C+S believes that each project is unique and should act as a translation of the historical, socio-political, economical, physical and climatic contexts which they belong to. They define their research TranslationArchitecture™.

Working on the integration of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and ecology, C+S has developed an extensive catalogue of architectural and urban stra­tegies, which aim to erase architecture as an object, instead melting it into the design of the landscape and translating it into contemporary universal values the power of the environment specificity, the community's expectations, the culture, the memory and the climate. The detailed analysis of the program and the site from both a cultural, social, physical and climatic point of view are the necessary conditions to approach design which is the result of the correct melting of concepts such as scale, form, community spirit and detailed design.

Readings for the lecture
http://web.mit.edu/annesim/www/Segantini_Readings.zip

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Maria Alessandra Segantini is partner, with Carlo Cappai, of  C+S based in Italy.

She was educated at IUAV, University of Architecture of Venice, where she received an Awarded Master Degree in Architecture in 1991.
C+S works internationally in the different fields of architecture: urban design and the design of the landscape, architectural design, interior design both for the private and the public sectors.

C+S won many international competitions: Policlinic Hospital in Milan, Tenova headquarters in Verese, housing complex in Japan, university students’ housing in Murano (Venice) and the law court offices of Venice.

Segantini has lectured internationally and has been visiting professor in several universities of architecture. C+S has exhibited at the 8th and 12th Biennale of Architecture and in the 50th Biennale of Art Exhibition. C+S works won or were selected in many architectural design awards among which are: the Gold Medal of Italian Architecture 2006 (section education), the selection in the Mies Van der Rohe Award 2009, the honorable mention in the AR AWARD 2008, in the FarbDesign Preis in München and in the Dedalo_Minosse International Award 2011, the SFIDE 2009 of the Italian Ministry of Environment and the Faces of Design Award, Berlin 2010.

C+S architectural projects have been published in significant international magazines such as A+U, Architectural Review, C3, Detail, Domus, and Abitare.Segantini’s books, among which Contemporary Housing (Milan 2008) and Learning from Space (at press), are the results of her research.