About

Itinerant Office interviewed 11  internationally distinguished architects, prompting questions about the ever-changing architectural profession. The investigation, based on a series of documentary-style video-interviews, is divided into three parts: PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE.

PAST questions the conditions that allowed each interviewee to undertake a path of success that led their firm to be among some of the most internationally recognised. Each architect explains the reasons behind their decision to study architecture, describing their first major commissions and revealing personal anecdotes from their younger years.

PRESENT, introduces the unique characteristics of each studio, helping us to understand how they work and how they have grown over time. Through investigating the organizational structure of each firm, their current fields of research, and the analysis of some recently completed projects, we are provided with an interesting overview of each practice, allowing us to understand some of the reasons behind their success.

FUTURE, instead wants to deliberate relevant topics of today and tomorrow. Each architect suggests a selection of key concepts that represents their own specific approach, whilst anticipating future trends on which we might focus to understand architecture in the future. Each interview closes with a piece of advice from the interviewee, addressing the new generation of architects and designers.

The video-interview series, conducted by Gianpiero Venturini, filmed between August and October 2017 and edited in the following weeks, was designed with a double objective. First, to open a research path based on the analysis of these successful practices, with the aim of understanding their working methods, themes and approaches, in order to learn – through a comparative method – what it means to be an architect in the 21st century. In fact, the 11 interview series represents the initial steps of a broader research, which will be carried out successively with a new selection of internationally renowned architects, who will be invited to join the 2nd phase of the project, following the same approach that defined the first phase. Moreover, ‘Past, Present, Future’ was conceived to be a source of inspiration for the new generations of architects and architecture students, who are currently facing the job market, or who have recently started their working career.