Architecture Competition Red Square Tolerance Pavilion 1st prize winners - Kiana Jalali, Marco Merigo, Matteo Pagani and Alessandro Vitale

Please take this opportunity to get introduced to the 1st prize winners of Red Square Tolerance Pavilion competition - Kiana Jalali, Marco Merigo, Matteo Pagani and Alessandro Vitale from Italy!

Kiana Jalali
Born in Mashhad (Iran) in 1987. She studied her Bachelor of architecture in Azad University of Mashhad-Iran. She has moved to Italy in 2011 when she started her Master of Architecture in the University of Politecnico di Milano and graduated with honors in 2013. Since then she has been collaborating as professor assistant and occasional lecturer in Politecnico di Milano. She has been involved with several research studies as well as professional architectural projects in New York (April 2014-October 2014) and Milan. Currently she is collaborating with Silvano Buzzi & Associati. 

Marco Merigo
Born in Brescia (Italy) in 1985. Studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano where he taught as professor assistant giving occasional lectures for bachelor degree courses. Afterwards he joined Silvano Buzzi & Associati office in 2013 and worked as co-responsible and coordinator for projects in United Kingdom and in the Middle East. He has participated in various architectural competitions and he's been awarded with honorable mention for the “Daegu Gosan Public Library” and with the first prize for “Piacenza Farnesian walls” competition. 

Matteo Pagani
Born in Brescia (Italy) in 1985, graduated from Politecnico di Milano in 2011. He has collaborated with studio ABDA (Camillo Botticini and Giulia De Appolonia) where he participated for several national and international architectural competitions. He joined Silvano Buzzi & Associati in 2014. In parallel to his professional career, he has been always cultivating his passion in academic activities by assisting and tutoring next to professors in Politecnico di Milano. In his free time, he participates different competitions of architecture and design. 

Alessandro Vitale
Born in Brescia (Italy) in 1985, graduated from Politecnico di Milano. During his studies and various working experiences approaches the world of computer graphics and photography, conducting significant research and experimentation on the investigation of the 'image' as a form of architecture. In 2009 he started his collaboration with Silvano Buzzi & Associati, initially in CG and photography, and afterwards as lead architect in engineering and coordination project. In 2011 he co-founded "Smarckstudio", an innovation lab working on architecture, industrial design, engineering, communication and visual arts. 
Recently we have been involved in several large scale projects which ends in details as well, so we design, collaborate and engineer from a shoelace to a spacecraft. 

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

We are really not sure, all we can say that nowadays architecture means everything but a sure thing. It is no longer like in 20s or 30s with the start of modernism and its fascination of certainty, neither like 60s and 70s when the pop culture was so strong to direct everything in its delicate way. The world is also bigger now which doesn't leave much space for “or my way or highway”, it also depends a lot on a number of different aspects. One site is all about strong action while the other seeks for modesty. One is asking for rational and certain decision while other one wants to sleep in its context. So to answer to your question we must say “it means many things, certainly not ONE meaning” and the role of architect: spatial-ist!

Why do you participate in architecture vision competitions?

Honestly we call it an opportunity to grow up. As young architects/designers we can not let the crisis or any other “negativity” stop our brain, can we? We have to move forward, right? Simply we saw that no more the architectural studios have architectural works on the table and no more we have the opportunity to start a project from the scratch, more we go forward more we become coordinators, we can't let the “vogue” architecture lead even our personality, can we? Today the world is full of “smart” clients who just chose a paper of a magazine (from vogue to playboy) and want us to realize it for them,so we started architecture vision competitions to stop staying still.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture vision competitions?

The competition is one of the few opportunities that the architecture world offers to young architects willing to demonstrate their abilities without being tied up to market dynamics. It's a world where architects can give life to their ideas and have fun doing it. At the end, if you do not have a little fun at work, it is better to change profession.