Architecture & design / Caracas, Venezuela
Atelier Caracas
This is not architecture.— their Instagram bioThe studio
A think tank that happens to build.
Atelier Caracas is a design and architecture practice in Caracas, founded in 2015 by architects Julio Kowalenko and Rodrigo Armas. The work moves between buildings, objects, installations and sculpture, and it has been shown at art fairs as well as built in Caracas.
Meet the founders- Founded
- 2015
- Based in
- Caracas, Venezuela
- Founders
- Julio Kowalenko, Rodrigo Armas
- Disciplines
- Architecture, Industrial design, Public spaces, Private residences, Retail spaces, Pop-ups and installations, Sculpture and fine art, Scenography
How they think
Everyday life, taken seriously.
- 01
Start with the ordinary
The studio takes everyday objects and scenes and studies them until they become architectural ideas, then carries those ideas into objects, images and buildings at very different scales.
- 02
Borrow from the street
Venezuelan context and pop culture are raw material, not decoration. The results are meant to be funny, strange and charged with meaning all at once.
- 03
Keep it unsettling
They describe the practice as a think tank for formal, aesthetic and cultural investigation, and they would rather provoke a question than offer comfort.
Project spotlight
The Parasite Project
A school dining hall in Caracas became a flexible room for meals, theatre and exhibitions. Instead of replacing what was there, the architects reused the existing materials and let the new design live off them, like a parasite on a host.
- Where
- El Ávila school, Caracas
- What
- Renovation of a dining hall into a space for dining, theatre and art
- Materials
- Reused granite slabs and terracotta tiles, concrete blocks, reclaimed blackboards turned into doors
- Published
- February 2019
- Photography
- Saúl Yuncoxar
Selected projects
A few of the things they’ve made.
- A_P
- Mosquito
- ANTENNA
- DECOY
- LIGA-38
- A Love Letter to Hans Hollein
- Gardenia
- New Coherency
- Ferrari Service Facility
- APTN1
- Radical Semantics
- Fun Maze
- Death Tray
- 2020 A Spa Odyssey
Project names as listed on the studio’s website. See the full portfolio at ateliercaracas.com.
Along the way
Shown and published.
- 2015
Julio Kowalenko and Rodrigo Armas found the studio in Caracas.
- 2019
The Parasite Project, a school renovation in Caracas, is featured by Yatzer.
- 2021
The studio shows at Untitled Art during Art Basel Miami Beach.
- 2022
The studio shows at Pinta Miami.
- 2023
C41 Magazine reports collaborations with Ferrari, Sony Music Latin and the Bartlett School of Architecture, and gallery representation in New York, Geneva, Singapore, Dubai and Peru.
See the work, straight from the studio.
Sources
This profile is compiled from public sources and written in our own words. Photography and project details belong to Atelier Caracas and the photographers credited.