Some people live more than one life in a single day. Architect and co‑founder of EX., Andrea Cassi lives between Turin and high altitudes, designing for fragile contexts and learning from the mountains a sense of measure and limit. His balance is born from movement, from subtraction, and from time lived with full presence.

Myself

Who are you and what kind of life do you live?

I’m Andrea Cassi, architect and co‑founder of EX. a design practice working at the intersection of architecture, art, and technology.
At EX. we often engage with fragile or extreme environments — like high‑altitude landscapes — designing light, reversible structures that can exist in dialogue with their surroundings rather than imposing themselves on them.
I live between Turin, where our operational studio is based, and a constant flow of work trips. I’m also a partner at the international firm Carlo Ratti Associati.
Whenever I can, I return to the mountains — especially the Susa Valley, where I grew up near the French border. Ski mountaineering, alpinism, gravel riding: that’s where I go to regain perspective.

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How do your work and your passions reflect who you are? How do you balance the two?

For me, work and passions aren’t separate worlds. My greatest passions are design, architecture, and cities — but also the mountains, a place that taught me measure, limits, and responsibility.
Many of our projects emerge from this tension: how do we build in an environment that doesn’t need us? How do we design something that accepts transformation, wear, and time?

Time

What is the rhythm of your life?

Fast, and fragmented across projects, people, and places. But I’ve learned the importance of alternating acceleration with subtraction — moments of intensity and moments of silence.


If you could freeze one moment of your day, what would it be? When do you feel most in your element?

Early morning.
It’s the moment I can pause, think, write, make lists.
I feel most in my element when there’s a threshold, a boundary: between night and day, along a ridge, between the flatlands and altitude, between inside and outside. Sometimes it’s the mountain; other times it’s a domestic object - a chair, a bookshelf — that becomes a mental space.


What is time well spent for you?

It’s the time when you’re completely absorbed in what you’re doing - without nostalgia for the past or anxiety about the future. A full presence.

Movement

What role does movement play in your life?

Movement is a tool for clarity.
It helps me regain focus and let ideas settle. I often need to isolate myself and put in physical effort: in that effort, things sometimes become simpler. Concentrating on one motion, one problem at a time.


What kind of movement restores order in your mind?

High‑altitude movement - on skis or on foot. The steady rhythm of pedaling. The absolute concentration required in climbing - even indoor climbing when I’m in the city. They’re all movements that reduce noise.

Meaning

What does simplifyingmean to you - in life, in work, in how you dress?

Reducing your baggage - physical and mental - to what is essential.
In work, it means removing until only what is necessary remains.
In life, it means accepting imperfection, change, transformation. In clothing, it means wearing pieces that suit the context you’re in.

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If you had to describe your life with one word, what would i be - and why?

Fragile.
Not as weakness, but as an awareness of limits. It describes our relationship with the environment, with others, with time. It’s a dynamic balance - constructive and destructive at once. An idea of impermanence that shouldn’t frighten us, but rather make us more attentive and receptive to the signals of the world around us.