studio

Envisioning behaviors, allowing fondness, suggesting possibilities

Our projects are the display of a vison that, shaping coexistence of living, enacting a better everyday life. We follow the process of appropriating the places we have designed as much as the material construction: with our architectures we try to activate unexpected questions and unforeseen occasions. We nourish the hope of being involved with  in building a consciously sustainable future.

FOUNDING MEMBERS

A shared path // Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra founded the firm in Milan in 2008, but they have been collaborating since 1999 (when they established Boeri studio). They have deep roots in Italian design culture but looks to Europe as a horizon of stimulation and comparison. Being teachers in different university institutions, Italian and international, enriches and contaminates their work.They understood that they teach in order not to stop learning.

SERVICES

What do we do? // Driven by research-based experimentation, we design spaces for living and working – with few boundaries – spaces for healthcare, education, and leisure. We offer to private, institutional, and public clients all services, involving architectural and urban design, in a synergistic path that leads us to the artistic direction of works on site. We relate to administrative agencies, and we are used to work in multidisciplinary, national and international teams.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

ARCHITECTURE

Eclectic, tainted, optimistic // Our design aspires to give a material place to the culture that is being expressed at that moment. Our creative process is shared, and it has different outcomes due to places and relationships, people and by the unexpected, which become further suggestions. We pursue an idea through the long time of the design: this is the goal of our architecture, trying to achieve higher quality living spaces.

Respectful, disruptive, suitable // We act in every context with the ambition to be part of the construction of new urban ecosystems, preserving what is existent and without consuming new soils. We recognize ourselves in a city-building dynamic that goes beyond the specific needs of each function and tends to respond to collective needs. Maximum exploitation of local and natural resources and potential: we think that the future of cities will be a new deal between nature and artifice, a social, economic and aesthetic deal.

Hybrid, flexible, sustainable // We understand the needs of contemporary society, which aims to represent itself in a new way, with an architecture that tends to the contamination of spatial experiences. Fluidity of the relationship between interior and exterior, depth of vision, transparency: the new geometry of living and habitation is reflected in flexible spaces, while still adhering to requirements.

Experimental, contemporary, detail-oriented // The constant tension for experimentation, typological and morphological, leads us to welcome every project, at every scale, as an opportunity to challenge ourselves. Our architectural language is the outcome of the best synthesis of available technologies, materials and resources. Chromatics, solids and voids, and patterned details find the space of extreme synthesis in the facade. Nature merges with architecture, which welcomes and intensifies it: from an element to be “challenged,” it becomes an integral part of the project, and natural DNA to be maintained when it represents a pre-existence.

OUR MOST IMPORTANT PROJECT

It is our team (click here to discover it), which grows along with the projects: it is inclusive, has a horizontal shape, and is enriched by the exchange of experiences between heterogeneous generations. It has evolved and updated over the years. We understand Barreca & La Varra as an environment human of personal growth and comparison, between skills ranging from interior design, architecture and urban planning, to landscape design and graphic design. Several training initiatives enrich the calendar of studio activities. A constellation of external collaborations enriches and contaminates expertise.

 A PLACE OPEN TO CREATIVITY

Not only architecture: the restyling of the studio in 2023 responded, in addition to the desire to update the team’s workspace, also to the need to make it an environment open to every sphere related to creativity. In particular, the studio’s ground floor and its arena, with the possibility of opening to the courtyard, lend themselves to hosting events and presentations of different kinds, with the support of devices technology and a space for catering.

AWARDS (2008/2023)

2023 Premio Europeo di Architettura Matilde Baffa Ugo Rivolta, finalist second phase x 5Square, Milan // Mention Premio IN/ARCHITETTURA Lombardia 2023 x 5Square, Milan // BIG SEE Architecture Award x ICS Milan International School, Milan // 2022 The Plan Real Estate Award x Ex-Boero, Genova // Metra Building Award x ICS Milan International School, Milan // Premio Architettura e Urbanistica Urbanfile 2022 x 5Square, Milan // 2020 German Design Award x Siemens HQ, Milan // Premio Architettura e Urbanistica Urbanfile 2020 x ICS Milan International School, Milan // 2019 Best Urban Architectural Design Firm – Milan, rivista BUILD, UK // 2018 German Design Award x Misheel Expo, Mongolia // MIPIM Awards – Best Urban Regeneration project x progetto Porta Nuova, Milan // RIBA Award for International Excellence x Bosco Verticale, Milan // 2015 Best Tall Building Worldwide award del CTBUH di Chicago x Bosco Verticale, Milan // 2014 International Highrise Award del DAM di Francoforte x Bosco Verticale, Milan // 2010 Green Building Award x Siemens HQ, Milan

FIRST PRIZE COMPETITIONS (2008/2023)

2022 C40 Reinventing Cities Zama Salomone first phase, Milan // 2021 C40 Reinventing Cities Ex-Macello, Milano // 2019 C40 Reinventing Cities, Scalo Greco Breda, Milano // Competition by invitation, renovation of Settimo Milanese mall (MI) // Competition by invitation, renovation of Novate Milanese “Metropoli” mall (MI) // Competition by invitation, renovation of Surbo mall (LE) // 2018 Competition by invitation, social housing in via Sarpi, Milan  // 2017 Competition by invitation, masterplan of ex Caserma Dus in Rome // 2016, International competition, masterplan of Krupp area in Shanghai “Rinascimento Urbano” (China)  //  2014, International competition, masterplan of Jinshan “La Dolce Vita” (China)  //  2013 International competition, masterplan of Khovd (Mongolia) // 2011 Competition by invitation, residential complex in via Tintoretto, Milan // 2008 International competition Liquid Landscape, Provincia di Reggio Emilia e dall’autorità del bacino del Po // Competition by invitation, new offices of RSA – Royal Sun Alliance, Genova