Art or architecture? Karla Montauti discusses her passion for design

Design is my life. As an Architect and Urban Designer, my role is to jump between scales from macro to micro and micro to macro, and to examine the layers within cities and buildings to decipher what makes a place unique. I enjoy finding those common threads that link all the projects and discovering the constants and the thinking behind them. 

My vision as a project leader is to find all possible opportunities for innovation, by understanding client needs and using projects as a playground for experimentation. I love creating spaces for research, discussion and graphic exploration and creating a team synergy driven by curiosity, passion and sensitivity. Each project offers a unique lesson and this is what helps us grow together and create work we feel proud of. 

Leading architecture and urban design competitions for many years has taught me to love working on challenging projects of varying size and scale. While working on architectural projects, I became very interested in extending the expression of thought and design beyond the red line, taking a more holistic view. At the same time, I enjoy creating buildings as a piece of city, it became a dialectical exercise that can’t be separated in my way of approaching design.

The contemporary work developed by the Spanish practice Ensamble Studio is one of my favourites, it has been very inspiring and thought-provoking. I am fascinated by how they have subverted traditional ideas about design by taking materiality to its maximum primitive state. I had the opportunity to visit several buildings and marvel at the timelessness, sensitivity, experimentation and authenticity. When you’re there, you constantly wonder if you’re looking at a piece of city or a built landscape, and it makes you wonder if it’s architecture or art… That blurring of the edges is what excites me the most. I consider it a creative manifesto of our time.