Simona Ferrari (b. 1988, IT) is an architect working across different scales and formats. Through building, photography, drawing, and writing, her practice engages with architecture and its broader environment, both physical and theoretical. In my projects, I am interested in imagining and examining architecture in relation to its surroundings—the landscape and the city and their histories—as well as to its visual embodiments—drawings and photographs—exploring how the latter mediates our understanding and experience of space and, as material artifacts, can construct environments. Simona studied architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan (B.Sc. with Honors, 2010) and the Technical University of Vienna and received her Master’s degree from the International Graduate Program in Architecture and Urban Design at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (M.Eng.,2014, Monbukagakusho Fellowship). She completed a Master in Fine Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts (MFA, 2022). She has worked internationally with the Tokyo-based studio Atelier Bow-Wow, where she led several projects from concept to completion including the Search Library in Muharraq, Bahrain, installations and exhibition designs at various venues and institutions such as the Cultural Center of Chicago, Harvard GSD, La Biennale di Venezia, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the MAXXI Museum in Rome, and the Triennale di Milano. Alongside her practice, between 2017–2023 Simona has been teaching and researching at the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich, Chair of Architectural Behaviorology (Prof. Momoyo Kaijima), where she taught design studios and co-authored the book ‘Swiss Window Journeys’ (gta Verlag, 2023). She was assistant curator of the Japan Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale (2018).Her work has been awarded by international competitions such as Europan and has received grants from the Austrian Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (MEXT), the European Union, and the City of Zurich. Recently, she was architect-in-residence at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles with the MAK Schindler Scholarship and at the Charles Moore Foundation in Santa Monica. She currently lives and works in Zurich. Here is an archive of her works. You can get in touch with her by Email & Instagram

Simona Ferrari is an architect working across different scales and formats, engaging with both commissioned and self-initiated projects, as well as collaborations. Her practice encompasses building, photography, drawing, and writing, exploring the relationship between architecture and its broader context, both physical and theoretical. In my projects, I am interested in examining and imagining architecture in relation to its surroundings—the landscape, the city, and their histories. I also consider its visual representations, such as as drawings and photographs, and how these mediums shape our understanding and experience of space, ultimately serving as material artifacts that construct environments. Here is an archive of her works. You can get in touch with her by Email & Instagram

Garden in Progress / Landscape In-Between: A River and a Backyard / Inhabiting Pictures: On Luisa Lambri’s Artistic Practice / Making Mountains / The Annals of My Glass House / Shop Sign / On Exposed Film and Embodied Spaces / Tower of Azuma / Domestic Forms / Rooms and Hedges

Making Mountains

Making Mountains is a workshop unit within the the Vienna Architecture Summer School, in which we proposed to look at the Deponie Rautenweg, a large landfill in the outskirt of Vienna. Disguised as a natural landscape inhabited by grazing goats, the landfill is in fact a sophisticated infrastructure and constructed pile of debris that is expected to soon reach a monumental height of 75 meters. The workshop was envisioned as an iterative process of layering recycled construction residues to physically re-enact the stacked structure of the landfill. Students were asked to add one layer per day, discussing the materials properties and their ecological implications. The week-long activity was framed by walks in the landfill, readings and discussions with the aim to articulate the phisical experience of the workshop to reflect on the relationship between waste disposal, landscape properties, and architectural agency in the circulation of materials.

Location: Vienna Architecture Summer School, AT

Year: 2022

Workshop Tutors: Simona Ferrari, Jakob Sellaoui

Participants: Cara Domscheit, Jana Kopp, Thijs Vleeschouwer

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Simona Ferrari (b. 1988, IT) is an architect working across different scales and formats. Through building, photography, drawing, and writing, her practice engages with architecture and its broader environment, both physical and theoretical. In my projects, I am interested in imagining and examining architecture in relation to its surroundings—the landscape and the city and their histories—as well as to its visual embodiments—drawings and photographs—exploring how the latter mediates our understanding and experience of space and, as material artifacts, can construct environments. Simona studied architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan (B.Sc. with Honors, 2010) and the Technical University of Vienna and received her Master’s degree from the International Graduate Program in Architecture and Urban Design at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (M.Eng.,2014, Monbukagakusho Fellowship). She completed a Master in Fine Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts (MFA, 2022). She has worked internationally with the Tokyo-based studio Atelier Bow-Wow, where she led several projects from concept to completion including the Search Library in Muharraq, Bahrain, installations and exhibition designs at various venues and institutions such as the Cultural Center of Chicago, Harvard GSD, La Biennale di Venezia, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the MAXXI Museum in Rome, and the Triennale di Milano. Alongside her practice, between 2017–2023 Simona has been teaching and researching at the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich, Chair of Architectural Behaviorology (Prof. Momoyo Kaijima), where she taught design studios and co-authored the book ‘Swiss Window Journeys’ (gta Verlag, 2023). She was assistant curator of the Japan Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale (2018).Her work has been awarded by international competitions such as Europan and has received grants from the Austrian Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (MEXT), the European Union, and the City of Zurich. Recently, she was architect-in-residence at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles with the MAK Schindler Scholarship and at the Charles Moore Foundation in Santa Monica. She currently lives and works in Zurich. Here is an archive of her works. You can get in touch with her by Email & Instagram

Simona Ferrari is an architect working across different scales and formats, engaging with both commissioned and self-initiated projects, as well as collaborations. Her practice encompasses building, photography, drawing, and writing, exploring the relationship between architecture and its broader context, both physical and theoretical. In my projects, I am interested in examining and imagining architecture in relation to its surroundings—the landscape, the city, and their histories. I also consider its visual representations, such as as drawings and photographs, and how these mediums shape our understanding and experience of space, ultimately serving as material artifacts that construct environments. Here is an archive of her works. You can get in touch with her by Email & Instagram

Garden in Progress / Landscape In-Between: A River and a Backyard / Inhabiting Pictures: On Luisa Lambri’s Artistic Practice / Making Mountains / The Annals of My Glass House / Shop Sign / On Exposed Film and Embodied Spaces / Tower of Azuma / Domestic Forms / Rooms and Hedges