In the Berlin Studio of Artist Tomás Saraceno

Why It Matters

The studio demonstrates how interdisciplinary, multicultural collaboration can drive innovation, a blueprint for firms aiming to integrate design, sustainability, and technology.

Key Takeaways

• Saraceno blends architecture training with artistic practice daily.
• Studio fosters cross‑cultural collaboration among 32 diverse nationalities.
• Emphasis on learning new crafts beyond formal expertise.
• Space evolves into multidisciplinary hub for experimental projects.
• Community values fluid communication in multiple languages daily.

Summary

In a candid studio tour, Argentine‑born artist Tomás Saraceno explains how his Berlin workshop has become a living laboratory where art, architecture, and ecology intersect.

Trained as an architect, Saraceno deliberately abandoned conventional practice to pursue an artistic practice rooted in collaboration. He describes a team drawn from 32 cultures, speaking English, Spanish, Italian, German, and more, who collectively experiment with carpentry, wood‑cutting, and other crafts despite lacking formal training.

“I hope I’m part of the web of life and part of a family larger than only the human one,” he says, underscoring his belief that the studio functions as a micro‑ecosystem. The fluid exchange of languages and skills, he notes, allows the space to “shift, change, and adapt” to each participant’s needs.

The studio’s open‑ended, multidisciplinary model illustrates how creative enterprises can harness diverse talent to generate novel solutions, offering a template for businesses seeking to blend design, technology, and sustainability.

Original Description

“I hope I'm part of web of life and part of a family which is larger than only the human one.”

Artist Tomás Saraceno engages with a wide variety of disciplines and specialists, collaborating with sociologists, architects, and entomologists, but also looks beyond human knowledge to learn from and work with arachnids, honeybees, and birds.

“The studio is divided on many practices. It's based really on the possibility of collaborating. We have almost 32 cultures. You know, we share sometimes in English sometimes in Spanish. Sometimes Italian, sometimes German.

It’s a place that we share that possibility of shifting and changing and adapting and molding a relationship of what we need, to want of each other.”

Watch Tomás Saraceno (@studiotomassaraceno) in “Realms of the Real,” the latest episode of Art21’s acclaimed series, “Art in the Twenty-First Century,” free: https://youtu.be/FPMrSkF_7BY