Sofia Boarino
2019 Fellow
Sofia Boarino is an architect, researcher and sound artist who explores the relationship between sound, space and perception. She was born in Casale Monferrato, a small town hiding between the hills in the north of Italy. After humanistic studies and several internships in design and architectural studios such as ‘Cabinet d’Architecture Arcode’ in France, ‘Designathome Studio’ in Germany and ‘Tom Dixon’ in England, Sofia decided to study architecture and applied to the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Switzerland in 2014. She obtained her Master’s degree in Architecture in 2020 with the project “Hit the Beat”, which experimented the relationship between architecture and music. Her work won the Swiss Engineering Ticino Prize in 2021 and was exhibited at the Chiasso’s Cultural Center in the same year. During her studies she also attended the PUCP University in Lima as an exchange student and specialised in acoustics with Professor Carlos Jimenez. During and after university, she gained experience through multiple collaborations in France, Italy, Switzerland and America, where she worked as an architect in several architecture and art studios.
Since 2017, Sofia has been conducting interdisciplinary research that situates in-between art and science, exploring the themes of mechanical, biological and acoustic resonance in correlation with spaces, landscapes and cities, culminating in an in-depth investigation on sound architecture and neuroarchitecture. In 2018, she patented her first architectural project “Sounds of Etna”, and in 2019 she became a Fellow of MADWORKSHOP. In 2021, an essay on her project “Sound Greenfall – A musical courtship between plants and humans” was published in the 15th edition of the journal Horizonte Weimar, and in 2022 she lectured at the Acoustic Niche Workshop held by the Christophe Girot Chair at ETH Zurich. In the same year, she worked as a sound performer at the Metareale exhibition for Fuorisalone Design Week in Milano and at Raw Senses exhibition for Zurich Design Weeks.
She currently lives and works in Zurich as an architect and sound performer and she recently became a member of X=(T=E=N) Studio and a contributor to ANFA – The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture.
She has studied with Mario Botta and Riccardo Blumer and was an integral part of the team for the 2018 MADWORKSHOP Workshop ‘Sentire l’aria’ in Santa Monica, California. For her fellowship, Sofia combined her interests in music and architecture for a site-specific, immersive installation in Varese, Italy. The project, ‘Témenos’, reconnects architecture with the individual, the body, and the mind to transform the act of observing art into a sensorial and emotional experience.
