Architects: AACM – Atelier Architettura Chinello Morandi
Area: 50 m²
Year: 2025
Project Team: Nicolò Chinello, Rodolfo Morandi
Photographs: Marco Lumini, Catalogo
Manufacturers: Bottega dell’Arte, Maripav Italia, Stealth Light, Terraformae, Viabizzuno
Client: Mosca Bianca Ceramics
City: Padua
Country: Italy
Mosca.Bianca ceramic workshop designed by AACM – Atelier Architettura Chinello Morandi in Padua, Italy stages the terracotta-making process through spatial composition and material narrative. The project centers on a sculptural ceiling gesture that focuses movement toward a zenithal light and a transformable altar. Rammed-earth plaster made from clay and brick waste reinforces the cycle of reuse embedded in the ceramic craft. Concealed tools, tectonic detailing, and theatrical openings frame the space as both functional workshop and scenographic environment, revealing the ritualized nature of making through architecture.
Materiality played a central role in shaping Mosca.Bianca. What began as a functional workshop evolved into a hybrid space, part studio, part exhibition venue, where the material itself guided the design. The breakthrough came when we stopped thinking of it as a traditional lab and instead imagined it as a high-end retail space, with terracotta not just present, but enhancing the entire architectural identity. The space was shaped like clay: coherent, tactile, and immersive. Every element, form, surface, and furniture felt connected. Practical needs were met through functional surfaces, while symbolic value came from the use of rammed-earth plaster made of clay and brick waste. This material choice embodied the cyclical nature of terracotta, aligning with the workshop’s values of reuse and transformation.
Interview with Rodolfo Morandi and Nicolò Chinello of AACM
Mosca.Bianca constructs a spatial narrative driven by perception and movement. The layout encourages a gradual reading of the space, guided by the upward torsion of the ceiling and a diagonal axis that threads the central elements together. The composition balances stillness with dynamic force, using geometry to build spatial tension without clear boundaries. Architecture and use remain intertwined—the user engages intuitively, sensing the space’s layered roles without needing direct explanation.
The central altar, initially perceived as a static monolith, reveals its operative nature through interaction. Once opened, it unfolds to expose integrated working chairs, revealing a tectonic logic of overlapping and interlocking parts. When closed, it becomes an autonomous object: a slim surface made of okumé wood sheets supported by T-shaped frames, resembling cantilevered beams that visually suspend it in space. This dual condition—fixed and transformable—underscores the workshop’s design as both tool and artifact, material and frame.
Material choices further define the architectural language. The tabletop serves the functional needs of clay work, while the walls and ceiling are finished in rammed-earth plaster composed of clay and brick waste, reinforcing themes of reuse and material continuity. Not every function is immediately visible. Tools for modeling are mounted on metal blades and hidden behind textile curtains that act as theatrical backdrops, appearing only during active use. The spatial script remains controlled yet adaptable, mirroring the rhythm and ritual of ceramic craft.
Mosca.Bianca traces the journey of clay from raw matter—expressed in the texture of the plaster—through its shaping, embodied in the twisting ceiling, and into its presentation, elevated on the altar or along the walls under a calibrated light. The workshop frames making not only as a sequence of actions, but as a spatial and symbolic process embedded in the architecture itself.
Project Gallery
Project Location
Address: Via Antonio da Murano, 52-54, Padua, Italy
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
