Massimo Alvisi, Junko Kirimoto. ALVISI KIRIMOTO + PARTNERS

Alvisi Kirimoto + Partners, after 10 years of working in collaboration with architects like Renzo Piano, Massimiliano Fuksas and Oscar Niemeyer, Massimo Alvisi and Junko Kirimoto founded the architecture office Alvisi Kirimoto + Partners in 2002. A few years afterwards they established an engineering partnership with Alessandra Spiezia and Arabella Rocca in 2008.

The main finished projects by Alvisi Kirimoto + Partners are: Molino Casillo Headquarters in Puglia, Italy; a complex of small and medium factories in Barletta (Bari), Italy; the Naples Fine Arts Academy Theater, Italy; a hotel in Dalmine (Bergamo), Italy; a residential building in Trani (Bari), Italy; the temporary pavilions for the Rome Cinema Fest, Italy; the new Japanese restaurant Hamasei in Rome, Italy; the Davide Cenci’s stores in Rome and in Milan, Italy; the TIM shop Il telefonino in Genova and the TIM showroom in Rome, Italy.

The office has collected several awards in the past few years: first prize for “Meno è più 4” competition for a nursery and civic centre in Rome; second prize for “Piccole Stazioni Ferroviarie” competition; second prize for “Madrid 2016 – kayak site” competition for Madrid Olympic nomination; first prize for the “Corato Theatre restoration” competition, a building which was recently opened to the public. Among various prizes, the AIT Award 2012 for the Naples Art Academy Theater, selected in the category: public building interiors.

Massimo Alvisi was born in Barletta in 1967 and graduated in Architecture from Florence University with honours in 1994, having completed an international thesis in collaboration with the École d'Architecture de La Villette. During his time at university, he received a one-year scholarship to Darmstadt, Germany, where he studied environmental sustainability with Thomas Herzog.

Massimo Alvisi was Design Architect for the Renzo Piano Building Workshop from 1995 to 2002, through to the completion of the Parco della Musica Auditorium in Rome.

In 2002, he founded Rome-based Alvisi Kirimoto together with Junko Kirimoto.

Massimo covers architectural planning, paying particular attention to the urban and social spheres. He has been a technical consultant for Casa Italia and a tutor for the G124 Project dedicated to "the mending of the peripheries”. He taught in the Urban History course at the Faculty of Building Engineering and Architecture of the Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata (2014-2016), and in the "Architecture of Regeneration" course at the YACademy of Bologna (2018-2021). He has held seminars, workshops and lectures all over the world, including "Working in the Urban Periphery" at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (2018).

In 2024, as the leader of the Habitus Collective, the studio was among the three finalists for the curation of the Italian Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition.

Junko Kirimoto was born in Japan in 1970 and graduated in Architecture from Kyoto Seika University in 1992. Her thesis earned the Golden Thesis Award from the JIA – the Japan Institute of Architects.

She has collaborated with several architects, including Shin Takamatsu, Kazuyo Sejima and Massimiliano Fuksas.

In 2002, she founded Rome-based Alvisi Kirimoto together with Massimo Alvisi.

Junko’s cultural identity is reflected in the attention to detail, design rigour, and minimalist approach. She leads numerous projects and is involved in Interior and Industrial design. These include Whittle Studios in Nanjing and Shanghai, in collaboration with Renzo Piano Building Workshop, and the Foldable Layers furniture project. She oversaw the design of the “Per Me” restaurant by Michelin-starred Chef Giulio Terrinoni in Rome (2020), winning the "Foodies' Challenge" contest in 2023 with the project “Trasparenze”.