Architecture competition Tokyo Pop Lab 2nd prize winners - Stella Cinzia, Leonardo Ramondetti, Marco Lagamba and Francesco Montesoro

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce the 2nd prize winners of our Tokyo Pop Lab competition - Stella Cinzia, Leonardo Ramondetti, Marco Lagamba and Francesco Montesoro from Italy!

2nd prize winners Tokyo Pop Lab: Cinzia Stella, Leonardo Ramondetti, Marco Lagamba and Francesco Montesoro

Stella Cinzia
Born in Alba (Italy) in 1990. Graduated in 2014 from Polytechnic of Turin where she worked as a professor’s assistant for bachelor degree courses. During her academic career she studied at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy (USA) after winning the scholarship for the international workshop RPI-Polito; and at Tsinghua University in Beijing (China), where she developed her master thesis, then published and exhibited in Turin and Beijing. Afterwards she worked at POINT.architects in Turin, where she took part in several international competitions. Now she works following her two passions beekeeping and architecture. Recently she has been awarded prizes in different architecture and urban competitions in collaboration with Leonardo Ramondetti and Marco Lagamba.

Leonardo Ramondetti
Born in Cuneo (Italy) in 1990. Graduated with honours in 2014 from Polytechnic of Turin after spending five months in Lisbon developing his master thesis. Afterwards he worked at StudioErrante Architetture in Turin and EgoVitaminacreativa in Cuneo. He has just started an internship at Archicura in Turin. In conjunction with his professional career, he joined academic activities collaborating with professors of Polytechnic of Turin. He is also part of the research team Shared territories/Territories in crisis. Recently he has been awarded prizes in different architecture and artistic competitions in collaboration with Cinzia Stella and Marco Lagamba.

Marco Lagamba
Born in Cirié (Italy) in 1990. He took his bachelor in 2014 at Polytechnic of Turin. In 2015 he founded Prototipo, a platform of furniture design in order to investigate the meanings of objects in architecture and life. In 2016 he started his collaboration with Plac studio, being involved in various works and an international competitions. He recently to South Korea in order to develop his master thesis and working at MOTOElastico. He has been also recently awarded prizes in different architecture and artistic competitions in collaboration with Cinzia Stella and Leonardo Ramondetti.

Francesco Montesoro
Born in Ivrea (Italy) in 1989. He is studying for his bachelor’s degree in architecture at Polytechnic of Turin, where he will graduate in sustainable architecture. During his university career he spent a semester at Université de Mons, Belgium and another at Université Laval, Canada, where he developed his master thesis. He collaborated with Atelier Projet during his bachelor’s and with Ali Studio during his master’s. He recently began internship at Cooperativa Edileco.

Architecture is a beautiful battleground. A discipline where many topics and needs mix together. The role of the architect is to combine all these elements taking care of the requests of all the stakeholders. Each time we work in this battleground we discover new ideas and we learn new lessons.

We design our projects in different scales. We agree with the idea of Ernesto Nathan Rogers that said that architects should work "from the spoon to the town". For instance during the same time as this competition Cinzia, Leonardo and Marco were building a small installation in public spaces. Working on different topics at the same time helps us to reflect on various aspects of the design process.

Why do you participate in architecture vision competitions?

For us the research is very important as a starting point to develop our architecture, and all these experiences improve our knowledge and encourage us to think in different ways, it can also be taken as a field application of our skills, learning through practice. Moreover it is always interesting to see the results and to compare different works and points of view.

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

Participating in architecture vision competitions could be a way to find out new ideas and to improve your personal skills. People should not be afraid to get involved in design competitions, because these kinds of efforts will always give you back something positive.