In conversation with Giacomo Garziano
GG-loop The Infection photo © Michael Sieber
Design Exchange (DE): Giacomo Garziano, can you present yourself to our creative audience and share with us what fascinates you the most in the architecture and design industry and how you can describe the perfect architect?
Giacomo Garziano (GG): I am the founder of the creative practice GG-loop. I established the studio in 2014 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In our creative studio we design from small scale projects to large scale urban interventions. GG-loop is also involved in art projects, such as video installations, digital sculpture and music performances, embracing various creative fields.
A good architect for us is a scientist, able to chemically arrange components in harmonious proportions creating a totally new element, is like a composer enabling the orchestra to perform his piece in the best way.
I am also co-founder of Elephants and Volcanoes.
Elephants and Volcanoes is an international interdisciplinary artist collective. Through the dialogue between various disciplines the artists search for novel forms of artistic expression and experience for their audiences.
DE: How did you decide to become an architect, why in Amsterdam and not in Italy?
GG: I actually wanted to be a rockstar. I would have liked to be a musician more than an architect. I like playing diverse instruments, from cello to drums. That is why there is always a music in everything I do.
When I was a kid I used to draw houses like shuttles, with sonic reactors that could bring them everywhere. I carried with me this idea that brought me to study music first, then architecture.
DE: GG-loop’s modular furniture design was presented this year at Ventura Lambrate during Milan Design Week, catching the eyes of visitors and industry peers, what was the outcome of the show and the response you got from visitors?
GG: The response was great, we have got many interested visitors in our product. It is the first time for us to participate at the renowned event Ventura Lambrate that features young designers from various disciplines and offers a platform to present their novelties to the visitors during Milan Design Week.
DE: What do you think about the event and would you exhibit next year?
GG: Looking into the near future we are thinking of exhibiting next year. Ventura Lambrate is a great platform through which one designer can scale up and create great contacts and commercial possibilities for upcoming projects.
We were very happy with the results from this year show and we are looking forward to see what next year will bring us.
DE: How did you came up with the idea for this modular geometric sofa with velvet fabric?
GG: The design is inspired by properties of certain bacteria. Vibrio is a modular furniture piece inspired by the relentlessly changing multitude of primary organic shapes created through molecular aggregation. Like nature displays itself in an infinity of forms, Vibrio, like a living entity can manifest in continuously alternating constellations and be reinvented through subtraction, addition and re-composition of the individual modules. Molecular properties like bioluminescence inspire its visually responsive surface, the iridescent velvet fabric traces movements and creates ever changing reflection patterns painted by its use.
Vibrio brings peacefulness and harmony, filling the room with positive energy. The modules can be placed to fit any room. The modular pieces of the sofa can be subtracted, added and re-positioned. The furniture piece was recently featured on Tech Insider receiving massive reach and great audience response.
DE: Can you tell us a little bit more about your bio-hack research and the project Resonating Spaces that you have done at the Waag Society?
GG: The project Resonating Spaces was conducted during the first bio-hacking academy program in the world, in the scope of 3 months at the Waag Society in Amsterdam.We studied forms in Nature at the smallest scale, investigating molecules’ growing patterns.
GG-loop Resonating Spaces
Through the study of the analogy between forms and patterns of sound and of nature, we are conducting experiments concerning a different mechanical way to stimulate matter. Petri dishes and flasks hosting different media for diverse kinds of bacteria, algae, kombucha or fungi are exposed to precise vibratory frequencies. Through the study of models in nature, prototypes of integrative, self-assembling, self-organizing architectonic structures are created.
A 3D-printer is hacked to host this system and extrude agar based or bio plastic structures as a bone system.
GG-loop Resonating Spaces
Lately we joined forces with an Italian company Sharebot, to keep on experimenting with this emerging technology.
GG-loop Resonating Spaces
This structures host colonies of bacteria, algae, kombucha or fungi to function as a membrane.
Sound as source of energy and matter on the smallest scale as vehicle of this energy can create harmonic structure propagating from atomic geometries to full scale living organisms.
Digital generative simulation together with 3D-printing prototyping can lead to three-dimensional harmonic architectural sequences.
The project originates in and will contribute to the field of architecture and design. The planned experiments combine the latest scientific breakthroughs in the fields of bio-tech and 3d-printing. The new materials and (building) techniques will influence new aesthetics and designs for architecture. Furthermore, we intend to address ethical issues related to sustainability of construction processes through the production of new organic building materials.
DE: Can you share with us the new projects that you are working on and what people can expect coming from GG-loop’s studio in the near future?
GG: Our upcoming project is a 0-energy timber house, Freebooter, which will be built in Zeeburgereiland. The project is inspired by the old dutch ships which were hosted in this water and which were prepared to sail the oceans. Wood was the main construction material of these ships. The aim of the project is to create a building that stands out and bring back the history of this area.
Freebooter
When I first visited the area, I immediately realized its potential. The vision of the urban plan is rich and articulated. It offers all the functionalities that a new area should have. The investigation on the location’s history and the relation with the water inspired me to design a home with a story. This is my vision of how Zeeburgereiland could be inhabited. The character of the Freebooter is a logical development.
Freebooter
Freebooter was born out of the main elements that characterize the area. It used to be a place where boats were constantly present. This is why I decided to use the elements related to navigation and interpret them according to my vision: the wooden structure typical of the sailing ships and traditional Dutch architecture inspired the construction technology and the feeling of the new interiors; the openness of the floor plan, the change in height according to the function of the room follows basic principle of ship engineering; the transparency of the façades, the balconies and terraces, create a feeling of standing on a ship’s deck, and still preserving privacy and comfort. The fluidity of the water that carries the ship and the wind that blows its veils inspired both the floor plan, the interiors and the pattern of shading structure. With this building I want to bring back the historic memories of the area and give the new inhabitants the feeling of belonging to it since centuries ago.
DE: Lastly, at your portfolio you quote Johann Wolfgang “I call architecture a frozen music” how do you embrace this statement in your work and projects and what architecture truly means to you?
Form, structure, tone, rhythm, all those words can be used in music as well as in architecture. The link between the two stands in mathematics and geometry.
Architecture is for me a frozen moment of a fluid space. Static in its appearance but ever-changing in its essence.
Like sound evolves as separate notes along the music score, architecture is the manifestation of a specific movement of a living organism.
Words: Gabriela Venkova