MOTU – Medolago Office for Transformative Urbanism – is an urban design practice, founded and led by Filippo Medolago, that operates at the intersection of landscape and urbanism.
Filippo is an urban designer trained in Florence and Paris, he developed a transversal vision of urban design, shaped by landscape, everyday practices, and narrative. Initially inspired by documentary filmmaking, he began by observing and interpreting the city through images, listening, and attentive exploration, before gradually shifting his focus toward design, public space, and the transformation of urban territories.
His professional path has led him to work on masterplans in contexts of urban renewal, neighborhood frameworks, plot development briefs, public space projects, and territorial strategies in Switzerland, France, and Belgium. For several years, Filippo has also been developing platforms for dialogue as tools for co-design, aiming to anchor transformation processes in the social, spatial, and ecological realities of place.
In 2025, after more than ten years of experience in the fields of urbanism and landscape, Filippo founded MOTU in Zurich to bring these skills together within an independent structure. The studio is dedicated to urban transitions and committed to process-oriented approaches rooted in the specific character of each site — a way of making projects that combines method, care, and imagination.
Experience
- 2025 Medolago Office for Transformative Urbanism, Zürich
- 2024-2025 Studio Vulkan landschaftachitektur, Zürich
- 2020-2024 Ufficio del Piano direttore Cantone Ticino
- 2015-2020 Lambert Lénack architectes urbanistes, Paris
- 2013-2015 Güller Güller architecture urbanism, Zürich
- 2013 Taktyk landscape urbansim, Bruxelles
Publication
- 2023 Publication spéciale – 50e anniversaire de la Conférence suisse des aménagistes cantonaux (COSAC), publisher : COSAC – Espace Suisse,
- 2013 Île-de-France 2030 – Schéma Directeur Régional Publication : Les scénarios qui bousculent, Publisher : CARRE
Academic Contributions & Public Engagement
- 2025 Guest lecturer: « La force du projet », Land Use Planning Course, University of Lausanne (UNIL) – Prof. Leah Tillemans.
- 2023 Speaker at the 13th International Summer School Awareness and Responsibility of Environmental Risk – The Future of Rural Alps, University of Sassari (Italy). Talk: Tools for Innovation: A New Alpine Archetype?
- 2022 Guest speaker at the panel discussion “Urban Renewal – Ecological and Social Changes”, Public debate on urban space and COVID in Chiasso – i2a Lugano
- 2022 Guest speaker, Summer School “Revealing Encounters” – Intergenerational Urbanism, Valle di Muggio (Studioser, Zurich–Lugano)
- 2020 Guest lecturer, “Theory and Practice of Public Space” (BSc2) Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio – Prof. Matteo Vegetti
- 2020 Guest speaker at the Biennale del Territorio Lugano, Panel title: The Way Things Go: Reassembling Pieces, Moderator: Judit Solt
- 2016 Guest member of the preliminary jury at ENSP Versailles, Redevelopment of the Bassin area in Clichy-sous-Bois, Studio : Clément Willemin
- 2013 Guest speaker at “Ateliers de la Gare” Organized by: Gares & Connexions, SNCF – Paris
Education
Master’s Degree in Urban Planning, specialization in Urban Design (OMU), Institut Français d’Urbanisme, Paris
Bachelor’s Degree in Human Geography and Territorial Planning (with a focus on Urban and Landscape Studies), University of Florence
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