forty five degrees is a collaborative studio of architects and designers. In our practice, space-making is about resources, not only material or financial but the intangible resources of human and non-human knowledge.
In forty five degrees our work aims at investigating the built environment through research, design, and artistic experimentation, across multiple scales, analysing its physical, social, and economic entanglements. We are interested in gathering protocols and collective approaches, exploring alternative living and city-making models and new paradigms of urban development by engaging with communities and local agents. We strive to create inclusive and accessible spaces through careful use of scale, material, and design language and are committed to rethinking education through academia and practice, placing design at the intersection of arts and sciences.
We work with cultural institutions and creative agencies in Germany and abroad. Together with the Art Mediation department of KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, we have developed the project ‘3rd Space formations’ and the scenography of the ‘30 years KW summer festival’. forty five degrees was digital research residents at Architectuul and had a 3-month residency at the Eastern European exchange network- supported by Goethe Institute Romania and Akademie Schloss Solitude. Our studio is main partner of the European Erasmus+ Youth in Action project “The Studio” together with Byverkstedet (Oslo) and Premices and co (Paris) and was recently selected for the PERSPEKTIVE- Fund for Contemporary Art and Architecture.
Our team takes different forms when engaging in collaborations with other experts, adapting to each project’s scope. forty five degrees was founded in November 2019, but took its official legal form in January 2021. forty five degrees is GbR, a partnership under the Civil Code.
team
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Alkistis Thomidou
+alkistis@forty-five-degrees.com
Alkistis is an architect, researcher and educator. Her interests lie in the tension between architecture, urban transformation and social reality, and she is always fascinated by the inventiveness of everyday life. She trusts in the temporal and speculative power of architecture to set directions and goals and navigate possible futures. With over 15 years of international experience, she currently teaches and researches at the Institute for City and Space Development at Leibniz University Hannover and collaborates with KUNSTWERKE e.V. Berlin on youth education and mediation programs. She has been design critic and lecturer at several institutions and has been tutor and coordinator of architecture workshops while her work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions.
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Berta Gutiérrez Casaos
+Berta is an accomplished architect, researcher, and curator based in both Madrid and Berlin. She founded the collaborative studio forty five degrees. Over the past eight years, Berta’s journey has involved design, art, pedagogy, and philosophy. Her multifaceted role as a curator, researcher, and project leader has left a mark on institutions including TBA21 Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary, the Ministry of Education of Argentina, CCCB, Medialab-Prado, Matadero Madrid, and the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Her recent achievements include jury participation in the Premis Barcelona for Design, Architecture, and Urbanism (2022), and serving as Assistant Curator under Daniela Zyman at TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (2022-2023).
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Giulia Domeniconi
+Giulia is an architect and designer. Her practice that spans from spatial temporary models and pavilions, to furniture design, stage design, and sculpture. She is very engaged in contemporary art conception and production, an interest reflected in her 5-year collaboration with Julian Charrière in his Berlin studio. Giulia is interested in pushing the boundaries of her practice in search of ways to translate visions into compelling spaces and objects. Working across multiple scales, she aims to blur the boundary between architecture, design, art, and landscape.
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Lea Hobson
+Lea Hobson is a french and british freelance architect, set designer and activist based in Briançon. She graduated as an architect from ENSAPB (2011, Paris) and as a scenographer from the Royal School of Speech and Drama (2013, London). Over the years she has collaborated with architecture collectives: LYN Atelier (London), Encore Heureux Architects (Paris) as project manager in particular for the renovation of the Hôtel Pasteur in Rennes and works as a freelance architect for many clients and NGOs (Les Terrasses Solidaires, La Passa, La Fabrique des Impossibles…). She designed the scenography of theatre and opera productions with NOF Fribourg (Snow White, Teenage Bodies, Acis and Galatea, Moscou Paradis), dance productions with Antipode Danse Tanz, of exhibitions (Mucem) and installations (Southbank Centre). Simultaneaously, she is an environmental and climate activist involved in many activist mouvements.
