Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia (AF517)

Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia (AF517) is the name chosen by 5+1AA to change its denomination. Created by Alfonso Femia and other fellow travelers, since 1995 the firm has been exploring the world and human relationships through architecture, dialogue and matter, listening to, researching and expressing an idea of the project as a tool for dialogue to think and imagine spaces, architectures and chronotopic cities. Since 2007, with the creation of the Paris agency, it has been developing project themes in an “atelier” made of three places characterized by the identity of three cities, Genoa, Milan and Paris, a place for design animated by a multidisciplinary team that feeds on the different features and experiences of the three cities themselves. The research on matter is crucial in its reassertion as an empathic dimension of architecture when it encounters the ones who live and occupy the city. Matter also represents the will to reiterate the importance of a close dialogue between all the actors of the project, from the client to the craftsman. The Docks in Marseille are the reflection of the main themes developed by Atelier(s) AF517: the relationship between public and private, the project as a destination place. Dialogue is conceived as a tool of the project and the project is a tool for dialogue. The project is considered an opportunity for encounter and exchange, measured in and with time, making the chronotopic dimension one of the research goals.