Architensions (ATE) is an international architectural design studio and agency of research founded in 2013 and led by Alessandro Orsini and Nick Roseboro. Based in New York City and Rome, the studio investigates architecture, design, and the city with a perspective rooted in site-specificity, exploring ways to connect history, culture, and envisioning new modes of collective living.

Our studio works at the intersection of practice and academia, focusing on architecture at the intersection of the political, social, and environmental networks. Our process is grounded in an open dialogue between clients, consultants, and local communities to promote inclusive design, materials choices, and climate strategies.

We engage in projects and research at multiple scales, working with institutions, municipalities, and private clients through design, exhibitions, curatorial work, and writing. We have completed projects in the US, Italy and United Kingdom and some others are under construction and development in Myanmar and Senegal. Recent projects include a vision plan for San Ferdinando, Calabria, Italy (2022) a holistic strategy to develop its urban fabric while focusing on the promotion of the commons and new publics; a large-scale installation, The Playground, for Coachella Music and Art Festival (2022); and an ongoing housing project in Yangon, Myanmar which proposes an alternative model for collective dwelling.

Our work and research have been published in international magazines such as Domus, Frame, Wallpaper, Architectural Digest, and exhibited at the a83 Gallery (2022), Modest Commons (2023), and Center for Architecture (2022), at The Storefront for Art and Architecture (2017), the Java Project Gallery (2016), the Van Alen Institute (2014). In 2015, Libria published the volume “Forma Urbana,” focusing on studio research through a selection our of projects and writings. The studio was profiled as the Next Progressives in Architect Magazine in September 2020, and in 2021, Cultured Magazine selected Architensions as part of their inaugural young architects list. In 2023 and 2024 Wallpaper Magazine selected Architensions’ principals as part of their 300 and 400 people list of visionaries redefining American creative landscape. Architensions is a recipient of the 25th annual Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard 2024.

Alessandro Orsini is a licensed architect in Italy and the United Kingdom and founding principal of Architensions with experience working on a wide range of projects both internationally and in the US. Alongside practice he teaches design studios and professional practice seminars at Columbia University GSAPP and has served as a guest critic in various schools of architecture. Alessandro has contributed to journals including Vesper, Studio Magazine, and Forma Urbana, Architensions’ first book, published by Libria in 2015. Alessandro received a Master of Architecture “summa cum laude,” at Roma Tre University in Rome and was a visiting scholar at Columbia University GSAPP.

Nick Roseboro is a multidisciplinary designer and musician with over 17 years of experience ranging from architectural design and construction, exhibitions, and user experience. Roseboro’s interests include redefining design and research practice through curatorial and cross-disciplinary exploration toward new creative and cultural production at multiple scales. He has recently been researching tensions between labor and leisure through projects, drawings, teaching, and essays.

Along with practice, he is the Endowed Chair in Environmental Architecture and Sustainable Design at Sarah Lawrence College. He has taught at Syracuse University, Università Iuav di Venezia, Barnard College, The New School, and has been a guest critic and lectured at various schools and across the US. Roseboro holds a BFA from The New School and a Master of Science in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices from Columbia University GSAPP.

current team members: Alessandro Orsini, Anna Laura Pinto, Nick Roseboro

past team members: Mustafa Bulgar, Joe Danset-Hallam, Jarrod Ray Caranto, Simone Catania, Cliff Chan, Hanjae Cho, Shawn Conte, Ronald Dapsis, Roberto De Luca, Renzo Eseo, Giorgia Gerardi, Rigo Gonzalez, Behruz Hairullaev, Angela Keele, David Lee, Eli Liebenow, Jianwei Li, Nicholas Licausi, Adriane Magadia, Alessandro Mangione, Abirami Nachammai Manivannan, Nicolas Nefiodow, Jonathan Ngo, Richard W. Off, Chang Soon Park, Anna Perelman, Anna Laura Pinto, Manuela Priori, Alsira Raxhimi, Maclane Regan, Gerald Rubia, Francisco Sarmiento, Tani Sevy, Zeinab Shirani, Jihye Son, Evelyn Thomas, Kassandra Ulloa, Jared Vanlandingham, Shuoyang Wang, Stephen Zimmerer