The first book I read when I started studying Architecture in Naples was by Erich Tessenow: “Osservazioni elementari sul costruire”, the italian editioncurated by Giorgio Grassi from the original “Hausbau und dergleichen”. A theoretical text that reflects on the value of the architect as a craftsman and architecture as a collective endeavor. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of the atelier: a space where the progressive elements of architecture come together. Simple elements that combine, expand, or reduce their volumes.

It is composition that speaks, through material, form, color, and texture.

Concrete is the material I grew up with; a reference for contemporary architecture. Brutal, grey, sometimes sad, sometimes hard but capable of taking on any form. It is a cast material, a material that is not carved to create form, but poured.

In 2020, as artistic director for F&C, I envisioned a domestic landscape made entirely of concrete, introducing color, materiality, and form. Unexpected compositions transformed this raw material into something warm and welcoming; speaking of past traditions with contemporary techniques.

My “Elementary Observations on Ornament” for F&C explore the world of surfaces made of cement. My vision of ornament emerges from the simple composition of geometries, of color, of imperfections intrinsic to the material, but also from inclusions, joints and cuts in basic forms.

I began with simple shapes: the square, rectangle, hexagon, and circle —
fixing various dimensions — then I introduced unexpected cuts, subtractions of material, and finally turned some of the base shapes into three-dimensional objects. The collections are thus divided into: Solid, Cut, Subtract, 3D.

And then I began composing…