Sebastiano CarusoPortfolio

about This portfolio gathers the most significant works I have developed during my academic years, untill

the most recent experiences. It’s as if they would sum up the paths I explored throughout my for-

mation in terms of architectural design, construction process and space planning of various build-

ings and environments.The whole production deals with the concept of experiencing the space:

it’s one of the first things indeed I had very clear in my mind when I started questioning the ar-

chitectural matter that a building consists of empty spaces more than solid ones and that even if

they are shaped by the planimetric drawings they had to be conceived in a three dimensional way.

It’s easy to understand the great influence of the 3D displaying during the concept phase, and the digi-

tal instruments are essential to achieve these results: in this way the creative process can deal with ele-

ments like lights, materials, surface colors, mirroring and reflections and can act directly upon the results.

This is the background where the real aim of the design process takes place: the struggle to cre-

ate pieces of beauty that could be experienced as they are in the same way by a technician and

a simple non-qualified individual. Beauty is one of the greatest legacy of the great art of the past

centuries , and it’s dreadfully easy to destroy it with the tools that an architect can use. From this

responsibility comes the need to keep the beauty alive, to teach it, to enhance it, to spread it.

Curriculum Vitae

Profile

Open minded, enthusiastic, reliable, flexible, organised. I am surely all these things, and even more. I love to take care of

every detail, I am a perfectionist. I have an obstinate enquiring mind that results in an incredible hunger for knowledge, in

every field of human production. World-lover, traveller, photographer, pathfinder, aesthete.

Sebastiano CarusoDate of birth: 17 November 1991

Address: Via Giovanni Falcone, 7

96012 Avola (SR), Italy

Telephone: +39 333 5255521

E-mail: sebastiano.crs@gmail.com

Linkedin: it.linkedin.com/in/sebastianocaruso

Education

University of Ferrara Oct. 2010 - Jul. 2015Department of ArchitectureVote 110/110 cum laude

Classical high scool degree Sep. 2005 - Jul. 2010Vote 100/100

Workshops

Periferica project September 2014

Competitions

120 Hours CompetitionsPartecipant

Ideas Forward - 24 Hours CompetitionWinner - 3rd Place

Young Architects Competitions - Space to Culture

Finalist

Young Architects Competitions - Smart Harbor

Finalist

Department of Architecture of Ferrara ft. MAK HolzWinner - 1st Place

Languages

Italian

English

Native

Professional knowledge

Software Skills

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Indesign

Adobe Illustrator

Maxon Cinema4d

Nemetchek Allplan

AutodeskAutocad

AutodeskRevit

Rhinoceros

February 2015

October 2014

February 2014

April 2013

February 2012

Projects Summury

Academic works

Competitions

Personal works

The Exchange CityArchi tectura l Design Lab - Prof. Gabr ie le Lel l i

Filling VoidsArchitectural Design Lab - Prof. Gianluca Frediani

Earthquake AftermathArchitectural Design Lab - Prof. Alessandro Massarente

A Tower for CalatravaConstruction Design Lab - Prof. Giovanni Zannoni

Restoring Fascist ArchitectureGraduation thesis - Supervisor Prof. Rita Fabbri

Smart HarborYoung Architects Competitions - 1st Edition - Finalist

Preserving Pyramiden120 Hours Competitions - Partecipant

Space to CultureYoung Architects Competitions - 3rd Edition - Finalist

A Shelter for a HomelessIdeas Forward 24H Competition - 2nd Edition - 3rd Place

Right in the centre of Ferrara an ex-mall has to be demolished: this new void give a chance to rethink the approach of modern architecture into an historical context. The aim is to create something that may not be perceived like a common ugly contemporary building placed right in the middle of a perfectly well-functioning tissue. The building should be able to live within this tissue, giving the sensation to have been always there while it express its clear modern nature: its a single volume, shaped by its content. It doesn’t want to touch the ground more than in two points, the entrance and a single edge, it tries to be gentle, it tries to be respectful.

The building grants the access to the terrace through a continuous path starting at the ground level, without any stairs, letting people participate to a various number of cultural activities, like theatrical representations, cultural discussions and artistic exhibitions. The promenade ends with a spectacular view of Ferrara historic centre: the building does not merely invade the city, it helps to experience it.

Filling VoidsA lift for conscience 2012 Architectural Design Lab. - Prof. Gianluca Frediani

Earthquake’s AftermathApproaching city’s wounds

The earthquake of 2012 in Ferrara left scars all over the city: one of those is the school “E. Mosti”, unsafe due to structural damages. The aim was to reorganize the internal distribution of the school and to expand the services, adding a new sport area, a residential block, and some commercial activities on the street side. The main element that catches the attention and guides the eyes to the rest of the project is the covered sport field, shaped like a big slab lifted up as a sign of fracture in the ground. It hosts a basketball-sized sport field and stairs that can be used as grandstands under which there are dressing rooms and all the facilities. This space is connected to the historic school building trough a hald open aisle. The purpose of this lifting slab is to connect the site to existent city area and, more specificly, to the church and its courtyard: a space for the children of the neighbourhood to live throughout the whole week. Other significant elements are the residential element, composed of houses lined up in a diagonal row that creates a small suburbian square, and the commercial blocks placed along Via Bologna, in continuity with the urban tissue.

2013 Architectural Design Lab. - Prof. Alessandro Massarente

The current scenario views the gradual translation from a physical to an abstract way to exchange products: the new medium is now the internet. This will be the end, sooner or later, of small and big shopping centre. The proposal is to anticipate the fading of the physical place breaking it up and mak-ing it a boundary element: the shopping “box” is shattered and its new parts are spread all over the site. Those are the new rules that the functional program has to follow.This program is more similiar to a city-centre program than to a shopping-centre one, because you can find not only shopping areas but also resting areas, sport clubs, restaurants, bar, a big park, houses, cinemas and everything else related to common city life activities. This strong collaboration brings great incomes for the commercial activities (because the products are always in evidence, even when you don’t plan to go shopping) and in the same time allows the area to be used all the time: this isn’t anymore a high-specialized area, like it could be a mall, but it’s a real portion of the city that doesn’t need the commercial activity to be usefull and used.

The Exchange CityRe-thinking cities’ commercial areas 2014 Architectural Design Lab. - Prof. Gabriele Lelli

Planimetry, scale 1:500

Main hall plan, scale 1:200

A Tower for CalatravaFree spaces in an steel cage

The city of Reggio Emilia has started a program of development in the northern urban area, and the most precious jewel is actually the railroad station of Santiago Calatrava. The aim was to design a tower that will provide a certain amount of services for the area, like meeting rooms, an infopint and some offices, avoiding to challenge the Calatrava’s builgins in term of architectural expression: the tower had to be at the service of the raiload station, not to compete with it. Another point was to provide a great view of the station itself from the top floor, and a resting area at the ground zero for passengers and visitors .

These aims were achieved through a steel structure, composed of two “towers” linked by trusses at the first and third floor. The goal was to keep a clear view from the ground zero up to the terrace using a free stairway, different on each flloor. In this structure rooms finded place in completely free way.

2014 Construction Design Lab. - Prof. Giovanni Zannoni

1 Pannello ceramico Petral Bricktile, spessore 1,50 cm2 Struttura a piedini metallici Petral ST1, altezza 8,00 cm3 Membrana sintetica funzionante da barriera al vapore, spessore 0,3 cm5 Getto in calcestruzzo alleggerito strutturale con argilla espansa Leca e rete metallica elettrosaldata, altezza 4,60 cm - 12,00 cm6 Lamiera grecata in acciaio, spessore 0,06 cm7 Pendino metallico a sostegno dell’orditura di controssoffitto, diametro O 0,4 cm8 Pannelli isolanti in lana di roccia Knauf del tipo isoroccia 70, spessore 10,00 cm9 Pannelli in cartongesso Knauf tipo Thermatex DB acustic, spessore 2,40 cm10 Traverso metallico della facciata vetrata strutturale Schuco del tipo FW50-SG formato 5,00 x 10,60 cm11 Montante metallico della facciata vetrata strutturale Schuco del tipo FW50-SG forma-to 5,00 x 10,60 cm12 Facciata vetrata strutturale Schuco del tipo FW50-SG13 Staffa angolare in acciaio di fissaggio al montante della facciata, formato 10,00 x 12,00 cm - spessore acciaio 10,60 cm14 Lastra cartongesso GKB, spessore 1,25 cm15 Sottofondo in calcestruzzo con maglia strutturale alleggerita, spessore 3,00 cm16 Pannelli di Stiferite GTE isolante in schiuma espansa di polyiso con un rivestimento gas impermeabile di alluminio multistrato, spessore 5,00 cm17 Pannelli di Stiferite GTE isolante in schiuma espansa di polyiso con un rivestimento gas impermeabile di alluminio multistrato, spessore 5,00 cm18 Massetto di allettamento, spessore 1,5 cm19 Platea in calcestruzzo armato25 Lastra di rivestimento in cemento trasparente, spessore 3,00 cm26 Sistema di ancoraggio in acciaio inox27 Sottostruttura scatolare a montanti in acciaio galvanizzato formato 1,00 x 1,00 cm28 Profilo corrente in acciaio galvanizzato29 Montante di acciaio galvanizzato scatolare formato 10,00 x 5,00 cm30 Grata metallica di camminamento31 Scatolare in acciaio galvanizzato, formato 8,00 x 3,00 cm32 Staffa in acciaio galvanizzato di collegamento fra doppia pelle e montante di facciata33 Griglia di ventilazione del pavimento flottante34 Scossalina in lamiera zingata, spssore lamiera 0,03 cm35 Profilo metallico guida a U, formato 4,00 x 10,00 x 4,00 cm36 Pannelli di stiferite GTE isolante in schiuma espansa di polyiso con un rivestimento gas impermeabile di alluminio multistrato, spessore 3,00 cm37 Forato laterizio di supporto alla struttura della facciata, formato 8,00 x 20,00 cm38 Getto in calcestruzzo di completamento, spessore 8,00 cm39 Piastra di fondazione presaldata al pilastro HE200 fissata alla platea con tirafondi di acciaio, spessore piastra 1,40 cm, diametro tirafondi 2,00 cm

Restoring Fascist ArchitectureViareggio railroad station of Roberto Narducci

The Viareggio railroad station stands out from the whole production of the early XX century architect Roberto Narducci for space quality, city relationship and attention paid to detail. The building configuration is almost symmetrical and it consists of a main central hall and two wings hosting additional cutting-edge services. Most of them are now out-dated or not useful anymore, it’s the case of the M.N.F. offices (a fascist police service), of three separated lounges (for I, II and III class passengers), of the telegraph office, of flower resellers and tabacconists. At the end of the wings there were a daytime hotel (a structure hosting dressing rooms, an hairdresser and a barber, showers and toilets) and a modern rounded restaurant. After the WWII the ticket offices had undergone extensive alterations and some other activities in the building were closed or moved in different places. As a result large portions of the construction were left empty or used as depot.All of these iusses have directed the thesis work towards two main goals: to understand and to restore the whole architecture in its figurative and historical terms; to reorganize the areas currently empty or closed in accordance with the principle of functional compatibility and with the needs of a XXI century railroad station.

The central block hosts the main hall, a space heavily corrupted in his proportions over time. It was originally conceived as a huge clean empty space in which two specular elements forming the ticket and information offices took place. After the WWII they were replaced by a single block, and other modifications and additions followed during the ‘70s and the ‘80s. Admitting the new ticket office block as a well-founded change in the spatial composition, the proposal tried to recover the simplicity that marked the original project.

2015 Graduation thesis - Supervisor Prof. Rita Fabbri

View on the rails side, design configuration

One of the problems that heavily altered the perception of the building concerns the plaster pinkish coloring over the original dark red one known as Terranova, a variety incredibly popular at the time that characterized a great number of fascist building. This initial hypothesis has been ver-ified by traces of the original plaster coloring found under more recent layers on the second floor. Other measures on the rails side concerned plants and furnitures untidly placed over time and neatly relocated in the new design configuration.

The restaurant to a new life

The rounded restaurant is located at the end of the southern wing and it represented a meeting point and a resting place for all the passengers during the ‘40s and the ‘50s. It was packed with elegant furnishings and stylish details like the central half-opened staircase. It lost importance after the middle of the twentieth century and became gradually unused untill its final closure, after which it suffered heavily modifications that have made almost unrecognizable its structure. The aim was to recover its orginal layout and to give its space back to the passengers and to the whole city.

Smart HarborWhich future to imagine for an old dismissed harbor area?

The area has a strategic role for the ecnomic and landscape value of the city and the idea is to create an entertainment platform with an high quality of living condition and not to leave the site as a dismissed crossing place. Due to the lack of a first relevant image from the sea, a wa-termark grows up as welcome space and an introduction to the city; monumentality is achieved through horizontal extension and not verticality, suitable fort the harbor scale of Pesaro. There are not service in this dismissed area and the objective is to add a welcome service for the turist. The image of the site should be an architectural space as a connection node accesible in the widest possible sense; including any possible development towards future evolutions of the harbor. The place should be both functional and flexible during the seasonal cycle; a water playground is imagined as an entertainment platform between the sea, the city and the new harbor expansion; the change of the season improves the place flexibility wothout affecting the architecture and the social quality of the area.

2013 Young Architects Competition 1rd Ed. - Finalist

In the ancient roman religion and myth Janus is the God of beginnings and transitions, and thereby gates, doors, passages and endings. He’s usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past, and is therefore also a representation of time, change, transition. This is a powerful reminder of the fate of everything we do, create, build, approach, experiment, or even love. There is in this world the real, concrete, factual possibility that something that we once loved may come to an end. It’s in the natural course of the events, but the almighty hand of the technological knowledge lead us to forget this simple human principle of life.

When we loose something (or someone) that was a great piece of our life, the inevitable reaction is nostalgia. Memories torments our mind and they can affect us in deep and unexpected ways: the most powerfull among them are images, meaning the very exterior representation of the lost itself.

In many case allowing ourselves to let go can be the key to cure nostalgia: taking a step forward means creating the chance for something new that was never experienced before. It’s not a matter of forgetting or destroyng, it’s about preserving and taking care of every beautiful piece that we created loved and lived in our lives: to bury is to give a gift of an everlasting presence; it’s the most sacred and respectfull way we know of keeping with us what we’ve loved. It sticks with us and become ground for the next step.

Preserving PyramidenRequiescat in pace 2015 120 Hours Competition - Partecipant

Space to CultureA chance to rethink a disused industrial space

You make it obvious interrelationships between the various components of the building: what appears on the outside, the internal structure, what is imagined and what is encountered in the journey of discovery within the architectural volume. The foyer is then inserted into the spatial structure of the existing building as a dynamic point and heart of the whole system. Technology becomes figurative expression, which creates an inner life, differentiated and complex.

The project expresses the concept of a new informatical architecture that becomes a sensorial experience, through his immateriality, and tries to translate in a place the web’s time and space, so indistincts that they merge theirselves in a single element (the foyer) within which everything finds its place. The skin enveloping the foyer is made to movement by the rolling images projected on his face, making the main hall a multi-media installation: as a result the gravity force seems suspended inside a global information network. The succession of images, sounds and sensations gives a dynamic perception of the space, suitable for the modern man.

2014 Young Architects Competition 3rd Ed. - Finalist

LuMEN!A shelter for a homeless

LuMEN is a system that offers a clean, cozy and safe shelter for homelesses, with a special care for portability. The core is a very simple tent structure, that can be opened and hanged in the most various places, that can float and be immnune to the wet ground and that can also stand rain and snow, thanks to its waterproof nylon coat. The most recognizable element is undoubtedly the light that takes place inside LuMEN: through this a gruop of LuMENs can improve the quality of an area that is usually considered dangerous, and can make it a safer and better place to be in even during the night.But that’s not all! The homeless is the invisible citizen of the XXI century city, ignored most of the time, or abused in the worst cases. But to be right the homeless is the very outsider of our society, and thanks to that he is the only one who can understand that “the games are rigged”. In LuMEN he gains his enlightening role, and can became the new light for a path of darkness and selfishness.

How to!

LuMEN system allow up to 2 homeless people to stay in a safe and comfortly wide place, and also share mo-ments together during night and day.

Keep dry!

Floating is the best way to keep the shelter dry and clean while the nylon coat let rain water slides away. Water is not a problem for LuMEN.

LuMEN!

A very simple solar powe-red enlightening system helps to achieve a double aim: enhance the interior and exterior enviromental quality.

User Experience!

There are accessories that give the user a so far better experience: a waterproof lockable zip, several inter-nal pockets and a stair for every occasion.

2014 Ideas Forward 24H Competition - Winner 3rd Place

A waiting

Bpassing

Cgrowing

Dleaving