Francesca Torzo architetto

Francesca Torzo goes back to first principles in her exploration of architectural language and the language of materials and construction. She combines invention and practicality, with intellectual fluency and rigour, and with a love of making and building. She has, in the past, studied concrete in an in-depth way, pushing the capacity of certain concrete mixes to the limit, through hands-on model making and laboratory testing.
The project exhibited at 16th International Architecture Exhibition, the extension of Z33, house for contemporary art in Belgium, is a labour of love. Bespoke bricks have been fabricated to her ‘recipe’ in order to achieve a certain colour and size, and in order to make a wonderful solid brick wall, with a uniquely beautiful surface texture and colour. The collage of existing and new spaces come together to form an ensemble of rooms, which appear to have been drawn together from some personal storehouse of diverse experiences. This way of choreographing spatial sequences may appear random and entirely intuitive, but it results in a very precise cohesive totality. This is one of her first buildings and shows a level of skill, talent and poetic sensibility as refreshing as it is inspirational.
YF+SMcN