Based in Rome, Labics is an architectural and urban planning practice founded in 2002 by Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori. The name “Labics” conveys the idea of a laboratory, a testing ground for advanced ideas. Combining the theoretical approach with applied research, the studio’s work spans from interior architecture to large-scale urban masterplans, engaging with the different scales and complexities of the project. Labics has developed a wide range of projects, maintaining a strong focus on the contemporary city, particularly on the relationship between architecture, urban structure, and public space.

General Inquiries: info@labics.it 
Press: press@labics.it
Work & Internship: work@labics.it

Via Ennio Quirino Visconti, 11 
00193 Roma, Italy

T +39 06 57288049 
F +39 06 57137808

Maria Claudia Clemente, Francesco Isidori | Francesco Casula, Alice De Bartolo, Alessandro Esposito, Francesco Garrone, Tommaso Mennuni, Andrea Ottaviani, Federico Pitzalis, Sara Sosio, Giulia Spagnuolo, Margherita Tommasi, Emanuele Volpe.

Labics – Structures

With atmospheric photographs and drawings, “Structures” - Labics’ first monograph - showcases the concepts and details of their wide-ranging portfolio to produce a comprehensive theoretical reading of the firm’s activity. The selection comprises housing and office buildings, museums and cultural centres, schools, public spaces, and subway stations, located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Iran, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and the UK. All are documented with atmospheric photographs and a wealth of plans and diagrams to illustrate concept and many details of each project.

Structure, in a variety of notions of the term, is guiding Labics’ approach. Consequently, the book is arranged in five chapters exploring geometric, bearing, circulation, public space, and urban and territorial structures in topical essays. This provides the frame for the featured projects, all of which exemplify the importance of the respective type of structure for Labics’ work. “Structures” was named one of the Most Beautiful German Books 2019.

The Architecture of Public Space

“The Architecture of Public Space”, published in 2023, is devoted to Italy’s public space. Galleries, loggias, porticoes, steps, and courtyards are the elements that characterize the country’s historic towns and cities - and that make the experience of its public space so intense. Yet the volume does not feature new designs by Labics themselves: rather, Maria Claudia Clemente, Francesco Isidori, and their collaborators set out to explore historic spaces, to analyze their histories, and to describe them through newly taken photographs, plans, and diagrams, treating them as contemporary artifacts.

Through the illustration and categorization of thirty-two case studies, "The Architecture of Public Space" has the ambition to build a general theory on the design of public space; a theory that acts before and independently of language and that is based on the idea that the city is structured through the relationship between architecture and public space. With an essay written by Marco Biraghi, professor of history of contemporary architecture at the Politecnico di Milano.