︎Studio
︎Recognitions
︎Collaborations

PHILOSOPHY︎

‘Places are poetic. They grow and change, influenced and inspired by the bodies inhabiting them.

Because of this, our work is interactive. It is made to approach, touch, shaped by the nature and the forces engaging with it.

Actions change our sculptures, trigging light, sounds, echos. Rain, wind, sunlight, and each unpredictable interaction creates a new landscape of performative responses.

In this way, we make the works, but they are completed by the community and the nature they come into contact with.

This creates a symbiosis between art and its environment.’

STUDIO︎

Maetherea {Matter+Ethereal) is a multidisciplinary design practice based in London, working internationally at the intersection of Landscape Architecture and Public art. Our work couples bio-integrated design with botanical knowledge to create spaces that change through time. Our projects are guided by ecological principles, taking into account the relationships among living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment.

We focus on unique design solutions, from concept to construction, proposing the fourth dimension of time as a key element to operate in the public realm. We create time-based iconic structures and art installations, working on the interaction between humans and nature, continuously evolving into new scenarios.

We believe urban spaces are not a sequence of objects but rather a choreography of performances, jointing the sculptural perception with an immersive ecology. In this way, we focus on the narrative: the narrative behind a place and finding new ways to celebrate it.

Performative Landscapes Public Art and Time-Based design

PEOPLE︎

Cristina Morbi - Director Morbi is a London based Architectural and Landscape Designer working for the Public Realm and Art Commission, focusing on Site-Specific Landscape Architecture, Environmental Design and Public Art. She affiliates with Universities in Milan and London, as Visiting Professor MSc Politecnico di Milano School of Design, Bartlett UCL School of Architecture, and London Metropolitan School of Art Architecture and Design.
Exploring performative processes in Landscape Architecture, she founded in 2018 Maetherea, a Studio Manifesto bringing together design, art and research, using unpredictable data and analysis as a poetic tool for the design process.
Her research and work bring together phenomenologic landscape through time-based design, working on the relationship between natural and artificial agents and questioning the life-span of design gestures, how they shape the landscape, sculptural features and installations. The concept of Landscaope design is here extended to Landscape Performances as deliberate mutations take place in the whole life span of a project.

Aurora Destro - Associate
Destro is an Architect registered in Italy and Visual Artist based in Milan. She has been Adjunct Professor at Politecnico di Milano, working on the themes of ephemerality, rituals and time-based design. Her research investigates the ephemeral aspect of space design, exploring the themes of light, nature, time and digital space. Destro is Associate at the studio, overseeing both the design and management of the projects. She has expertise in construction and site management, with refined attention to conceptual frameworks.

Kristina Chan - Artist
Chan is a London based Artist and Print Maker. her works are a culmination and accumulation into site specific history to depict socio-cultural entropic narratives. They explore the correlation between architecture and sculptural landscapes of derelict and disused spaces. She is interested in sites where the intersection between function and intention have fallen into decline and disrepair, where untold histories recount themselves, in all their brevity, satire, beauty, and collapse.

Jean-Baptiste Roux - Head of Data and BD
Roux is a London based head of Database and Business development, working on strategies and benchmarking, unifying Art and Tech. He is the creator of the Database of Performances, developing the know-how and vision of Maetherea. Jean-Baptiste is trained in the Business School of UIBE, in France and China. He is passionate about the creative worlds and works on tech-art platforms, Artlogic and Aucart

CLIMATE PERFORMANCE︎

Together with Prof. Giovanna Piccinno - Politecnico di Milano, and Markus Jatsch Martha Schwartz Partners, we fostered the interdisciplinary workshop and hub Climate Performance, exploring design and research to address Climate Change issues through art and science, mentoring students on the creative aspect of future cities and design development. The work has been exhibited in Milano Triennale International - Broken Nature 2019.