From CARNETS’ press kit:

The personal interviews developed in the first stage of the project have traced multiple trajectories, some of them quite parallel. This has permitted to deduct that the interviewed architects show an heterogeneous and metamorphic appearance, not only regarding the different approaches and diverse cultural backgrounds, but also for the multidisciplinary mindset towards the architectural discipline. In order to describe this condition, we have chosen a precise expression: Coming of age.

This term refers to a life stage in which experimentation, contamination, travels, wins, losses, exploration and theoretical researches take place, independently from anagraphic age. In an Architect’s life this term refers to a stage beyond the childhood period of university, but before an adulthood phase which seems to be continuously postponed, where the practice generally establishes itself in a more specific behavior towards the architectural discipline. Coming of age must be intended as a temporal, yet untitled territory.

This term allows us to section reality with a double approach: the first poses reflections on the contemporary scenario, while the second tries to put these phenomena within an historical perspective.

Carnets. Architecture Is Just a Pretext is a publication that resumes a large research about the state of the art of young Architecture practices in Europe. The work, dealing with architectural practices through a biographic approach, is addressing to the new direction which profession is taking in Europe among young architects. Carnets is a research project started two years ago by eight architecture students from IUAV University of Venice. The aim is to investigate the current landscape of Architecture in Europe, after the 2008 economical crisis, through interviews, talks, round tables and workshops. The protagonists of this research are 30 young architecture offices from around Europe. The main purpose of the research is to investigate and discuss the conditions that surround the architect's figure, practice and role in the context of the contemporary world: its relationship to society, history and media through personal experiences, in the belief that Architecture is just a pretext. Throughout the two years of the completed research, Carnets has mainly consisted of an editorial project in the form of two fanzines, which have been distributed for free within IUAV University of Venice in two consecutive academic years. The two fanzines were composed of 15 folded A4 each, and each A4 paper issue, published weekly, containing a written interview to one architecture office, with a drawing of the practice's workspace. Students collected them progressively in order to form their personal Carnets. Carnets is a research project run by Marco Andreatta, Caterina Barbon, Gianluca Bernardi, Davide Cecconello, Andrea Cusanno, Leonardo Peressa, Tommaso Petrosino and Matteo Vianello. 30 interviews from the selected architecture studios, with more images and drawings from their workspaces: Atelier Fanelsa, Bonell-Dóriga, Central ofaau, Fala atelier, False Mirror office, Fosbury architecture, La Macchina studio, Mertelj Vrabič arhitekti, Norell/Rodhe, OMMX, Point Supreme, Schneider Türtscher, Studio Maks, Unulaunu, Weyell-Zipse, Boano Prišmontas, Büro Kofink Schels, Conen Sigl Architekten, Dyvik Kahlen, Ganko, Konntra, Kosmos, Martinez Barat Lafore, Oasi Architects, Paradigma Ariadné, Ponto atelier, PYO Arquitectos, Raamwerk, Rloaluarnad, X = ( T = E = N ).