of Linping new town, and one of the most influential public areas of Hangzhou: an artistic cultural center that integrate architecture, water system, plaza, green space with an advanced managing experience, making sure about the sustainability of the overall project.

TOP PROJECTS GALLERY