Studio Details

Location
Milan, Italy

Date
16 June-27 June, 2025

Studio Directors in Milan
Leonid Slonimskiy (Founding Partner, KOSMOS)
Artem Kitaev (Founding Partner, KOSMOS)

Studio Project
Tribune / Stage

Field Trips and Site Visits
While we will naturally explore Milan’s notorious and famous classical and modernist public buildings, the focus of our visits will be on non-designed temporary infrastructural architecture: formal and informal markets, local traditions, music and social events, as well as temporary kiosks, food stalls and other constructions.

Studio Project

For this project we will approach the theme of “Tribune/Stage”, research this architectural phenomenon and propose a new experimental design of that typology.

We will start with research and look at the subject through the prism of temporary rituals, processions and other social traditions as an act of architecture. We will concentrate on the temporary infrastructure that serves and facilitates these temporary processes: from markets to carnivals; from funerals to music concerts; from commercial to spiritual functions. The social role of architecture in these multiple processes will be the focus of this research.

Besides their social role, we will research the technological and material aspect of these structures. How do they achieve maximum effect with minimum means? How do they react to ever-changing urban conditions? How to design for complete disassembly? We will look at what we call “Con Tempoary Archi Tecture”: the rapidly constructible and reusable structures such as scaffoldings, tribunes, stages, event platforms as well as small-scale commercial street architecture: kiosks, food stalls, trucks, portable systems, temporary pavilions, and all possible varieties of moveable and transformable infrastructures that appear all around the world. These seemingly insignificant structures, which usually appear in the cities anonymously out of need, and which are not even really considered by the majority of the population as “architecture”, actually have a very important role in the life of the city. We will focus on their “modern vernacular” design and explore how their various typologies develop as a reaction to different social, economic, legal and weather constraints. Documentation on these “nomadic”, “ephemeral” structures is particularly interesting since (as in the case of most vernacular structures) there is very little documentation done.

Using the knowledge resulting from research on these nomadic and quickly-built structures, we will be able to question convention by prototyping a temporary tribune or stage that will rethink the existing typology and propose a novel, resource-saving experimental structure.

KOSMOS Architects is an experimental architectural practice that collaborates virtually across borders. The work of KOSMOS encompasses urban, architectural, and object design, as well as research and art installations, addressing environmental and social challenges. Through experimentation with materials and construction techniques, the practice explores the spatial and visual parameters of architecture to define its contemporary meaning at the intersection of material and immaterial realms. Leveraging expertise in diverse geographical contexts and projects of varying scales and types, along with a blend of practice and academic experience, KOSMOS explores opportunities for enhancing the built environment in cross-disciplinary fields.

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Internships

Students accepted into the KOSMOS Architects Studio at Venice Studio may be considered for available internship or job opportunities at KOSMOS Architects. Selection of candidates is at the sole discretion of the studio directors and KOSMOS Architects. Places are not guaranteed.

Program Information

Learn more about the program, inc., the application process and pricing here →