Lazzarini Pickering Architetti has a dedicated team of 20 registered architects from Italy, Germany, France and Australia. Recent staff expansion has regarded technological expertise to maintain the office at the forefront of design and documentation. [LPA] are well versed in collaborating in multi-disciplinary teams and have ongoing collaborations with structural and services engineering consultants as well as sustainability, landscaping and lighting experts.
The [LPA] studio is on Via delle Mantellate in the famous Trastevere district of Rome. The street is known for the adjoining prison and for having been the site of soap factories, including the famous Mira Lanza in the late 19th Century. Years ago, the buildings were abandoned and in the early 70’s they were converted into art studios, galleries and residences. Cy Twombly had his studio here and one of the meeting rooms looks out onto a terrace for which he designed the paving pattern. Gino De Dominicis, Mario Schifano and Maurizio Mochetti worked in these studios as well as the Schifano and Boetti foundations who also had spaces.
Claudio Lazzarini and Carl Pickering have also their home adjoining the studio where the famous film director Abel Ferrara once lived. The studio has big skylights on the roofs with wooden beams, white walls and furniture, and terracotta tiles for the floor. A staircase leads to the upper floor with smaller offices and meeting rooms. In the main conference room adjacent to the entry is a display of the precious collection of materials like ceramics, stones, marbles, woods and metals built over the years, project after project.
The workspace is very peaceful and a fine collection of artworks is the protagonist. Art is always a presence where Carl and Claudio live, and they like to insert it in the projects they do. The studio was not designed by them, it has just been reorganised and tidied up.