Matteo Scagnol
Visiting Lecturer
Master of Architecture, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design
Bachelor of Architecture, University of Venice, Faculty of Architecture
www.modusarchitects.com
Office: Architecture Building, S-110
E-mail: mscagnol@princeton.edu
Matteo Scagnol is the cofounding partner of MoDusArchitects, based in Northern Italy. Founded in 2000, the practice offers a body of built work whose scope and range of projects underline the firm’s commitment to actively engage in the discourse surrounding the role of architecture in contemporary culture. MoDusArchitects has lectured widely and received a number of awards for both their built work and research contributions, including the 2013 Italian Architect of the Year, special jury prize in recognition of their “extraordinary capacity to respond to specific and variegated topics with dexterous spatial and formal solutions that are able to generate new figures in stratified territories and to produce unexpected reflections on their histories.” The firm received the Oderzo Award (2014) and the international Piranesi Award (2013) and was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe European Prize in 2015 for the Psychiatric Center in Bolzano, Italy. Other notable projects include the Cogeneration Plant and Roof-top Skatepark, the Kostner House and Studio, and the Damiani Office Building. The firm’s continuing contribution to creative and educational environments has been recognized by prizes such as the Best Architects prize (2014, Germany) and the Top Ten Schools in Italy prize (2014, InArch). The work has been featured in national and international media, including Casabella, Architetktur Aktuell, Abitare, Domus, Interni, MODULØR, and AIT. The firm’s work has been included in 3 consecutive editions of the Venice Architecture Biennale and two projects have been acquired by the MAXXI Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture in Rome as part of the permanent collection. The first monograph on the work of MoDusArchitects, Three of a Kind, was published by the Architecture Observer Press in 2014 and recently, the Kostner House and Studio is the subject of a documentary “DAS HAUS” produced by Bagarrefilm, Berlin 2016, 61’.
Matteo Scagnol received the Italian Fulbright Fellowship in Visual Arts at the American Academy of Rome upon his return to Italy following his graduate studies at Harvard and has continued onwards to integrate scholarly pursuits with his professional endeavors. The relationship between history and architecture's contribution to the layering of space and time within the built context is a recurrent topic that feeds his work, and is evident in many of the projects MoDusArchitects has built to date. Intersecting disciplines between the boundaries of art and architecture, and infrastructure and architecture are also recurrent interests in his work as seen in the Ringroad and Mountain Lodge projects. Combining a technical and conceptual approach to the use of materials in architecture, Matteo Scagnol has brought to the fore the tectonic aspects of the work of MoDusArchitects. He has recently joined the faculty at the Department Civil Engineering and Architecture at the University of Trento to teach a design fundamentals and theory course. With partner Sandy Attia, Matteo Scagnol is currently teaching a Design Studio at Princeton University’s School of Architecture. Matteo Scagnol has served as a juror on numerous international competitions held in Italy and is frequently invited to speak at conferences to share his work and offer insight on a wide range of architecture topics.
