OL#30 False Mirror Office – Of Mirrors and Plays: Heterotopia as a design tool

IAM Open Lecture #30
False Mirror Office: Boris Hamzeian & Filippo Fanciotti  – Of Mirrors and Plays: Heterotopia as a design tool
18:00 Friday June 21 2019 | IAM Media Lab, Kronesgasse 5/III

Download [Poster]
Facebook event [x]

In 1967 the French anthropologist and philosopher Michel Foucault presented to the architecture community the latest findings of his reasoning on the phenomenology of space: “Heterotopias,” physical places located in our society and capable to deny their physicality and to refer to other places. From brothels to prisons, up to Club Med vacation villages, the non-exhaustive examples given by Foucault left the most crucial question open. Can heterotopia be designed? False Mirror Office resurfaces the issue of Heterotopia in Graz. The contribution will start from Robert Venturi’s and Denise Scott Brown’s Las Vegas, Rem Koolhaas’ Cooney Island and the Post Modern pastiche of Disneyland as three emblematic examples of the flirt between heterotopia and architectural theory. Looking at contemporary discourse the production of False Mirror Office will be dissected as well, to demonstrate the potential of turning heterotopia into an active design tool.

False Mirror Office gathers five architects sharing the Polytechnic School of Genoa as common background. While collaborating with leading European firms, its members share the interest for selected themes of major relevance, spanning from disciplinary topics to unrelated matters. Believing that new only originates as a reaction to the existing, false mirror office re-discovers the past as the present, re-signifies high as mass culture, re-values forms and functions.
As a matter of fact, False Mirror Office mis-represents Architecture.

In 2015 Andrea Anselmo, Gloria Castellini, Filippo Fanciotti, Giovanni Glorialanza and Guya Di Bella gathered for Europan 13 competition (Trondheim, Norway). That project – the false mirror, awarded with first prize and currently ongoing – gave birth and named the collective. From that date on, the firm has been focusing on projects of different size and program, accompanying the design process with a constant work  of research; spanning from the re-interpretation of traditional typologies, investigating hybrid combinations of functions, searching for new narratives and representational tools.
Their works have been published on several architectural periodicals, e-zines and platforms – among the others Divisare, Afasia, Arkitektur.no, Beta-architecture, Archdaily, Dezeen, Viceversa Mag, Platform, Sky ARTE, The Architect’s Newspaper, Carnets, OUTSIDE, Designboom, Architektura i Biznes and The Architectural review.
From 2016 the group has been involved in a series of collaborations with other firms based in Genova; the group – featuring false mirror office, Gosplan, Linearama, PIA and uno8A – has taken part in international competitions and has been involved in relevant exhibitions, from AESCHYLI (Genova, 2016) to la cameretta, as part of the Unfolding Pavillon at the 2017 Architectural Biennale in Venice. In 2017 Divisare Books dedicated to the group the first box set for the series New Architects, focused on emergent Italian firms, thus including False Mirror Office’s first monograph: foretaste.

Besides their practice, False Mirror Office is highly committed to academic research, with a few of its members associated with universities such as EPFL and the Polytechnic School of Genoa. In addition, False Mirror Office has given multiple lectures, as well as taken part in international workshops and exhibitions.

Boris Hamzeian is a PhD assistant of the Laboratory of Theory and History of Architecture LTH3 at the École Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne -EPFL (CH). Since January 2017 he has been developing a PhD thesis titled “A ‘live centre for information’: the Pompidou Centre. Idea, design, fabrication, installations” under the direction of Roberto Gargiani.
Born in Genoa in 1989. Obtained a M. Arch. Diploma with honours at the Polytechnic School of Genoa, IT (2014) with a specialisation on architectural and urban design. In 2012 he worked as an intern at Renzo Piano Building Workshop-RPBW Genoa. In 2013 he worked as a researcher at the International Institute of Architecture I2A in Lugano (CH). Between 2014 and 2015 he also worked as a graduate assistant and guest lecturer at the Polytechnic School of Genoa (IT). In 2015 he has been awarded with the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships for Foreign Scholars at the EPFL (CH). Between 2015 and 2016 he worked as assistant at the Laboratory of Arts for Sciences (LAPIS) at the École Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne -EPFL (CH). In 2017 he was awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation with a Doc.Mobility grant to carry out a one year exchange program at the ENSA Paris-Malaquais in Paris. 

Filippo Fanciotti is Scientiphic assistant at the Laboratory of Arts for Sciences (LAPIS) at the École Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne -EPFL (CH) under the direction of Nicola Braghieri. Since 2016 he’s tutoring and holding classes about architectural representation for the courses of “Figuration et représentation de l’architecture” (FIRE II and FIRE III) and the bachelor course of “Vision et Utopie”. Born in Genoa in 1988. Obtained a M. Arch. Diploma with honours at the Polytechnic School of Genoa, IT (2014) with a specialisation on restoration. In 2013 he worked as an intern at MVRDV Rotterdam. Between 2014 and 2016 he worked as a graduate assistant and guest lecturer at the Polytechnic School of Genoa (IT). Between 2015 and 2017 he worked as collaborator at una2 architetti associati in Genoa.

Beside their academic activities, Boris and Filippo, are co-founders of the architectural firm False Mirror Office (2015-present).

The work of False Mirror Office can be found at falsemirroroffice.com as well as instagram.com/falsemirroroffice