Matias del Campo and Sandra Manninger
In partnership with The Department of Arts of the Federal Chancellery of Austria
“Scientific insights have always been part of what influenced us as architects and designers, not only in terms of a technological aid, but as a cultural agent and catalyst for new spatial solutions,” said del Campo and Manninger.
Chilean born and Austrian native, Matias del Campo graduated with distinction from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. In 2003, together with Sandra Manninger, he co-founded SPAN Architects in Vienna. The globally acting practice is best known for their sophisticated application of contemporary technologies in architectural production. Their award-winning architectural designs are informed by Baroque geometries, romantic atmospheres, and biological systems. These sensorial and spatial conditions, in combination with the manifold qualities of contemporary, algorithm-driven approaches are investigated for their architectural qualities. Matias del Campo´s obsessive explorations of contemporary moods are fueled by the opulent repertoire of materialization in nature in combination with cutting-edge technologies, as well as form as a driving force in design at large.
Sandra Manninger is an Austrian registered architect, teacher, and researcher. She is principal of SPAN del Campo Manninger Architects, the company she founded together with Matias del Campo. They're the architects of the Austrian Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, constructing an epistemological framework from practice and procedures that are based on the newly acquired knowledge that we increasingly dominate through science and technology. These involve a software approach that goes beyond the tool itself, leaving space for a true ecology of digital thinking: an achievement that dispels techno-enthusiasm and opens the door to something that might really become a certainty in the future.
In 2003 Del Campo and Manninger founded SPAN Architects which gained wide recognition for their first place winning competition entry for the Austrian Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 as well as their first place winning competition entry for the new Brancusi Museum in Paris, France in 2008. Other prestigious design exhibitions featuring their work include the exhibition of the work of SPAN at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012, the Recursive Formation III installation at the 9th Archilab Exhibition, FRAC Center Orleans, France in 2013 and the solo show Formations at the Museum of Applied Arts MAK in Vienna, Austria in 2011.