Ruggero Agnolutto Architect / Designer ruggero.agnolutto@gmail.com +39 333 6422960 you can find me on linkedin
Sales oddity Research team Venice, 2014
Silver Lion for the best research project at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia. In 1970 Berlusconi promoted Milano 2, a residential city 7,5 kilometers from Milan, advertised as “the city of the number ones” and designed to exile affluent sectors of society, hired by multinational corporations, from pollution, crime, workers and uncertain market promiscuity. Berlusconi stated: “I do not sell space, I sell sales”. TV rendered living rooms as extensions of Mediaset’s Palazzo dei Cigni; in which sexy celebrities translated ordinary life into consumption patterns, desirable to profiled audiences. Milano 2 has been the test-tube in which post-WWII national-TVurbanisms were globally confronted by a transmedia environment, in which new forms of politics have gained relevance.
© Miguel de Guzmán
Direct-to-home TV Urbanism © Miguel de Guzmán
The installation at the Arsenale
Š Miguel de Guzmån
Detail of the installation Il lago dei cigni near Mediaset headquarters
Š Miguel de Guzmån
Ikea Disobedients Production team New York, 2012
Archive, material installation and performance on politically activated non-familiar domesticies. First architectural situation acquired to be part of the Museum of Modern Art MoMA’s collection. [Extract from IKEA Disobedients Manifesto] IKEA delivers societies. IKEA is a purveyor of social structuration. 98% of the people depicted in the IKEA catalogue are young. 92% of them are blond. They all have some sort of family life. They either have children, or are busy having children. Everything IKEA manufactures is aimed at turning the sphere of domesticity into a sunny, happy, apolitical space inhabited by contented, healthy, young people. The sense of home or a household’s life, however, may also be constructed from day to day in quite different fashions. Not all of us are healthy. Not all of us are young. Not all of us are into having children.
© Museum of Modern Art MoMA & Office for Political Innovation
The disobedients
Š Museum of Modern Art MoMA & Office for Political Innovation
Denish
Frank
Rael
Mama Gianna
Moddy
Greg & Donnie, Maja & Costantine
Š Museum of Modern Art MoMA & Office for Political Innovation
The performance: Denish playing his sarod, Rael recreating his aquaponics system
Š Museum of Modern Art MoMA & Office for Political Innovation
The performance: Moddy giving Costantine a haircut, Mama Giana cooking meatballs
Š Museum of Modern Art MoMA & Office for Political Innovation
Escaravox Project leader Madrid, 2012
The aim of this project is to endow Matadero Madrid, former slaughterhouse of the city and now an institution self-defined as “public space for contemporary culture, with views on the river”, with the necessary material devices and institutional protocols to prompt a connection between institutionalized art centers and small music and theater groups or poetry associations. To achieve this, the scheme proposes equipping the open spaces of the old abattoir with varied types of large-span mobile structures with sound amplifying systems, stage lighting and audiovisual projection systems, so that in combination with sliding stands, they may serve as auxiliary structures for any public performance held in this space. The use of these facilities would be organized in the same way as municipal tennis courts, which are booked by the hour. The materiality of the infrastructure is based on the idea of an odd assemblage of already inexpensive elements: watering systems, greenhouse fabrics, cheap plastic chairs… A sort of composite of readymades, using existing technologies in a different way of that they were produced for. It is a technological reappropiation process, a queer use of available systems that resonates greatly with the office philosophy.
© Miguel de Guzmán
ESCARAVOX Sonum
© Miguel de Guzmán
ESCARAVOX Lux
© Miguel de Guzmán
The assembly process Š Office for Political Innovation
Tabacalera 3.1 Master degree project Madrid, 2016
La Tabacalera is an ancient cigarette factory in Madrid, partially abandoned since 2000 and decaying at an alarming pace. Nowadays the building needs just a light restauration and finding a new identity will ensure its future preservation and a role as urban landmark. I entended to preserve its identity as place of creation and craft, but I needed a new product, more profitable and contemporary. Spanish software developers are part of a fast growing industry that needs new infrastructures and spaces in order to reach its full potential. My project creates an ideal ecosystem for developers providing shared professional tools, big communicating studios, marketing and PR consulting but also reinforcing a comunity of professionals. The public can have a glance at the development process and be involved in testing the product. The project fragments the space with wood and plastic balloon frame walls that grant the possibility of assembling sections of the project while the building is in use. The new facade of the building is a steel and polycarbonate volume hosting new elevators and stairs, a low tech spoof of the never built proposal for this area by Nieto & Sobejano.
The new facade with the Tabacalera logo
The ground floor, with both open and closed game boxes
A shared workplace where networking blossoms
Second floor with conference halls and meeting spaces
Kaamos
Construction workshop Helsinki, 2010
Kaamos is the finnish word for Polar night, when the night lasts for more than 24 hours but the light persists in a fascinating glow. I wanted to mimic this effect with an architecture made of translucent material but still highly efficient in the cold finnish winter. The congregation of single houses dispersed in the northen forest of Helsinki creates a small village for young single studens. The esagonal shape, reminescent of a crystal, allows the light to enter in different directions and intensities. The walls are made of polycarbonate panels and transparent insulating material, creating an opalescent wall that allows the light to enter in a fascinating glow. If necessary is possible to modulate this effect using the thick curtains inside that can block the light from coming in. During nightime the walls work the opposite way and the house transforms in a luminescent cristal glowing in the dark. The interior is an open space organized around a plywood cube hosting service spaces like kitchen, wardrobe, storage and bathroom.
Houses are dispersed in groups in a birch forest
Houses are placed close to each other to create a sense of community
Living room & kitchen
Bedroom
In & Out
Design course ThĂŠoule sur Mer, 2011
This is architecture homage to the 60s, a seahouse for a young couple in love that cherishes those little special moments of privacy that became the main focus of the project. Playing with the juxtaposition of open and enclosed spaces creates an architecture with various gradations of privacy. The house has a glass perimeter that intersects with rooms enclosed by curved concrete walls. Therefore these rooms are partially closed, partially opened to small private gardens. The opposite happens with the living room that develops in the space subtracted by the circular walls and opens to the landscape with a scenographic hanging chimney in polished steel. The fluid space is modelled around the white volumes and their continuous shadowplay.
The house is located between the shore and a pine forest
The plan is a juxtaposition of open and enclosed spaces
A romantic moment
Dinner time
Sexy time
Bubble time
Plug&Pray! Design course 2011
I wanted to design a multireligious cabin that could be replicated and placed wherever needed. Its design is a collage of repurposed technologies: the interior of an industrial container is covered in videowalls that project a virtual religious space while speakers saturate the room with sacred noises. This object can be installed everywhere: components can be transported inside the container itself and then assembled in place. The structure of the container guarantees maximum privacy in the religious experience, while a forced ventilation system refreshes the air inside the room. Its use is really simple: a touch screen allows the user to select his faith then videowalls project the most suitable sacred atmosphere. The cabin has an internet connection and its database of spaces is always up to date. And all that for just a small fee!
LE!
SA
Christianity 2 $/h
Islam 3 $/h
Buddhism 3 $/h
Zen 3 $/h
...and many more!
Fog
Light design course Ferrara, 2011
The city of Ferrara is famous for its bicycles and the thick fog. For a light installation inside the court of Castello Estense, I decided to use this facinating atmosferic phenomenon and make it part of the experience. Using high density water nebulizers I can exploit the natural humidity and lack of wind of the city to create a dense cloud of fog inside the court. All around the walls computer controlled colored light give the cloud an everchanging coloration, while projections create moving holograms that float in the middle of the air. The installation is interactive to the movement of the visitors: photocells installed at the entrance of the court give a signal everytime somebody crosses the arches, triggering a change in the lights. Everytime someone enters the court, the fog changes color, making it dance at the rhythm of the visitors.
A fluffy colored cloud
Projections create holograms