About
Alepreda is a full-service design practice founded in 2018 by Italian-born architect and furniture maker Alessandro Preda.
Since its inception, the studio has operated in Brooklyn and Brescia, on an increasing variety of typologies, scales, and geographies. The common thread to all projects is an overarching set of design principles and processes that guide the studio's production. As practicing architects, we treat both commissions and research as grounds for discourse.
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By appreciating the essence of each place, we create architecture that harmoniously blends with its environment and serves as a vibrant backdrop for everyday life.
All our team members have lived, studied, and practiced in multiple countries. This has made us keen observers, sensitive to the culture and spirit of each site.
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Our design process starts by asking fundamental questions, which aim at the very essence. Aside from creating a design diagnosis, these questions invariably expand the client's brief, challenge pre-conceived assumptions, and become a generative instrument for fresh and innovative solutions. We often discover that apparent contradictions are reconcilable. Can a custom home be prefabricated? Can a high-end artisanal line of furniture ship flat? Can lessons learned in the NY loft typology be declined in a historical setting?
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We aspire to develop a unique set of details for each commission. We approach such details hands-on, developing our own prototypes. We treat this process akin to product development. Our office looks more like a woodworker's workshop than an architecture office. We honor natural materials and the history of craft alike.
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We like our design to be fueled by a "big" idea. While hopefully, each project has enough complexity to be read (and re-read) on multiple levels, this idea is a point of departure that guides the space-making and decision-making process.
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Our design is highly specific in program and form. It responds closely to the client's aspirations and routines and, indeed, to our own desires, inspiration, and obsessions. We provide our clients with a highly detailed questionnaire at the beginning of each project.
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Our logo represents a crab's claw
"Among Chuang-tzu's many skills, he was an expert draftsman. The king asked him to draw a crab. Chuang-tzu replied that he needed five years, a country house, and twelve servants. Five years later the drawing was still not begun. "I need another five years," said Chuang-tzu. The king granted them. At the end of these ten years, Chuang-tzu took up his brush and, in an instant, with a single stroke, he drew a crab, the most perfect crab ever seen." Italo Calvino, On Quickness, Six Memos for the Next Millennium
To us, the crab is a reminder to be thoughtful in the conception and bold in the execution. Additionally, emerging from the binaries slow-quick, mind-hand, the crab implicitly presents the generative possibility to absorb contradictions and reminds us to constantly switch between thinking and making.
Team
Alessandro Preda - Founding Principal
Alessandro is a registered architect and member of the American Institute of Architects. He grew up in Brescia, Italy, and has studied and worked in Austin, Milan, Paris, Shanghai, Tenerife, Boston, ultimately settling in New York. These experiences in various countries inform his aesthetic and understanding of the city.
Alessandro graduated from Harvard University Graduate School of Design with a Master of Architecture and from Bocconi University with a Degree in Economics and Management. While in college, he attended the joint MIT-Fudan MBA in Shanghai, during a semester exchange program.
Alessandro has led projects ranging from the conversion of landmarked buildings into contemporary art spaces and boutique hotels to ground-up high-end residential projects. His research focuses on digital fabrication and construction methodologies.
Before founding Alepreda Architecture, Ale was an architect at Deborah Berke Partners in New York for six years.
Ale is a founder of miduny, a contemporary furniture brand that manufactures his designs in collaboration with master Italian artisans.
Nicola Brasetti - Architectural Designer
Nicola is a registered architect in Italy. He joined alepreda in 2019 and, as an architectural designer, he has been coordinating the firm's European projects, including two apartment renovations in the center of Prague, Czech Republic.
He graduated from the Polytechnic University of Milan, with a Master's degree in Interior Architecture and a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Architecture. He attended the Lusíada University in Lisbon during a year-long exchange program.
His research focuses on interior atmospheres and sustainability principles. Before joining Alepreda Architecture, he collaborated with several Milanese ateliers, including Fabio Novembre Studio. In his free time, he performs as a singer-songwriter.
Alper Besen - Interior Architect
Alper is an interior architect and an academic. Originally from Turkey, he has practiced in Istanbul and New York for over 15 years. He holds a Master of Design from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Interior Architecture Department with a focus on adaptive reuse and a Master of Arts from SVA Design Writing, Research, and Criticism Department.
Before joining Alepreda Architecture in 2022, Alper was an interior Architect at Deborah Berke Partners for eight years. There, he specialized in high-end residential and hospitality projects. His roster of projects included the conversion of a barn into an artist’s residence and the adaptive reuse of a landmark Ford factory building into a museum-hotel.
Alper is a visiting assistant professor at the Pratt Institute, where he teaches Interior Design Theory and MFA Thesis Studio. He also teaches an adaptive reuse-focused Revit course at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). His academic studies focus on the ethical frictions between collective memory vs. private interests. He advocates the usage of temporary adaptation techniques designed for obsolescence in respect of collective memory and future flexibility for the next generations.
Silvia Preda - Business Development
Silvia is in charge of the firm's Business Development and has joined forces with her brother Ale in September 2020.
Over the past 18 years, she has worked in Italy, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Dubai, assuming key leadership positions in Sports Events Management and the Real Estate Industry. Silvia speaks five languages and currently lives in Prague with her husband and two daughters.
Silvia graduated from Bocconi University with a Degree in Business Administration and a Master in International Management. Additionally, she also holds a Master of Science in Real Estate (RICS accredited) from the University of Reading.
While she dedicates most of her time to work and family, she practices Yoga regularly in her free time and is a certified Yoga instructor.