Architect
Piergiorgio Semerano was born in Padova, Italy, in 1941. He lives and works in Italy in the cities of Padova and Lecce. During his thirty years of professional experience, he has crafted a versatile and multiform professionalism in his work of continuous technical experimentation and far from contemporary establishment.
He blends with the same passion both innovative techniques and traditional materials, to create, anyhow, new forms that are open to constant transformations, in continuous dialogue with space and light. According to the architect’s own words: “There is a quality in light able to transform the dimensions and the weight of any material. Being on the same wavelength with such a quality has been my journey in architecture”.
Some of his works have recently received important acknowledgements: the “Perchè” Restaurant in Roncade (Treviso, Italy), completed in 2006, has been selected for the Italian Architecture Golden Medal Award during the 2009 Triennale in Milan, Italy, to represent Italian Architecture at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo; the De Masi House project (2008) has been awarded at the 2009 Barbara Cappochin International Bienniale of Architecture and will be exhibited at the World Day of Architecture in Tokyo, Japan; the new Capozza Stadium in Casarano (Lecce, Italy), characterized by a photovoltaic roofing, has been recognized as one of the world’s four best projects of its kind.
Laboratory of Architecture
The “Laboratorio di Architettura” (Architecture Lab) (www.semerano.com) is a branch of the Semerano Architecture farms in Padova and Lecce, Italy. Since 2005, the lab is located in an old tobacco factory, a 19th century massive building built around an orange grove in the Lecce countryside, with more than 13 hectares of sunflowers surrounding it. It is a place for meeting and isolation at the same time, where passion for art and architecture grows like it did in the shops during the Renaissance. It is a melting pot of young architects from different countries who carry out their professional and research activities here, other professionals, from craftsman to artists, cooperate with them in developing new forms of design and multi-disciplinary experimentation.
The Laboratory is the common denominator for different and autonomous personalities. It is not an office but rather an open space that can be reached both physically and through the web, a meeting point for many “professionals with a luggage”, each with his or her experiences.
A series of projects are currently in progress, from historical sites re-evaluation to the development of innovative forms of living organization, the recovery of “artisan” working methods and the experimentation of new techniques and materials.