As part of Alex Schweder’s studio, the emerging designer contributed to the ambitious project—Islands in Taiwan—a project where the concepts of mobility, modularity, and narrative have been central. Alessandra studied these concepts for years, and they were the theme of her thesis, “A Part of Something.” This project received the prestigious Pratt Institute Social Justice Award in the Leadership Category, highlighting its engagement with real social and spatial issues.
The evolving landscape of experimental design challenges the assumption of permanence in architecture. One such voice is Alessandra Clemente, an architectural designer who approaches space not as a static enclosure, but as a dynamic system, structured by movement, usability, and performance.
Clemente worked at Alex Schweder N.Y., contributing to high-profile projects such as: Islands, a large-scale architectural performance in New Taipei City for the opening of their contemporary art museum; and L’Orfeo, an open-air opera that reimagined scenography through topography and minimal interventions at the internationally renowned Santa Fe Opera.
In Islands, her role focused on modular design systems, fabrication planning, and digital-to-physical workflows. Yet her work also carried conceptual weight, helping reframe architecture as something responsive, ephemeral, and in harmony with its surroundings.
In 2023, the Taiwanese contemporary art museum Yinlu presented Islands, a project by Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley. The work consisted of five elevated wooden platforms—“islands”—connected over time by bridges assembled from the cladding of the platforms themselves. Eight participants inhabited the structures over a 14-day period, rotating in and out as the performance progressed.
With each transition, the residents reconfigured the spatial logic of the installation, physically reshaping the built environment in response to social dynamics. The structural change was real, scheduled, and essential to the project’s function.
Alessandra Clemente played a key role in developing the system behind this controlled transformation. She created modular wood-framed platforms engineered for daily disassembly and reuse, balancing performance requirements with structural integrity and safety. Her work emphasized the use of standardized joints, adaptable cladding systems, and tool-free assembly mechanisms.
She produced parametric 3D models and detailed 2D drawing sets to define tolerances, connection points, and assembly sequences. These documents guided both studio fabrication and on-site construction.
Clemente worked closely with Schweder to produce scaled physical models used for movement studies and client presentations. These included tests of balance, bridge spans, and enclosure transitions.
The result was a built performance where design, choreography, and structure were inseparable. Clemente’s work ensured that the system could support its intended transformations, both logistically and conceptually.
Architecture as a System of Empowerment
Clemente’s design ethos is grounded in systems thinking: How does a space evolve over time? Who gets to control its transformation? How can architecture embody temporality without losing coherence? These questions are at the center of both Islands and her earlier thesis work.
In both cases, the architecture is incomplete without its inhabitants. Participation is not merely encouraged—it is required. The resulting spaces are not fixed objects, but living environments shaped by interaction.
Clemente’s work reflects a larger movement in experimental architecture that resists top-down authorship in favor of open-ended frameworks. Her designs don’t prescribe outcomes—they enable possibilities. Through Islands, she helped prove that architecture can act not just as a structure, but as a platform for collective authorship and lived expression.
Architectural Flexibility
Though the two projects differ in medium and location, both express a shared logic: architecture as something that performs, adapts, and dissolves. Clemente’s architectural language reflects that flexibility. At Schweder’s studio, she refined a set of core skills that shaped her style and validated her design vision of architecture working across formats: as a live environment, as a stage, and as a conversation between people and their surroundings.
