Beyond Entropy

Beyond Entropy is a research-based studio practicing architecture, urbanism and cultural analysis. Beyond Entropy uses the concept of energy as a tool to conceive new forms of architecture beyond the rhetoric of sustainability. Energy cannot be reduced solely to a technical issue; it is a mode of transformation that informs the notion of Space. Beyond Entropy operates globally in situations of territorial crisis: from the urban sprawl of the most industrialized parts of the planet to the derelict infrastructures of deserted islands; from the overcrowded urban developments of emerging countries to the preserved areas of historical urban centres. Beyond Entropy has defined several regions of investigation: each region is analyzed through a set of territorial problems that can be understood within the dialectics of energy and form, transformation and resistance, energy and entropy, matter and action. Beyond Entropy is currently working in Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa.

Beyond Entropy Africa focuses on Luanda as the paradigm of the urban condition of the African Sub-Saharan region, a type of city that is defined by a lack of basic infrastructures and a high density of population. The proposal introduces a new common ground, which performs simultaneously as public space and infrastructure. Beyond Entropy Mediterranean focuses on Sardinia as the paradigm of a territory of conflicts where irreconcilable conditions coexist: natural reserve and touristic exploitation, large infrastructures and unspoiled islands, overcrowded coastlines during summer and deserted villages during winter. The proposal of a Mediterranean Kunsthalle is articulated around the Open Air Gallery of Mangiabarche. Beyond Entropy Europe looks at the urban sprawl of Northern Italy as the privileged example of a condition where city and countryside are blurred into an entropic landscape. Through the systematic study of Palladian Villas as territorial catalysts, Beyond Entropy envisions a new form of occupation for this contemporary landscape.