Documentary Reveals Ideas and Process Behind Studio Ossidiana's Experimental Public Space

Still from 'Studio Ossidiana: Utomhusverket 2021', a 20 minute-long documentary released on June 7

ArkDes presents Studio Ossidiana: Utomhusverket 2021 — a documentary film detailing the design intentions, construction, and first moments of public activity at the museum’s outdoor installation for 2021.

Revealing the process behind the project, the film presents Studio Ossidiana’s unique approach to the hand-built craft of concrete and terrazzo casting in their own words and alongside the craftspeople that they collaborate with.

The film streams on e-flux Video & Film's start page between Monday, June 7, 6pm CET through Monday, June, 14, 11:59pm CET. It is available in perpetuity on ArkDes Play.

Conceived as an “archipelago” of activities and encounters between people, plants, birds, and minerals, Utomhusverket 2021 celebrates the potential of public space. A planted pond offers relief from the summer heat for both birds and people. Tall perches, designed for migratory birds, cast shadows across a ground of shells, loam, and gravels. The ground elements combine to create new soils that can be shaped by digging, walking, lying, playing, and more. A sundial marks the passing of time, while radiating the captured heat of the sun. An enclosed garden offers shade, shelter, and berries to birdlife. Handcrafted terrazzo ‘rocks’ afford opportunities for play, display, and gathering.

This film is released in connection to Studio Ossidiana's installation Utomhusverket 2021 at ArkDes, the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design, in Stockholm, Sweden, on view seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day between June 4 and October 10.

Studio Ossidiana
Studio Ossidiana is an architecture, design, and research practice based in The Netherlands, founded in 2015. Led by Alessandra Covini and Giovanni Bellotti, the studio works to blur the boundary between architecture, design, art, landscape, and urban strategies. Playfulness, tactility, and inclusivity thread their projects: stories are told and objects are brought to life through materials and spaces that call for action, discovery, and wonder.

Presenting: Studio Ossidiana (Alessandra Covini, Giovanni Bellotti), James Taylor-Foster (Curator of Contemporary Architecture and Design)
A film by: Performing Pictures (Geska Helena Brečević, Robert Brečević)
Second Unit (Rotterdam): Kyulim Kim, Daniel Donato
Production Coordinator: Sujy Lee

Studio Ossidiana: Utomhusverket 2021
June 4–October 10, 2021
Skeppsholmen, Stockholm

Studio Ossidiana: Alessandra Covini, Giovanni Bellotti
Curator: James Taylor-Foster
Producer: Johanna Fogel
Graphic Identity: EWO (Emil Engel Andersson, William J Andersson, Oskar Laurin)
Build Coordinator: Johan von Geijer
Exhibition Coordinator: Elisabet Norin
Installation: Nord Skateparks (Sweden), Tomaello (The Netherlands)

Team at Studio Ossidiana: Daniele Ceragno, Mariagiulia Pistonese, Lyubov Viller, Han Sol Hwang, Baukje Trenning
Team at Nord Skateparks: Daniel Malmberg, Mathew Marek, Stefan Jonsson, William Cramp, Carl Åström, Pontus Robin, Tom Stellmar, Henrik Ribbing, Marcus Adolfsson, Leo Ström
Team at Tomaello: Said Jama, Ali Hassan Tohow, Lauris Keiss, Ed Clarijs, Peter Mersch, Bert Hacquebard, Marcel Derksen, Andre Bonk, Giulio Tomaello, Gevorg Gabriljan, Baukje Trenning