info@endema.it

based in Belluno, Milan and Trento

main office : Via San Vigilio 18, Trento (TN), Italy

/Endèma/ is an architecture studio founded in 2025 by Aron De Cesero, Marta Magnaguagno, and Pierluigi Recca.

The studio emerged from the meeting of shared research and design paths developed during their studies at the University Iuav of Venice and consolidated in the following years through academic collaborations, participation in architectural competitions, and research activities. The studio is based in Trento and operates mainly in the Alpine context of Trentino and the Belluno area, as well as in Sicily—particularly in Catania, the founders’ place of origin. 

The name is an invented term derived from the concept of the “endemic”: a way of inhabiting a place before transforming it. The term evokes the idea of a symbiotic relationship between humans, nature, and the built environment, in which the project arises from listening to the specific conditions of a place. The studio’s approach to design is grounded in a careful reinterpretation of context, understood as a complex stratification of physical, constructive, and social values. Within this process, particular importance is given to the relationship between architecture and landscape, the activation of collective design processes, the experimentation with materials, and the use of local construction techniques, privileging interventions capable of producing minimal yet meaningful transformations of existing conditions. 

The studio’s activity focuses primarily on public buildings and public space projects, addressed in different contexts - urban environments as well as mountain landscapes - often through national and international competitions, in addition to private commissions. Alongside this work, the studio develops exhibition designs for shows and temporary pavilions, as well as interior projects that include the design of custom-made furniture. At the same time, the practice carries forward a research activity intertwined with university teaching and with the manual work involved in building architectural models for several national and international studios. This relationship between projects, research, and models' construction forms the basis of the studio’s work. A series of workshops, conceived as collective moments of critical exploration, define a field of experimentation and verification for design ideas. In this sense, Endèma operates as an open laboratory: a place where different skills meet and collaborate. Through these practices, the studio develops design processes that intertwine visions, knowledge, and competencies, giving form to projects that grow from the places in which they are embedded.

Aron De Cesero

(Ma. arch) completed his studies at Iuav University of Venice and ETSAM–Madrid, where he developed a strong interest in architectural composition, building materials, and tectonics. After graduating - with Sara Marini and Marko Pogachnik as thesis advisors - he collaborated with several architecture studios and academic professionals, including Michel Carlana, Rodrigo Perez de Arce, Matteo Ghidoni, and Fabrizio Barozzi of Barozzi Veiga, while also working as a freelance architect. His work is focused on the relationship between construction materials and architectural composition, exploring the interaction between architecture and the Alpine environment, with particular attention to territorial dynamics and local timber supply chains, as well as the specific qualities of stone and wood.

Marta Magnaguagno

(Ma. arch, PhD candidate) completed her studies at Iuav and TUBerlin, graduating with Sara Marini as thesis advisor. She subsequently collaborated with architecture studios on public space projects, while working as a teaching assistant in the courses of Professor Paola Viganò and working as a freelance. Her current research expands the group’s exploration by questioning the ambiguity of economic power and its manifestations in urban space - particularly in open public spaces - through the lens of spatial justice. Within her doctoral work, she investigates cases of urban design and their spatial language, focusing on critical mapping as both a research tool and an investigative method within the broader field of critical urbanism. She is currently a PhD candidate in urban planning at Iuav University of Venice.

Pierluigi Recca

(Ma. arch) studied architecture at Iuav University of Venice, Politecnico di Milano, and ETSAM–Madrid, graduating in 2021 from Politecnico di Milano with G. Floridi (Polimi) and I. G. Pedrosa (ETSAM) as thesis advisors. He has collaborated with architecture studios in Switzerland, Spain, and Italy, including Paredes Pedrosa (Madrid), Burkhalter Sumi (Zurich), and BDR bureau (Turin). In 2025 he co-founded the collective Endèma, with which he carries out his professional practice. His interests focus particularly on urban space and public buildings, and on their degrees of domesticity at small and medium scales in relation to context. He has collaborated as a teaching assistant at several universities, including in Venice and Milan with Rodrigo Perez de Arce, Mauro Marinelli, and Fabrizio Barozzi. He is currently assistant at Atelier Della Rocca at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio (Switzerlan).

Awards and recognitions / 2020–2026:

Faerder Biennale / 2026
Finalist project in the international competition, Norway

Kind of Pink / 2025
Winner of the Carlotta X Prize 2026, City of Catania

Entraide / 2025
Second prize in the international Europan18 competition, La Nive, France

Quaderni di Viaggio / 2024
Exhibition selected through competition at the Order of Architects of Pordenone

Masterplan Morgano / 2024
Third prize in the competition for a new masterplan for Morgano, Treviso

Scuola Grigoletti / 2024
Fifth prize in the national competition for the Grigoretti School in Pordenone, with Arch. Pietro Franchin

Architettura del Bosco / 2023
Exhibition design commissioned by the Municipality of Longarone, Belluno

Dualità / 2022
Second prize for the redevelopment of Piazza Martiri in San Piero in Bagno, Forlì-Cesena
Winner of the Simonetta Bastelli Prize 2024

Island Tools / 2022
Third prize in the Europan17 competition in Helsinki
Published in Pièra magazine, issue no. 20

Cardo e Decumano / 2020
Second prize in the national competition, MAXXI Rome and Agenzia del Demanio 278