Federico Babina's "Archiportrait" - portraits of architects made with their architecture

We invited the Italian architect Federico Babina to share his most recent work "Archiportrait", in which the architect made 33 portraits of famous architects using architectural elements.


Each architect is its architecture

"ARCHIPORTRAIT is an artistic representation of 33 architects, in which the faces and the expressions are made of their architecture.

All of us have tried at least once to imagine what it resembles a cloud’s shape. An exercise of imagination that helps uninhibited sense and look behind appearances. Although the geometry of the architecture can reveal unexpected and surprising forms. An eye, the shape of a face or a mouth can be read between the structures of a building.33 illustrations as 33 short stories trying to relate 33 architects.

I studied the faces and architecture of some of the most well-known protagonists of contemporary architecture to be able to do a portrait. Break down and dissect the projects to detect and select the hidden features. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the protagonist through his aesthetic. A portrait is like the mirror of soul. The idea is to summarize and photograph in one image the architect and his work. The shapes and geometries that are designed by the architect become features for drawing his face. A metaphor of architecture where every little detail is a key component of the whole mosaic. I try to develop an expressive and allusive abstraction in which I combined planar structures with three-dimensional shapes to achieve a kind of metaphysical expression.

I’m using simple geometric shapes, juxtaposed without the illusions of perspective where diverse elements could be superimposed, made transparent or penetrate one another,while retaining their spatial relationships.Each architect is its architecture, and in my images each architect is made of architecture."

- Federico Babina