Architensions (ATE) is an international architectural design studio and agency of research founded in 2013 and led by Alessandro Orsini and Nick Roseboro. Based in New York City and Rome, the studio investigates architecture, design, and the city with a perspective rooted in site-specificity, exploring ways to connect history, culture, and envisioning new modes of collective living.
Our studio works at the intersection of practice and academia, focusing on architecture at the intersection of the political, social, and environmental networks. Our process is grounded in an open dialogue between clients, consultants, and local communities to promote inclusive design, materials choices, and climate strategies.
We engage in projects and research at multiple scales, working with institutions, municipalities, and private clients through design, exhibitions, curatorial work, and writing. We have completed projects in the US, Italy and United Kingdom and some others are under construction and development in Myanmar and Senegal. Recent projects include a vision plan for San Ferdinando, Calabria, Italy (2022) a holistic strategy to develop its urban fabric while focusing on the promotion of the commons and new publics; a large-scale installation, The Playground, for Coachella Music and Art Festival (2022); and an ongoing housing project in Yangon, Myanmar which proposes an alternative model for collective dwelling.
Our work and research have been published in international magazines such as Domus, Frame, Wallpaper, Architectural Digest, and exhibited at the a83 Gallery (2022), Modest Commons (2023), and Center for Architecture (2022), at The Storefront for Art and Architecture (2017), the Java Project Gallery (2016), the Van Alen Institute (2014). In 2015, Libria published the volume “Forma Urbana,” focusing on studio research through a selection our of projects and writings. The studio was profiled as the Next Progressives in Architect Magazine in September 2020, and in 2021, Cultured Magazine selected Architensions as part of their inaugural young architects list. In 2023 and 2024 Wallpaper Magazine selected Architensions’ principals as part of their 300 and 400 people list of visionaries redefining American creative landscape. Architensions is a recipient of the 25th annual Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard 2024.