5+1 Architetti Associati Genova

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OCTOPUSSY

Move in closer to the landscape, then move away, and find yourself once again within it… perplexedly seeking a distinct horizon you lose yourself in a succession of green plains and receding skylines … strength and peace, the point where you perceive the ruined traces of man not happenstance but again taking on a centripetal force, a sense of being “between landscapes”, as if in some way you could vanish into the landscape itself, to be at peace with it, to take in everything with your eyes… no transformation.
The landscape “space” is thus under, over, at your side, behind…and then once again in front of you. Architecture disappears in the “planes” of the horizon, like a city buried for long ages slowly coming to light. Only the edges of the day are visible, the articulation of spaces that night “opens”.
Like the sandworm in Dune, a sinuous line from north to south slides between the curves of the plain, now following, now cutting through, now dipping beneath the height of the Palazzo's ground floor, now emerging from beneath to occupy the space between land and sky.
And only one form emerging: the palazzo.
A line that “knots” itself around the pre-existing buildings.
It alters shape as you look at it and search for perspectives there, creating spaces that compress and dilate. Where transparencies accumulate. Where planes “float” as if hand-clipped from a sheet of paper.
Like a gesture of elementary simplicity, two transparent volumes are placed there, with a thin layer of wood to enclose the two areas that at present lack a covering, and according to two directions opposed at an angle of ninety degrees. The profound spaces of nature offer a new way to live within a landscape, a variety of interactive possibilities that play with the concept of internal-external limits and the simple creation of a place which does not exist, a “neverland”.
Emptiness: a park for art within the landscape.

5+1 ARCHITETTI ASSOCIATI GENOVA
5+1 are a young group of architects from Genoa born between 1962 and 1967.
Paola Arbocò, Pierluigi Feltri, Alfonso Femia, Gianluca Peluffo and Maurizio Vallino founded the studio in 1995.
Their willingness to take risks and to constantly put themselves and their ideas to the test has in recent years involved them in many large projects and the promotion of concepts that have not always been previously tried out.
The strong sense of group (or “flock”, since they like to think of themselves as “penguins”) is evident from the interior of their new offices in Via Interiano in Genoa's historic centre, where they work together with numerous collaborators.
They challenge the inertia of Italian architecture by participating in many design competitions at an international level and exhibiting their work in shows dedicated to young Italian architects.
They have also been invited to present the studio's work in their own exhibitions: in Paris in 1997 and at the ETH in Zurich and SESV in Florence in 2001. 2001 also saw the publication of a monograph in the Architecture Library series edited by Skira.
Their work includes: the promenade at Mare delle Fornace in Savona, the public spaces of Sestri Levante, the area of Piani di Celle Ligure with Rudy Ricciotti, the University campus in Savona, the environmental and landscape reclamation of the Petronio riverside area in Casarza Liguria, the Darsena public spaces in Genoa, the refunctionalisation of the University Laboratories ex-Industrial Chemistry building in Genoa, the Breil exhibition pavilion in Basil and the Financial Police Lieutenancy barracks in Albenga.
At the moment they are at work on projects for the recovery of important strategic areas in Milan, Rome, Genoa and Venice.