Arcam selected Jacopo Grilli and his teams as the first Architect in Residence from March to June 2024 from a total of 14 proposals for the Open Call for two new Architects in Residence this year. Jacopo shapes his research with the support and contribution of T.O.P. Office (Luc Deleu) (BE) + Amit Gur NL/BE) + Anita de Franco (IT) + Rebecca Wijnruit (NL)
In the goal of Amsterdam becoming a polynuclear city, I want to put the senses in motion to recognize the centers that the city is designing and phenomenologically generating. There is a difference in fact between intention and completion, action and cause. The research aims to bridge and mediate between the traditional and current design tools with a new perspective that senses, phenomena reading and interpretation can provide.
As an urban designer, I am interested in evaluating the qualities of certain urban spaces by the registration and observation of sensations that the inhabitants experience. As a multidisciplinary artist, I firmly believe that the synesthesia between art disciplines is the only way to represent those sensations. There are more than five senses at the service of our human body: thermoception, for example, can perceive the transition between an outdoor and indoor space. As well as variation of feelings: fear for a certain space, or enthusiasm for another with a landscape viewpoint. These are some of the characteristics that I want to map in the city, to register “ideal” conditions for urban centers. With the support and contribution of Luc Deleu and T.O.P. Office based in Antwerp, I will create a program of sensitive excursions and mapping of the city through the combinations of visual, tactile, thermal, auditory, and performative arts. The final result will be an exhibited reportage of those experiences that will provide the city with a compendium of Atmospheres that the city can generate.