SIMONE PORFIRI

 

UTILITAS [THE SHAPE OF THE USE]

Simone Porfiri is an Architect based in Sarnano, Italy. His collages are a beautiful representation of the present and the past merging into one reality. City elements like antennas, piping system and water towers are usually a backdrop to the city, but Simone utilizes them as the protagonists of his images.

For this interview, Simone will be sharing a few of his ideas, inspirations and more!

Simone, please tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.

I’m a young architect based in Sarnano, a small town in the center of Italy. I earned a masters degree in Architecture in 2015 and after that, I worked in Berlin for a Landscape design studio. I’m still working in the field of architecture and landscape design and also as a University tutor, where I’m following urban design and composition laboratories. I’m also active in the field of research using the instrument of drawing/collage to make experimentations in order to study the city’s landscape features and transformations.

Your drawings series, UTILITAS [the shapes of the use], mix contemporary elements with historical ones, evoking a feeling of nostalgia. Could you speak about the thesis behind this image series?

In this work, I investigate the forms generated by the practice of using and inhabiting Architecture: antennas, abusive volumes, piping systems, technological systems for communication and energy management, etc. Technical and functional elements have played a central role in history, becoming integral parts in the design of the city and having their own aesthetic value according to the paradigm of concinnitàs (as a synthesis of the Vitruvian triad of utilitàs, venustàs and firmitàs), such as: Roman aqueducts, salt warehouses, granary, stables, etc. Nowadays, Utilitàs seems to have assumed an autonomy of language that goes out of the logic of the unitary project. A virus of devices which accumulate as parasites on the city-landscape text, without having a properly urban and qualitative vocation. A sort of collateral effect that is generated as a direct consequence of inhabiting, but they still define the city and the landscape structure, although they are considered minor and disturbing elements. I find it interesting to give to those elements the dignity of being part of the city and the landscape; putting them provocatively at the same condition of historical monuments, like it was in the past, but with contemporary forms.

Could you tell us more about your research of using the instrument of drawing and collage to represent the city and its landscapes?

I think that the city and architecture in general, are the result of an adding process: stratifications, overtime modify the image of the city according to the needs of society and we can clearly read the effects of this process in the city’s shapes and forms. In the same way and in a different scale, Architecture is a summation of different stages along its life. I think that making a collage follows the same logic: it’s a stratifications of different parts one over another; add to the proceeding too. In the end, I can say that a collage could be considered the last phase of transformation along a natural process of changing; an ideal vision over something that exists and which expresses a potential  future condition (utopic/dystopic sometimes), even if it’s not real. Somehow, it’s something linked to the projecting activity. The last level of transformation is imagination. Architecture is always an unfinished object.

“Architecture is always an unfinished object”
— SIMONE PORFIRI

What is the narrative behind your images? Do each of them tell a different story? How does that help/inform you on how to compose them?

The images I produce are different parts of the same story (as far as this project is concerned): I am fascinated by those minor elements I find around me every day. Sometimes, if I see a roof, I focus my attention on the forest of antennas placed on its top and on the fragile relationship with the sky. If I have to look at a hilly landscape, I often imagine those high voltage towers as big futuristic landmarks which deeply sign the territory, etc. Those devices are often considered elements of disturbance and degradation. The purpose of this research is to overturn this reality by reconstructing a parallel reading of a landscape defined by those minor forms, yet necessary for human life. A sort of complementary and inevitable city; it is the story of the forgotten things which claim their aesthetic condition becoming monuments; the redemption of the minor things and, which are in any case, necessary.

Your drawings have a monochromatic color scale to them. Is this part of the narrative? What does the selection of color, or lack of color, mean to each image?

Each collage is developed on top of an image used as a base and which has its own graphic features: so I try to follow those characteristics in order to have a result as close as possible to the base I use. I like to think the visions I propose are a sort of natural extension of the starting image, deeply rooted to it. That’s why I use colors and textures as close as possible to the reference image, aspiring to a unitary graphic result.

Who or what influences you graphically?

I think inspiration can come from everywhere because observation is the first level of influence; especially concerning the things to represent.  There are many personalities who influenced my work, such as Marcel Duchamp and all Dada and Pop artists; for their focus on common things and daily-use objects, which is a point of view close to the theme of my research. In regards to the graphics and collages referred to the urban landscape, of course I looked at the works by Superstudio and Archizoom in the 60s and more recently, at the production by Beniamino Servino and Carmelo Baglivo. The images from Piranesi and the vedutismo pictures are also a font of inspiration for me, due to their capability to represent interesting urban spaces and perspectives. I try to capture the best from the various inputs, reinterpreting and mixing different languages to make my message stronger.

What do you think about realistic renderings vs collage renderings? Do you think using a different kind of graphic style would defeat the purpose of a drawing? How so?

In my opinion there is a deep difference about the use of realistic rendering instead of collage images. I think that, in the phase of ideation, the instrument of collage (or hand drawings, sketches, models etc.) is probably the faster way to generate an idea and to verify if it works or not. I also think that by  using this method, the concept idea comes out stronger, because it is more focused on the process of composition rather than the details. It is not always true that a photorealistic render gives a better representation of a project; I personally prefer to explain the idea behind the final project and the kind of space/atmosphere it produces using simple and clear images.

Could you show us / talk about the process of creating your images? What tools do you use? What’s the most important part of your visualization process?

I don’t have a real method to follow - it is different every time. Once the idea is clear, I begin to search for a good base to work: it could be a photo, a painting, or whatever is useful to structure the first idea. Usually, a collage is made of different images mixed together, but I usually like to draw forms on my own or parts which link together the elements used for the final image. The production process is also always different: sometimes I start drawing sketches to identify the idea, in other cases, I work directly on the computer. For the final editing I basically use Photoshop for everything.

What advice has influenced you as an architect?

From the many different advice I’ve heard until now, I’d like to share one: On my graduation day, a professor told me one simple thing: “Don’t stop thinking as an architect”. Maybe this is the most important question an architect has to ask himself for solving a problem: from the position of the cutlery on the table to the design of the city.

What advice would you give to young designers?

I’m a young architect too, so I can only say what I think is important for me now and along my short experience: Never stop studying. This is the only thing which gives you the instruments to open your mind and let you to observe things in different and personal ways.

“Never stop studying.”
— SIMONE PORFIRI

Simone, thank you for taking the time to interview with Arch-Vizz and talk about your beautifull work.

You can find more about Simone's work on his instagram @s_porfiri.

Interview & Images Courtesy: Simone Porfiri
Interviewer: Stefani Fachini

 
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