Outdoor
Canopy
On the occasion of the Lake Como Design Festival, the collective opens its collaboration with Caterina Frongia and Mosae to give back to its community the story of a new stage: lying on the shores of the lake, together with artists and performers Maddalena Iodice and Giuditta Vettese (with Carolina Merlo), and Margherita Cioppi, co-founder of TOM (All Eyes on the Mediterranean) the project returns to talk about trespassing, bodies in motion and fragments of humanity that claim the right to their own dream of life.
Open, free and migrant, the architecture of We Mediterranean reconfigures itself to return to tell about welcome and the right to inclusion. Two elements of the outpost land in the Grumello Park, part of the Chilometro della Conoscenza route.
Canopy is flat, slender, and towering structure designed to evoke the symbolic power of a shelter. Built in Lebanon in 2023, based on a design by We Mediterranean, with artisans from Decotech and the We Design Beirut team, it consists of eight metal tubes that are easy to assemble. Caterina Frongia was tasked with interpreting the remnants of Skaff fabrics and Dedar outdoor fabrics: dressed in an inlaid drape, it glides along the lake shore to reflect on the meaning of hospitality.
The Story
Born in 2023 from a shared idea of Giovanni Bellotti, Paola Carimati, Matilde Cassani, Alessandra Covini, Ambra Fabi, Francesca Lanzavecchia, Azzurra Muzzonigro and Giovanni Piovene, the architecture of We Mediterranean was built in Beirut with the team of We Design Beirut (technical partners Ajialouna, DecoTech, Skaff): the second of the workshops activated in Lebanon thanks to the contribution of Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d'Arte ended on October 6 of the same year. From that date on, the international geopolitical situation, already shaken by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, became dangerously unstable. A fact that reinforces in us the conviction of a commitment to support those who leave or are forced to flee their countries in search of safe landings. The progression of numbers related to climate migrants is unequivocal: the Mediterranean will be even more a place of crossings, momentum and horizons to point to. Soliciting debate around issues of reception by trying to build together a common culture of dialogue means approaching the causes that drive bodies to move through space, getting to know them and making them resonate emotionally in each of us. Having a clear understanding of who we are and what unites us. What it means to be citizens of the Mediterranean. What common cultural root binds us countries lapped by her majesty the Sea. And on what plane of sharing it is possible to project the foundations of a truly open and porous community. Designers and artists, activists and performers, artisans and sailors together, united in understanding the common language of the mother discipline, we try to decline the words of a vocabulary of living in which dialogue translates the science of construction into new artifacts. Light structures, sturdy embroidery, and handmade weaves are vocabulary words that in empathy find a new formal synthesis.
The Collective
Paola Carimati, architect and journalist, has developed her writing practice through collaborations with major Italian and international editorial platforms.
Matilde Cassani Studio (with Leonardo Gatti and Cecilia da Pozzo) works at the intersection of architecture, performance, and events, exploring cultural pluralism in contemporary cities.
Caterina Frongia, artist and designer, creates autobiographical tapestries that tell the stories of her clients.
Francesca Lanzavecchia, an eclectic and empathetic designer, sees design as a universal language—a tool for storytelling and problem-solving.
Mosae is an architecture and engineering firm specialising in the design and management of exhibition and artistic spaces.
Piovenefabi (Ambra Fabi, Giovanni Piovene, Marco Antonio Ghetti) blends architecture and urban research, practising co-creation as a method for dialogue with the territory.
Sex & the City (Florencia Andreola, Azzurra Muzzonigro) is a non-profit organisation that integrates gender perspectives into urban planning, supporting public policy.
Studio Ossidiana (Alessandra Covini and Giovanni Bellotti) creates projects that sit between architecture, art, and design, with a non-anthropocentric approach focused on interspecies coexistence.
A project by: Paola Carimati, Matilde Cassani Studio, Francesca Lanzavecchia, Piovenefabi, Sex & The City, and Studio Ossidiana
with Caterina Frongia and Mosae
With the contribution of: Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d'Arte and Triennale Milano
Technical support: Dedar
Lake Como community: We Design Beirut (with Ajialouna, DecoTech, Skaff), Dropcity