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Inhabitable bench
@Countless Cities Biennial

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CIRCOLO PALERMITANO

Inhabitable bench

@Countless Cities Biennial

Palermo,

2021

"Circolo Palermitano" is a direct, playful representation of Piazza della Martorana. Combining its iconicity with a sophisticated geometrical construction, we create a new trio of modular wooden benches, constructed with CnC-ed pieces cut from 18mm plywood panels. Each bench is conceived as a small architecture, so as to trigger a symbolic and spatial dialogue between the scale of the city and the human body. The benches are indeed inhabitable, formed by permeable ribbed tunnels, culminating with open domes that can be detached - becoming funny architectural costumes.

This trio of wooden animals can be arranged into a linear interlocked scheme - made possible by a peculiar silhouette in plan - or into an open configuration that frames a proper playground. People can physically engage with urban furniture in unconventional ways. We think that, after the last months, it's now time to re-invent how to inhabit public space, envisioning new, performative, playful relationships between citizens and the urban fabric - to creatively question the current usage of our bodies.

Circolo Palermitano embraces everyone who knows, or wants to discover, how to play. Kids, due to their privileged body proportions and imaginative capacity, are the primary players, but everyone is welcome to sit, indulge and see through the holes!

Designed by

Lemonot

Inhabitable bench

@Countless Cities Biennial

Palermo

2021

"Circolo Palermitano" is a direct, playful representation of Piazza della Martorana. Combining its iconicity with a sophisticated geometrical construction, we create a new trio of modular wooden benches, constructed with CnC-ed pieces cut from 18mm plywood panels. Each bench is conceived as a small architecture, so as to trigger a symbolic and spatial dialogue between the scale of the city and the human body. The benches are indeed inhabitable, formed by permeable ribbed tunnels, culminating with open domes that can be detached - becoming funny architectural costumes.


This trio of wooden animals can be arranged into a linear interlocked scheme - made possible by a peculiar silhouette in plan - or into an open configuration that frames a proper playground. People can physically engage with urban furniture in unconventional ways. We think that, after the last months, it's now time to re-invent how to inhabit public space, envisioning new, performative, playful relationships between citizens and the urban fabric - to creatively question the current usage of our bodies.


Circolo Palermitano embraces everyone who knows, or wants to discover, how to play. Kids, due to their privileged body proportions and imaginative capacity, are the primary players, but everyone is welcome to sit, indulge and see through the holes!


Designed by

Lemonot

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lemonot

Sabrina Morreale, AA Dipl
Lorenzo Perri, AA Dipl (Hons)

London / Prato

projects@lemonot.co.uk

ABOUT

This is Tooltip!

Sabrina Morreale and Lorenzo Perri are architects, educators and founding partners of Lemonot – a duo for spatial and relational practices, architecture and performative arts. We graduated together at the Architectural Association and we’re now based between London and Italy.

Our projects re-invent the relationship between urban fabric and human rituals through a wide range of media: pavilions, exhibitions, short films and designed performances. We relentlessly seek new forms of togetherness, with a contextual yet transterritorial approach that aims to detect, celebrate and trigger the spontaneous theatre of everyday life. 

We experiment with the language of artistic strategies in public space, empowering alternative narratives and unexpected interactions – to initiate unconventional acts of place-making. We explore how architects can contribute to a peculiar reinterpretation of the city, defining novel 1:1 experiences through short and long-term occupational strategies. Dealing with multiple stakeholders at the same time, we often intervene as both facilitators and designers – constructing supporting spatial structures to make things happen.

Our constant engagement in academia is a crucial part of Lemonot. In 2018-19, we taught as Adjunct Professors at INDA in Bangkok and we’ve been Programme Heads of the AA Visiting School El Alto (Bolivia). Lorenzo taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna  (dieAngewandte) in Architectural Studio 1 from 2020 to 2023, while Sabrina is currently Studio Master in the Foundation Course at the AA in London. Together, we now lead the Architectural Design Studio 7: Convivial-ism at the Royal College of Art in London. 

We collaborate with several cultural institution – including Arquine, La Biennale di Venezia, DPR Barcelona, LINA European Architecture Platform, S AM Basel, Architecture at the Edge (West Ireland) – and our projects have been exhibited and awarded internationally: among the others, at the Young Talent Architecture Award 2016, at the ATT19 Gallery in Bangkok, at the RIBA, at Vienna Design Week, at Bangkok Design Week, at Milan Design Week, at Archifest Singapore 2019, at Mextropoli 2021 in Mexico City, at FAR-Architecture Festival of Rome 2022 and at CAFx Copenhagen Architecture Film Festival 2023.

Furthermore, Lemonot is one of the 9 selected architectural practices for the Padiglione Italia – curated by Fosbury Architecture – of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023, and Sabrina has been appointed as the 2024 Enel Foundation Italian Fellow in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome.

Lina Fellows 2022/2023

“Spaziale” – Padiglione Italia, Venice Architecture Biennale, 2023

close-40
This is Tooltip!
lemonot

Sabrina Morreale, AA Dipl
Lorenzo Perri, AA Dipl (Hons)

London, Vienna, Stockholm, La Paz and Italy

projects@lemonot.co.uk

ABOUT

This is Tooltip!

Sabrina Morreale and Lorenzo Perri are architects, educators and founding partners of Lemonot – a duo for spatial and relational practices, architecture and performative arts. We graduated together at the Architectural Association and we’re now based between London and Italy.

Our projects re-invent the relationship between urban fabric and human rituals through a wide range of media: pavilions, exhibitions, short films and designed performances. We relentlessly seek new forms of togetherness, with a contextual yet transterritorial approach that aims to detect, celebrate and trigger the spontaneous theatre of everyday life. 

We experiment with the language of artistic strategies in public space, empowering alternative narratives and unexpected interactions – to initiate unconventional acts of place-making. We explore how architects can contribute to a peculiar reinterpretation of the city, defining novel 1:1 experiences through short and long-term occupational strategies. Dealing with multiple stakeholders at the same time, we often intervene as both facilitators and designers – constructing supporting spatial structures to make things happen.

Our constant engagement in academia is a crucial part of Lemonot. In 2018-19, we taught as Adjunct Professors at INDA in Bangkok and we’ve been Programme Heads of the AA Visiting School El Alto (Bolivia). Lorenzo taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna  (dieAngewandte) in Architectural Studio 1 from 2020 to 2023, while Sabrina is currently Studio Master in the Foundation Course at the AA in London. Together, we now lead the Architectural Design Studio 7: Convivial-ism at the Royal College of Art in London. 

We collaborate with several cultural institution – including Arquine, La Biennale di Venezia, DPR Barcelona, LINA European Architecture Platform, S AM Basel, Architecture at the Edge (West Ireland) – and our projects have been exhibited and awarded internationally: among the others, at the Young Talent Architecture Award 2016, at the ATT19 Gallery in Bangkok, at the RIBA, at Vienna Design Week, at Bangkok Design Week, at Milan Design Week, at Archifest Singapore 2019, at Mextropoli 2021 in Mexico City, at FAR-Architecture Festival of Rome 2022 and at CAFx Copenhagen Architecture Film Festival 2023.

Furthermore, Lemonot is one of the 9 selected architectural practices for the Padiglione Italia – curated by Fosbury Architecture – of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023, and Sabrina has been appointed as the 2024 Enel Foundation Italian Fellow in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome.

Lina Fellows 2022/2023

“Spaziale” – Padiglione Italia, Venice Architecture Biennale, 2023