X-TERN architects+urban planners

X-TERN architects+urban planners is an office based in Merano, Italy, founded in 2001 by Marco de Fonzo, Salvo Di Silvestro and Giorgio Gottardi with the idea of addressing the different single experiences (through the florence-venice-dortmund-munich-london-rotterdam route) to create a “voice”. Declared aim of the office is the research in the fields of architecture, urban planning, graphic design, web design and visual communication, with the secret aspiration of “promoting” the key-role of the architect in contemporary complex society.

The office prefers an experimental approach in opposition to sterile “preservation-isms”,  based on the firm belief that each of the greatest architects of the past was mainly a bright observer and a perfect interpreter of his own age. The contemporary architect must “read” the past in a synthetical and practical way, in a constant search for the future.

The “flesh” of architecture, the materials, is another field being investigated by X-TERN, as they believe this is a part of the task of the Architect since ever. History teaches us that some of the currently used materials were first born in an architect’s mind before being actually deviced and produced.

Finally, X-TERN believes in the exploitation of the potentiality of new digital technologies in the applications they already have and will more and more have in the field of architecture.

X-TERN is currently led by Salvo Di Silvestro and Marco de Fonzo.