ONGOING: CASCINA PALAZZOTTO LORENTEGGIO

Flavio Albanese
founder & partner

Flavio Albanese (1951), is founder and president of ASA studio albanese. He is a self-educated designer, by combining his passion for contemporary art with the practical experience of an artisan-architect. Having come into contact with Carlo Scarpa, he learns from him to avoid an “a priori” approach to design, adapting on a case-by-case basis to the occasions, themes and contexts. He has held courses at the École Polytechinique Fédérale in Lausanne and at the Art Institute in Chicago (1980), at Yale University (1983), at the University of Architecture in Delft (2005), at the University of Florida (2006), at the Fundacion Proa de Buenos Aires (2008) and frequently at the most important Italian universities. He has also held two workshops at the international summer school of the Architecture School in Venice in 2009 and 2010. He was a member of the Confindustria Vicenza committee from 1998 to 2001, the Domus Academy Scientific Committee (2004-2005) and the MIart Committee of Honour (2009 and 2010), director of the Officina del Porto di Palermo (2006-2008), vice president of the Andrea Palladio Architecture Firms International Centre (2011-2015) and president of the Fondazione Teatro Comunale Città di Vicenza (2010-2016). From 2007 to 2010 he was asked to head Domus, the prestigious international architecture, design and contemporary art magazine. Active since 1971, in 1987 he founds with his brother Franco ASA studio albanese. The studio's projects were published by the most most important architecture and design magazines: the Neores project was selected for the Mies van der Rohe Foundation European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture (2003), and ASA studio albanese took part in Venice's Architecture Biennial in 2004 and 2006. Flavio is an avid reader and bibliophile (his library, which is open to the rest of the firm, contains more than 15.000 volumes) and he is a connoisseur and collector of contemporary art.

Franco Albanese
partner, CEO & executive director

Franco Albanese (Vicenza, 1958) has worked in the world of architecture and design since 1976. He graduated from the Architecture School in Venice in 1986 and the year after he founded ASA studio albanese in Vicenza with his brother Flavio. Since then he has been the firm's CEO and Technical Manager, and this role has led him to playing his part in the creation, development and execution of the most important projects. As designer and operations manager he oversaw: the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Padua (1997); “Neores”, the production site and headquarters of Sinv Spa in Schio, Vicenza, (selected for the Mies van der Rohe Foundation European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 2003); the project for the Town Hall of the Municipality of Grumolo delle Abbadesse, Vicenza (1999); “Morimondo 17”, the industrial reconversion of the Sinv spa premises in Milan (2000); the headquarters of Margraf in Chiampo, in the province of Vicenza (2006). He also supervised the “Rocco Forte Verdura Resort” in Sciacca, in Sicily (2005), the expansion of Pantelleria Airport (2006), the new Rinascente in Palermo (2007), the reconversion project of Lindower 22 in Berlin (2011), the Hybrid Tower project in Mestre-Venice (2012), the Fope headquarter extension project in Vicenza (2016). In recent years, he has increasingly concentrated on reconverting urban industrial areas, which has become a key theme of ASA studio albanese's philosophy. In recent years, he has increasingly concentrated on reconverting urban industrial areas, which has become a key theme of ASA studio albanese's philosophy.

Piero Corradin
partner, head of projects

Piero Corradin has been a partner of the firm since 2020 and head of project since 2014. He graduated from the Iuav Architecture School in Venice in 2002 and in the same year began working as an architect in ASA studio albanese. Some of the most important projects Piero has worked on include the urban redevelopment of a quarter in Beijing to an OMA masterplan (2007), the new branch of Banca Popolare in Marostica (2006), the new headquarters of AFV Acciaierie Beltrame in Vicenza (2007), the bid for the new Exhibition Centre in Vicenza (2008), and the international bid “Recupero della cava di Mursia” on the island of Pantelleria (2010). In 2012 he took part in the Hybrid Tower project in Mestre (Venice), in 2016 in the Fope headquarter extension project (Vicenza) and in the Agrologic agro-food hub in Monselice. In 2008 he was tutor for PreVisioni, the international workshop on the future masterplan for Vicenza and at the 2009-2010 summer workshops of the Iuav Architecture School in Venice.

Giuseppe Pianezzola
architect

Giuseppe graduated from the IUAV in 1993 and began working with ASA studio albanese in Vicenza straightaway. Together with some of his co-workers, he founded the Corte dei Roda design studio, while continuing to work as a designer with ASA studio albanese at the same time. His main field is interior design and the creative renovation of historic buildings, in particular residential buildings. He helped renovate the Palazzo Bonaguro in Vicenza, and worked on the concept and the working plans of Rocco Forte Verdura Resort in Sciacca, as well as on many other projects, following projects all the way through, from the initial design to their implementation and on-site management. He currently lives with his partner and their two children in San Donà di Piave near Venice, but when he is in town he likes going for walks in the beloved Piazzetta Palladio square. His favourite saying is "It's never too late"!

Eleonora Bottin
architect

Eleonora studied architecture at the Iuav in Venice in alternation with a year at the Facudade Tecnica de Lisboa, a trajectory which led her to graduation and then qualification to practice in 2006. The following year she joined Asa Studio Albanese, working between the offices of Milan and Vicenza. Within the studio she deals with projects of very different scales, from the masterplan to the most meticulous interior details, without forgetting the art of Photoshop. She left Asa in 2013 to join Asprostudio, with whom she collaborated until 2019. Since then he has dedicated herself to freelancing, focusing on reuse and renovation projects for private clients and perfecting her ancient passion for the interior design of all kinds of spaces: residential, commercial and office. However we all know that certain types of love make immense trips and then return, and this is how Eleonora rejoined Asa, carrying a baggage of hard and soft skills enriched by personal experiences. If she wasn't an architect, she would have driven bulldozers. On a desert island Eleonora would take with her old family linen sheets. Also, the island could be anywhere, given that one of her wishes is to live in front of the sea.

Giuseppe Dal Molin
project manager

Giuseppe, who prefers to be called Pino, graduated from the Iuav Architecture School in Venice in 1993. A year later, together with Antonio Paolin and Giuseppe Pianezzola, he won a bid to design the new library in Marostica, a project that won the Town of Oderzo architecture award in 1999. He joined ASA studio albanese in 1994 and, notwithstanding a few hiccups, he has remained with us to this day. Pino deals with projects in the field of residential and hotel architecture in particular, and in interior design. For ASA studio albanese he personally worked on the Rocco Forte Verdura Resort in Sciacca, one of the firm's main projects. In 2006 he founded the Corte dei Roda design studio with Giuseppe Pianezzola and other co-workers. One of his favourite novels is "The Simulacra" by Philip K. Dick, and in another life the architect would have liked to have been a farmer.

Francesco Marangoni
3d models & digital printer supervisor

Francesco Marangoni (born in 1982) graduated in Political Economics from the University of Verona in 2007. After working as a projectionist and usher in the historic Odeon cinema in Vicenza, he happened upon ASA studio albanese in 2006. Here he has helped arrange and catalogue the more than 15,000 volumes contained in the firm's library. He then devoted himself to creating architectural models with a CAD/CAM pantograph and a 3D Zcorp 650 printer. Although he has founded and is involved in the production side of a small web radio station, he insists on listening to Radio3 in the models room on an analogue radio. In his free time, with variable results, he tries to indulge in his passion for reading, music and travel. From the studio library he'd borrow Codex Seraphinianus, while his favourite media is beer.

Charlotte Pigozzi
architect

Charlotte is an architect, she is half from Reggio Emilia and half French. After attending the Politecnico di Milano, she graduated in 2017 following an internship at Paulo Moreira's atelier in Porto. She came to Asa Studio Albanese in Vicenza at the beginning of 2018, almost tiptoeing, to collaborate on the delivery of the villas of the Verdura resort in Sciacca. We've held onto her ever since. Cha, as everyone calls her, is multilingual, multitasking and is involved in some of the most important projects developed by the studio. She loves travelling and yoga. If she wasn't an architect she would have been a perfumer. She shares with her grandmother a special and secret recipe for cappelletti, which she will never reveal. Her favorite motto is: he who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.

Leonardo Ruzzene
architect and engineer

Leonardo was born in Vicenza in 1996 and graduated in architecture and engineering from the Universita degli Studi di Padova in 2021. In 2018 he went to the ETSAM in Madrid where he studied under the professorship of Mansilla and Tuñon, absorbing the project culture of the Spanish school. Since he arrived he immediately and naturally integrated in the dynamics and processes of the office and has been involved in many of the new projects, taking on different functions. Leo is an avid skier, a systematic swimmer and a former promise of tennis. He arrives at work every day with his elegant blue fixed-gear bike (of which he is very jealous), he loves large plants and if he hadn't studied architecture he would probably be a tree climber now.

Giuseppe Santonocito
communication manager

Giuseppe studied philosophy in Venice and Paris, completing his research doctorate in 2006. Since 2007 has managed ASA studio albanese's communications, dealing with new acquisitions for the Library and taking part in key concept and project philosophy planning. From 2007 to 2010 he was a regular contributor to Domus magazine, providing articles, research and reviews, as well as working as editor on the books section for several editions. Before joining ASA, he was assistant librarian at the Museum of Modern Art in Ca' Pesaro in Venice (from 2001 to 2005). As a freelance copywriter he has produced concepts and text for various projects, working with the digital storyteller Felice Limosani on “Il sole sui tetti” 2011 and 2012, with the Fondazione Gaetano Marzotto for the Progetto Marzotto 2013, and with Intertrade Group and Agenzia del Contemporaneo for Pitti Fragranze 2014. He was a tutor at the summer workshop of the Architecture School in Venice in 2009 and 2010. The often exceedingly loud music blaring through his AKG headphones includes Radiohead (and never Coldplay), he loves wide open spaces that aren't very city-like, such as Berlin, and he prefers red wine to white.

Alessandro Sparapan
architect

Alessandro has been working with the studio since 2022, he graduated in architecture from the Iuav in Venice in 2020 and studied for a year at the Belgrade Faculty of Architecture in 2019. Before arriving to Vicenza he worked in Venice for Zuanier Associati and previously in a project by EMGdotART in the Hubei Province in China, in collaboration with the Huazhong University of Science and the Southeast University of Nanjing. Alessandro is passionate about photography, brutalism (but only architectural) and Star Wars. On a desert island he would bring his ever-present pack of Fisherman's Friend candies, and that island would be in Venice.

Blendi Vishkurti
architect

Blendi started at the studio with an internship in 2018 and was fundamental in completing the installations for the FROM/TO exhibition organized in Berlin as part of the MakeCity 2018 festival. Immediately after graduating from the Iuav in 2021, he fully became one of Asa's architects. Together with his partner in crime Blendi, he obtained an honorable mention at the EUROPAN16 international competition in 2021 with the project "Back to nature" and was a finalist for the Federico Maggia Architecture Award in Biella in 2022 with a site-specific project for ephemeral architecture. As a child he would have liked to be a bricklayer (somehow he remained in the field), he loves and studies bonsai and for this reason he would like to live in the countryside one day. If we asked him who to throw from the tower having to choose between Tolkien and Asimov he would answer like Bartelby the Scrivener: "I would prefer not to."

Filippo Zampese
architect visualizer

Filippo was born in 1984 and became an architect when he graduated in Construction Architecture from the IUAV in 2010, specialising in Digital Architecture for his master's also in Venice in 2010. He joined ASA studio albanese in 2015 and he deals with 3D design and models, prototyping, rendering, and post-production of images and videos. Before arriving in Vicenza, he worked in Maastricht at SatijnPlus Architecten, in Milan for Cino Zucchi Architetti and in Rome for Fuksas Architecture. When he's not designing, Filippo is a musician and composer for the band A New Silent Corporation, with whom he has recorded two albums of post-rock instrumental music (Everything Is Exactly As It Seems, 2009; Odyssea, 2016). He plays electric guitar (for which he has a collection of pedals that he doesn't know how to use) and piano. He loves dogs and hates people who talk on trains, which perhaps explains why he would like to have been an astronaut.