Architecture Practive Pim.Studio on Arteficius

Creatives

PiM Studio

Get to know the world of multidisciplinary architecture studio directed by Maurizio Mucciola and Maria-Chiara Piccinelli.

V&A Dundee - Interiors designed by PiM Studio (Photo by NAARO)

We met Maurizio Mucciola and Maria Chiara Piccinelli in Tokyo in 2010 whilst working as architects at Kengo Kuma Associates where they led the competition for the V&A museum in Dundee, Scotland.
Fast forward 10 years, with a strong portfolio under their belt and now based in London, they founded PiM Studio, fresh with ideas and big ambitions.
The studio works on architecture, urban design and beyond.
We invited PiM Studio to collaborate with us on two of our exhibitions during London Design Festival 2018 and 2020: the Arteficius Pop up Gallery, where they designed surfaces in marble and A Second Life, where they conceived the installation for the restaurant Sketch London. We were curious as to their design methodology and we asked them a few questions.

Maria-Chiara Piccinelli & Martin De Pablo Esteban

What made you want to work in architecture?

Maurizio Mucciola – I always thought to be exciting to go around a city and to be able to see a building that I have designed and since I was young I wanted to become an architect.
My earliest recollection of wanting to be one is from when I was probably under 10 years old and I’ve seen a mid-rise residential building in my hometown with trees on its rooftop, it wasn’t a particularly beautiful building in itself but the trees on the roof always fascinated me and I was thinking how cool it would be to be an architect and being able to decide to put trees on the roof of people’s houses!

Maria-Chiara Piccinelli - When I was young, I did not want to choose between art and technology, so I decided to combine both and to become and architect. Architects are specialist at everything.

V&A Dundee - Interiors designed by PiM Studio (Photo by NAARO)

Your influences come from your past work as lead Architects within international renowned offices such as Kengo Kuma and OMA/ Rem Koolhaas.
Can you explain how those experiences shaped your current work?

The most important lesson from the previous 10 years working internationally prior to establishing PiM.studio has been to approach each project, no matter how big or small, with a fresh mind, to investigate several different possible answers to a project without preconceptions and to keep testing different solutions for every aspect of each project from the concept to the tiniest construction detail.
This also leads to question our approach to design and enable us to inject freshness to each new project we undertake.

Patio House, Geneva - by PiM Studio

How does materiality come to play in your design?

Materials are very important in or designs, especially how they affect the way a space is experienced. The experience of touching a surface is very important and so is the smell of materials, and these are important considerations when specifying materials for our projects.

What are the materials you use the most in your projects and why?

We tend to avoid wanting to use a specific material before starting a new design because we think different materials can be the right answer to different projects.
We often use wood, stone, soil, or fabrics in our project but we like exploring new materials as well.
One thing which we try to do in all our projects is to combine the use of traditional, natural materials such as stone or wood with new technologies which may allow us to use a traditional material in an innovative way.

What is your must have furniture list?

We don’t necessarily have a must have list, as we choose different things depending on the project and the clients.
We usually like furniture that combine practicality with the use of nice materials and perhaps with interesting combinations of material, but they must be comfortable! If we have to mention one, I’d go for a classic super comfy: the reclining chair designed by Robin Day in 1952, I love the recent Edition by Ilse Crawford Upholstered in long-haired sheepskin.