Openfabric is an international landscape architecture and urbanism practice based in Rotterdam, Milan and Genova.
We design open public spaces at multiple scales. We focus on urban and rural geographies, investigating the global implications of urbanisation.
Studio
Openfabric is a landscape architecture and urbanism practice based in Rotterdam, Milan, and Genoa, founded in 2011 by Francesco Garofalo.
The studio operates globally with an international team of designers and researchers, developing projects in over twenty countries across five continents for public institutions, private organisations, and cultural foundations.
Openfabric’s work explores the spatial consequences of planetary urbanisation, translating critical research into design and vision — from vast regional strategies to urban public spaces.
Projects such as the Reggia di Rivalta Park in Reggio Emilia, the Mantova Landscape Plan, Into the Wild in The Hague, and Faith Park in Tirana exemplify the practice’s approach to cultural heritage, adaptive ecologies, urban culture, and ritual symbolism in open space.
Rather than imposing rigid design solutions, Openfabric embraces spontaneity, adaptability, and open-endedness, cultivating under-programmed spaces where the everyday unfolds. It values what is often unnoticed, elevating open public spaces as the stage of collective life.
Openfabric’s work has been awarded and exhibited internationally — at the Venice Architecture Biennale, IABR Rotterdam, Triennale di Milano, AIA New York, and COAC Barcelona.
The practice is active in academia, with teaching and lecturing engagements at Harvard GSD, Politecnico di Milano, MIT, Cornell, and other institutions worldwide.
Lectures(*)
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March 2025 Transitional Territories, TU Delft, Netherlands
Design (in) Transition -
February 2025 Iowa State University, Ames IA, USA
Usually Unnoticed -
December 2024 SFK International Art Education, Beijing, China
Unstable Landscapes -
September 2024 INNOVIT, San Francisco, USA
Waterfront Landscapes -
May 2024 La Sapienza, Scuola di Dottorato, Rome, Italy
Paesaggi instabili, Progettare il disordine -
November 2023 Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge MA, USA
Shaping the Void -
September 2023 Oslo School of Architecture, Oslo, Norway
Shaping the Void -
May 2023 Instituto de Arquitectura, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Shaping the Void -
June 2022 Sole 24 Ore Business school, Milan, Italy
Imprevedibilità e integrazione: lo spazio di tutti -
October 2021 University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo, Italy
From food to landscape -
October 2021 London Metropolitan University, London, United Kingdom
The sidewalk project -
May 2022 TU Delft, Delft, Netherlands
Beyond port cities: designing the threshold in migrating landscapes -
December 2020 IAAC - Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain
Internet of things (Critic) -
December 2020 ASOP Romania’s Conference, Timisoara, Romania
Wild cities, artificial jungles -
November 2020 Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Landscapes of Migration -
November 2020 Università della Svizzera italiana, Mendrisio, Switzerland
Progettare l’indeterminatezza -
November 2020 Hong Kong University, Hong Kong
Posthumanism political ecology - Hong Kong / Shenzhen Deep bay (Critic) -
February 2020 Cornell AAP, New York, USA
Simple Geometries -
January 2020 TU München, Munich, Germany
Simple Geometries -
November 2019 World Forum on Urban Forest, Milan, Italy
Into the forest -
March 2019 Strelka KB, Moscow, Russia
Staging the Everyday -
January 2019 London Metropolitan University, London, United Kingdom
The Street: on space appropriation, acidity, network and other mundanities of everyday life -
April 2018 TU Delft, Delft, Netherlands
The Global Village -
March 2018 Big House Center for the Arts, Wuhan, China
Water Landscapes -
January 2017 Università Federico II, Napoli, Italy
The Blue Line: adaptive landscapes - three cases -
October 2016 KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Bridging territories, looking for the missing links -
April 2016 FilBo book fair, Bogota, Colombia
Reclaiming the city, 6 memos for the next infrastructure -
November 2015 MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
Colonising Landscapes -
November 2015 Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA
Colonising Landscapes -
February 2015 Polis University, Tirana, Albania
The Wild Dream
(*)selection of
Exhibitions(*)
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May 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective”, Venice, Italy
Instabilities. The shifting Alpine landscapes -
May 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective”, Venice, Italy
Migrating Mediterranean -
September 2024 La Biennale dello Stretto, Reggio Calabria, Italy
The migration of the desert -
April 2024 Salone del Mobile, Milano, Italy
DROPCITY -
September 2023 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2023, South Korea
Land Urbanism, Land Architecture -
May 2023 Palazzo Bronzo, Genova, Italy
Shaping the Void -
October 2022 La Biennale dello Stretto, Reggio Calabria, Italy
Invisible Mediterranean -
September 2022 IABR, International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, Netherlands
Migrating Mediterranean -
January 2021 Triennale di Milano, Italy
Urban Center public program 2020-2021 -
September 2015 One Architecture Week, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Un-Common River -
June 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, "Fundamentals", Venice, Italy
2030 EXPOst -
April 2012 Center of Architecture, New York, USA
A Plague Remembered: AIDS Memorial Design -
May 2012 Matadero, Madrid, Spain
A new Tahrir Square -
August 2012 Architects' Association Catalonia (COAC), Barcelona, Spain
Play
(*)selection of
Current Team
Openfabric is led by:
Francesco Garofalo, founder [IT]
Jacopo Gennari Feslikenian, director [IT]
Team members:
Ludovica Barcucci [IT]
Enrico Mancadori [IT]
Luigi Ettore Ricchioni [IT]
Edoardo Bracchi [IT]
Hengxing Cao [CH]
Zhuwan Li [CH]
Laura C. Parra [CO]
Camila Katich [CO]
Maria Alejandra Gonzalez [MX]
Veronika Brabcova [CZ]
Meng Nan Wang [CH]
Xiang Ding [CH]
Abhinand K. Menon [IN]
Previous Team Members
Konstantinos Venis [GR], Ryan Azhar [ID], Irina Khanova [RU], Ishaani Shah [IN], Pedro Antonio Lunay [PE], Asya Berfu Atalay [TR], Adrianl Dohm [NI], Burak Berker Çelik [TR], Reem Tarek Ihsan Hafez [EG], Anel Salykhova [KZ], Xinyi Xiang [CH], Olesia Sakhareva [RU], Paola Sade [AL], Maria Luz Saldutti [AR], Sinem Gucuyeter [TR], Matteo Motti, director [IT], Artem Tunikov [RU], Niloufar Kiarostami [IR], Inessa Mnatsakanyan [AM], Viola Guarano [IT], Wiam Becharef [DZ], Letizia Alderighi [IT], Tian Wei Li [CA], Raka Affa Arasia [IN], Mohamed Mustafa [SD], Thomas George [IN], Geronimo Felici Fioravanti [IT], Francesca Porro [IT], Martina Ciceri [IT], Daniel Barrero [CO], Simone Scalcinati [IT], Andrea Benedini [IT], Ahmed Ades [EG], Cai Huang [CN], Caterina Spadoni [IT], Allegra Tombolini [IT], Marya Zigouri [GR], Patricia Rodrigues [BR], Giulia Pregagnoli [IT], Martina Parma [IT], Caterina Malavolti [IT], Noel Evan John Bod [US], Carmen Simone [IT], Claudia de Sas Trujillo [ES], Josefina Giobando [AR], Margherita Pascucci [IT], Mattia Tettoni [IT], Federica Padovani [IT], Marcello Corradi [IT], Amina Chouaïri [IT], Mariya Anishchenko [RU], Maria Teresa Pinna [IT], Tatiana Zozulya [RU], Shu Gao [CN], Garrett Craig-Lucas [US], Laura Lopez Iglesias [ES], Barbara Costantino, cofounder [IT], Olivier Sobels [NL], Agnieszka Popielak [PL], Ekaterina Andrusenko [RU], Emanuele Paladin [IT], Lou Besançon [FR], Michele Beraldo [IT], Andrea Caspoli [IT], Conxa Gene [ES], Christiaan Harmse [NL], Valentina Penna [IT], Ruohao Wu [CN].
Awards(*)
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May 2025 Global Startup Hub, Busan, South Korea
1st prize, competition -
November 2024 European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands
1st prize, competition -
September 2024 DUAL, Tirana, Albania
1st prize, competition -
April 2024 Fori Imperiali park, Rome, Italy
1st prize, competition -
May 2023 Oil Refinery Factory Park Hangzhou, China
1st prize, competition -
November 2022 Metropolitan Cities - Biennale del Mediterraneo
Merit -
November 2022 Bosco della Musica, Milan, Italy
3rd prize, competition -
July 2022 Nuova BEIC, Milan, Italy
2nd prize, competition -
June 2022 Parco della Giustizia, Bari, Italy
2nd prize, competition -
June 2022 Magnifica Fabbrica teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy
Shortlisted, competition -
February 2022 Sino-Italian International Materplan, Jianshan, China
1st prize, competition -
February 2022 Iset River embankment, Yekaterinburg, Russia
1st prize, competition -
April 2021 BigSEE Architecture Award 2021
Merit -
December 2019 Shimao Shenkong IC, Shenzhen, China
1st prize, competition -
April 2019 Award of Excellence - World Landscape Architecture
Merit -
December 2018 Campus Enzo Ferrari, Modena, Italy
1st prize, competition -
September 2018 Parco di Rivalta, Reggio Emilia, Italy
1st prize, competition -
September 2017 Zhangjiang Future Park, Shanghai, China
1st prize, competition -
June 2017 City Play 2018 award - Topscape Paysage
Merit -
January 2017 Ballyfermot Playground, Dublin, Ireland
2nd prize, competition -
December 2015 Unveiling the Riviera, Saranda, Albania
1st prize, competition -
May 2015 Lifelines, Berat, Albania
1st prize, competition -
July 2014 The Voronezh Sea, Voronezh, Russia
1st prize, competition
(*)selection of
Publications(*)
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Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective, La Biennale di Venezia 2025
Instabilities - The Shifting Alpine Landscapes
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Mutazioni
Towards a new culture of darkness
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Harvard GSD Department of Landscape Architecture. Studio Report, Fall 2023
Marginalia. Marginality and redemption in New York City, alternatives landscapes for Rikers Island
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CPCL
Land-Sea Spaces and Infrastructures: the Mediterranean as an Edge, a Continent, a Cluster
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Ardeth #12
Keywords
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Atlas of an occupation
Another nature
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LAF Landscape Architecture Frontiers
Altitudes: Vertical Economies and Local Ecologies
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Snelweg x Stad - Highway x City
Downgrading to Upgrade
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Innesti - Grafting, la Biennale di Venezia
Inverse Urbanism
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IntAR, Interventions and Adaptive Reuse
The Blue Line
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Artribune
Genova green strategy, Into the Forest
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C3
Sustainable Amenity
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CNN
Can Rotterdam become one of the world’s most sustainable port city?
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Monocle
Feel the breeze
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Domus
Into the wild, Gridgrounds, Urban forests in Mantua by Openfabric: Into the Forest
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Abitare
Openfabric, the open space project
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A10
Planning an Albania for the 21st Century
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'Scape
To re-esthablish the coffee bean greenbelt in Peru
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Archdaily
Into the Wild, Gridgrounds, Into the forest, Urban Current[s]
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Dezeen
Urban living room, stacked plateaus for Shenzhen
(*)selection of