Interview # 17 S2pm Studio
Please introduce yourself:
S2pm Studio was founded in January 2023. At the time we were all living and working in Paris, where we moved after graduating in summer 2022 at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, in Switzerland. Following different work experience during the academic years between Paris, Milano, Tel-Aviv, Madrid and New York we needed a physical and mental environment where to research, experiment and try something different from our jobs routine.
#1 This year in January you founded S2pm studio. What motivated you to do so?
After the university years we found ourselves in Paris again to work and we were wondering if it was time to try something on the side of what we were doing at our workplace. We looked at the architectural tendencies that we explored during our studies and thought we could be a good match for each other so we caught the opportunity to give it a try with a competition. We are still friends afterwards.
#2 Congratulations! You won the competition TUNNEL EVANGELION – (…) an international architecture competition on the reuse of the Magazzini Raccordati, Milan Train Station '' hosted by @reuseitaly in partnership with @koozarch, @dropcity_org and @skwat.site. Tell us about your winning project “WE BELONG TOGETHER”.
Thanks for the support! The project has been developed on two different scales of design. The first concern was about the urban scale: the main concept aimed to resew the deep urban fracture caused by the railways of Milano Centrale. The design for the Magazzini Raccordati had the goal of reactivate the “split” structure of the districts of Nolo and Martesana through specific public elements: an urban “quinta teatrale”, a portico, and multiple “platforms'' and “parks”, recreating sense of continuity between the neighborhoods.
On a second layer, we designed a specific plan for the tunnel set, focusing on the development of four scenarios. The program we proposed is based on the previous destination of the warehouses, where a craftsmanship community collaborates in a productive system.
#3 What was particularly important for you to communicate with “WE BELONG TOGETHER”?
Both as a common attitude and in the working practice we aim to look at the bigger picture of things. For us a project is never to be considered only as an individual object, but rather as a part of a whole complex.
With the Tunnel Evangelion Competition we took the chance to deepen our research into the extravagant yet variegated spatial transformation the city of Milan is undergoing, trying not to be a victim exclusively of the mere architectural perspective but to actively read it through a social, political or economical lens. More than the design output we were triggered by the new possibilities the project could have brought to the city, and how it would have fit in the needs of the Milanese society.
Accordingly, the whole idea of the project pivoted onto the reconnection of fractured portions of the city of Milan through a mixed functional productive-hub. Yet, the project attempts to address a larger scale of intervention, reacting to the social and working environment of the city of Milan itself. In a fast-growing metropolis strictly oriented towards the tertiary sector, we imagine an oversized hub for craftsmanship production, open to the citizens wishing to be reinserted into the city economy.
#4 The way you present your ideas plays an important role in your project. What is your approach to illustration and how do you arrive at your results?
We put a particular effort and focus on the graphic output of our project. That is not for aesthetic reasons only, but for us it’s extremely important to find the best way to communicate something complex in a simple and comprehensible way. It takes a lot of time and a lot of tries. What always interested us in other reference projects is the ability to nicely translate an analytic description of places, situations, moods and feelings into a graphic element which is universally understandable, like pictures.
Additionally, in our projects we always try to investigate as much as possible the urban and social sphere around the intervention, which results in the necessity of finding a suitable technique to read and put together different elements at different scales.
#5 In your manifest you say: “It’s through a profound comprehension of its multiple actors that we begin to shape spaces that are likely to give responses such as inclusive values and integrated patterns.” How does this approach manifest itself in your work?
Our approach is represented by a deep research of the context. Especially exploring inclusivity through a social study of the place and trying to integrate our projects in a complex urban fabric, responding to the local needs.
#6 What are your next steps?
S2pmStudio is an ongoing project: we are not sure where it will land but we are curious and enthusiastic to develop our personal interests through it. After the Tunnel Evangelion competition began an interesting collaboration with DropCity starting with a trip to Los Angeles where we conducted a series of interviews with several creatives based there. The material we gathered will take form as an editorial project we are currently working on, on the side of other projects we’re trying to carry out.
#7 How do you see the role of an architect in today's society?
It is a very interesting question, yet very tricky. As young architects, fresh from university what we normally tend to do is to be as provocative as possible. Our projects always start from a deep research, and we are profoundly sure that is the correct approach to follow. The difficult thing sometimes is to keep the feet on the ground and not to get lost in theoretical speculation. In the end there is nothing more solid and concrete than real estate.
In a way we think sometimes architects should keep in mind that their work is not only for themselves or for a small circle of people that can understand it but it is for everybody.
The most difficult thing for an architect is probably to find a right balance between what its sensitivity would lead him to do, to be provocative with forms, structures or personal fascinations and what is actually the need for the surrounding context of society. That does not mean to be conservative or ordinary, but to always seek the right answer in the right place.
As we stated already, design is neither a matter of formal speculation nor a desire of standing out personal fascinations. It rather is to be conceived as a tool to achieve accurate answers to issues, be those social, political, economical or aesthetical.
#8 How does your environment influence your work?
Crossing roots and experiences: this is the peculiar character about the team. We are all born, and raised, in different cities in Italy (Milan, Padua, Savona). We met at university in Switzerland, but we also had individual work experiences in different parts of the world. All these points of view have enriched us in different ways and created a (sort of) complementary vision.
#9 Three things that inspire you at the moment:
● The environments in which we come across
● Doing sports and freeing our minds
● What people that surround us in the creative world (friends, acquaintances or colleagues) narrate us
#10 What do you currently read, watch, listen to?
We tend to have very different musical, literary and cinematic tastes.
Beatrice is currently listening to ‘Playing Robots into Heaven’ by James Blake, watching ‘Extrapolation’ and reading ‘American dirt’ by Jeanine Cummins
Margherita is currently listening ‘Inside in/inside out’ by The Kooks, watching Friends and reading ‘A little life’ by Hanya Yanagihara
Jacopo is currently listening to “What's the story morning glory” by The Oasis, watching Wes Anderson’s shorts and reading “Portony’s complaint” by Philip Roth.
Interview Caroline Steffen, Images/Drawings © S2pm Studio