“WithMe’s 3,000 square-foot mobile space challenges traditional models of retail architecture by allowing different brands to temporarily inhabit a technologically advanced, highly interactive, and consumer-centered space. The structure is comprised of four self-contained units connected by a bridge spanning 43 ft. Cutting-edge mobile and tensile architectural systems allow for easy assembly, disassembly, and transport anywhere on the planet in a matter of days.
We were intrigued by the idea of a kinetic building materializing within the dense urban context of a top architecture capital and becoming part of its landscape. Fittingly, the first location for this mobile unit was Chicago's Pioneer Court, where Jean Baptiste Point du Sable not only founded the city in the 1780's, but also built its first retail trading post."

Borruso views each new project as an exercise, testing the limits of his creativity while presenting challenges to peoples’ concepts of modern architecture and its place in their lives. “The mission of the architect today,” Borruso says, “is to anticipate the needs that are not yet there. To be able to read in a level where statistics or scientific research hasn’t enlightened yet. Touching chords that can generate reaction in the public, like to surprise or to create unexpected things.”

With clients such as Miss Sixty, The Paul Frank Store, and Italian shoe and apparel retailer Fornarina, Borruso’s award-winning projects are stretching the boundaries of retail design internationally. His unique creations have been published extensively and have received over 170 international design awards, including the German Design Award, Red Dot: Best of the Best Design Award, Designer of the Year Award, International Architecture Awards, AIA/LA Design Awards, and more. Several of his projects have become integral part of museum collections worldwide, including the Chicago Athenaeum and the Red Dot Museum in Essen, Germany. Recent works include Lord & Taylor in New York, Carlo Pazolini in Milan/New York/Rome/London, and the Snaidero USA showroom in New York. See these projects displayed here.

We were naturally curious to find out how form•Z is instrumental in his design work. He explained that after the genesis of ideas through drawing and writing, he relies on form•Z to model his projects. “form•Z is a software that we find very flexible for our studio,” says Borruso, “It is well suited for experimentation with complicated organic shapes from industrial design to architectural.

Today we have an incredible variety of tools for controlling and developing a project, from the early ideas to the most advanced stages. Software that allows us to work in three dimensions is very helpful, especially in the development of projects with extremely accelerated schedules, like retail. You can control an idea almost instantaneously. The research in terms of material and processes available is incredible. The connection between the software and the fabrication becomes more intimate every day. Those tools are tremendously powerful. We try to take advantage of this.”

While creating his designs, Borruso strives to find efficient responses to questions inside himself – a process that is challenging yet familiar, just like his designs. “Each time it’s different, but it’s the same story,” he says, “where you are flirting in the beginning, then falling in love. I become so obsessive during the development of them, each project I’m doing feels like the best one. I always feel like they represent my thoughts and my intelligence at that moment.”

As one explores the challenges represented in Borruso’s work, it’s easy to derive a sense of the individual. When confronted with the surreal, we are left with nothing but our own insight to guide us. And it is there where Giorgio Borruso greets us, hidden in the living shapes that move against the stoic backdrop of conventional perception. “Don’t follow your friends or other schools of thinking,” he tells us. “Try to believe in your own ideas and to be your own critic.”

“Dreams are very important,” notes Borruso. “Every project, of course, is a different story, a combination of many elements that can shape the outcome. Dreams can be an input for visualizing these kinds of surreal spaces, or other times, dreams can become a sort of testing ground. When you become obsessive with a project, you will start to bring it everywhere, especially in your dreams. When a project is complete, I always feel that I have been there before.”