Alfonso Femia and Gianluca Peluffo, founders of Studio 5+1AA confront the contemporary in the way they address the relationship between territory, city and architecture, constructing this relationship as a representation of reality. The perception and the transformation of reality are, therefore, the keys to a conception of architecture as both body and idea, at once real and emotional, pragmatic
and sensual, acceptable and yet also capable of engendering wonder as a catalyst of new understanding. They founded 5+1 in 1995 and since then they deal with design in its different thematic and functional declinations (the city, the living, the work spaces, the spaces for culture and education) carrying out several projects in Italy and in France. The research on the requalification of urban spaces and significant buildings in the main italian and mediterranean cities: Milan, Rome, Turin, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Tangeri, Algeri, Istanbul and Cairo is realized through the implementation of projects like the Palazzo del Ghiaccio e dei Frigoriferi Milanesi in Milan, the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior in Rome, the Museo del Giocattolo e del Bambino in Cormano, the University Campus of Savona and the Officine Grandi Riparazioni Ferroviarie in Turin. At the same time 5+1AA conducts research on the contemporary city through new implementations like the ‘Torre Orizzontale’ in Milan, the New Italian Space Agency building in Rome, the new IULM6 university campus in Milan, the new residential complex “Life” in Brescia and the Assago Retail Park. The idea that the city builds itself through strategic visions capable of bringing together territory and city, public and private, instruments and project, leads the studio to the development of several strategic master plans including the one for the city of Palermo, l’Etude de Programmation Urbain per Epamarne in Paris and the Master Plan with which Milan won the 2015 Expo. The studio, that became 5+1AA agenzia di architettura in 2005, is based on a interdisciplinary relationship that develops itself between the studios of Genoa, Milan (2006) and Paris (2007), creating a triangle, between cities, cultures and debates, that identifies itself with different natures and experiences in order to create a single team, that works combining project and experience together. The studio wins numerous national and international prizes during the years, including the Philippe Rotthier European Prize for Architecture, the International Chicago Athenaeum Prize, the “Leone d'Argento” at the Biennale di Venezia for the new Palazzo del Cinema in Venice and the title of “Benemerito” from the Culture and Art School of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture.
5+1AA is now developing projects in Milan, Turin, Rome, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Lyons, Paris, Belgrade and Cairo. Their projects currently under construction include the requalification of the Marseilles Docks, the residential complex in Asniéres, the new BNL/BNP Paribas Headquarters in Rome, the GLF/MSC towers in Genoa and the new Port Authority Headquarters in Savona.
5+1AA, Alfonso Femia, Gianluca Peluffo, Simonetta Cenci (partner since 2006), Nicola Spinetto (associate in Paris since 2009), 10 project directors and planning supervisors, 20 project managers, 10 collaborators, a team of 10 people responsible for management and communication.
