Architecture & Design. Antonio Pio Saracino. Sketch of a Trendsetter

His name is Antonio Pio Saracino, he is 32 years old, he’s originally from southern Italy, and he moved to New York “just for fun,” as it often happens. He got his first bite of the Big Apple in 2003 thanks to an internship at the architectural & design studio,  Archi-tectonics, where he started just to learn English. 

Today, only five years later, things are quiet different and in an amazing way: just one year after his arrival, in 2004 to be exact, Antonio and his American business partner funded ArchLAB, one of the most innovative experimental design studios, located in Union Square, basically in the heart of New York City. Since then, his projects have been published in the most prestigious international and national magazines, he has won four major awards for his design projects as the best  ‘Future Furniture’ by New York’s Interior Design magazine and he is the winner of the Architectural Award (2007) by the Museum of Chicago.

But we’re not done yet; he has recently been named New York’s “Ambassador” of the newest trends in international design by the prestigious magazine AddictLab and crowned by New York’s ART News magazine as one of the 25 greatest trendsetters worldwide. 
 

What more can we say about this real enfant prodige? Antonio is very humble and he doesn’t really believe to be one of the greatest who are out there right now ... he admits that he doesn’t think he has made it, but that he is only at the beginning of a long voyage… destination unknown... 

He casually talks about the passion that inspires him and his effervescent projects. His work is constantly focused on a design of organic motif, inspired by nature and its shapes, that uses the finest technology to let the human body and the architectonic one be more interactive with each other. 
 

“I think that modernity in architecture and minimalism in design today are dead and buried,” Antonio says when asked about contemporary and innovative trends, “Although there is a constant effort to revive them. We are witnessing a revolution in both design and architecture, thanks to extremely sophisticated technology that forces us to radically rethink the artificial world and the role of us spectators in the world that we are building. Since technology has invaded and multiplied nature, such body will never be the same again; it is projected over its nature in new dimensions of mobility, social connectivity and flexibility that were simply unthinkable until today. 

It’s also true that technology has invaded and amplified the architectonic body and the shapes of design, in such a way that they would never be the same again. The world that we project sees the natural element become more artificial and the artificial sphere turn more natural, thus blending together! 
 

As you can see in my project for the Seed House, inspired by a seed, that has won the American Design Award of 2007, or in my Modular Chairs inspired by natural shapes, or in the several architectonic membranes that have won the Future Furniture Awards, there are signs of reciprocal interactivity. I am particularly attached to the façade of the Cocoon House that features a frontal metal elastic net that witnesses how the dimensional tension between private and urban space has changed, this division is no longer identifiable with a bi-dimensional façade.” 
 

In the past few years, the world has witnessed drastic changes in daily life: time, space, matter and individuality have evolved. “I believe that as both an architect and a designer,” the ‘Ambassador’ continues, “my role is to create an order between these technological and intellectual revolutions to translate them in the possibility to improve life and to help people accept change with enthusiasm in order to evolve.” 
 

New York plays a major role in Antonio’s book as it was, has been, is and will always be, the real Mecca of innovative design. “It’s the ideal place to get inspiration and develop projects. Here one feels to be integral of a culturally rich environment that is always changing, always remolding itself.” 
 

The future sees more and more projects around the globe, all united by one common thread – organic design… sinuous, elegant, and simply natural…nature at its best.