---
title: "Midnight Sons — Honourable Mention — GENDO 48: Soldagen | Gendo"
url: https://gendo.ai/gendo-48/soldagen/winners/midnight-sons
description: "In conversation with Salvatore Calabrò — Honourable Mention, GENDO 48: Soldagen. I was able to use the platform much more strategically, almost as an extension of the design process itself rather than as a final visualisation step."
lang: en
---

Soldagen winners: https://gendo.ai/gendo-48/soldagen/winners

GENDO 48: Soldagen — Honourable Mention

# Midnight Sons

Salvatore Calabrò

Image: Midnight Sons — GENDO 48: Soldagen board (https://gendo.ai/_assets/marketing/soldagen-entries/aab12e30-99e7-417d-aa08-f2893b43f305.jpg)

Open the live design canvas to inspect every prompt, variation and decision.

Open canvas (https://gendo.ai/app/project/bd83a7f3-8178-48c2-9818-a9aba13d2b53)

In conversation

> “I was able to use the platform much more strategically, almost as an extension of the design process itself rather than as a final visualisation step.”
>
> Salvatore Calabrò

01

## Tell us about yourself, and what brings you to competitions like this.

I'm Salvatore Calabrò, an architect based in Milan. I recently completed my Master's degree in Architecture at Politecnico di Milano, and I'm currently working across architecture and interior projects while developing independent research and competition work.

I'm especially drawn to projects where architecture is not treated as an isolated object, but as something shaped by landscape, material, atmosphere and the way people actually inhabit space. Competitions are a way for me to explore that relationship more freely.

02

## What did you design, and what were you trying to communicate?

Midnight Sons is a small bathhouse and retreat system set in the Norwegian fjord landscape of Vindstad, Lofoten. Instead of designing one large building, I developed a constellation of small independent pavilions, each responding to a different experience: arrival, warmth, cold water, open sky, rest, sharing and sleeping.

A continuous elevated infrastructure connects them and also carries the technical support of the project. The idea was to make the architecture feel both fragmented and unified, always in dialogue with the landscape, weather, water and changing light.

03

## How did you approach the timeframe, and where did Gendo fit into the process?

Because of the short timeframe, I worked very iteratively. I first defined the ritual and the hierarchy of spaces, then developed each pavilion as an individual "Son" with its own geometry, material and relationship to the site. After that I tested different ways of organising the system before fixing the final constellation.

Gendo became a very important part of this process: I used it not only for final images, but also to test alternative configurations, material atmospheres, seasonal conditions, hand-drawn studies, model-like representations and realistic renderings. It became a way to rapidly move between design thinking and visual testing.

04

## How has your relationship with Gendo developed?

I use Gendo every day in my professional work, so I was already very familiar with the platform before entering the competition. Over time, I've learned to use it not simply as a rendering tool, but as a flexible part of the design process — testing atmospheres, materials, viewpoints and alternative representations, often moving back and forth between drawings, models and images.

For this competition, the main difference was the intensity and speed of the workflow: I was able to use the platform much more strategically, almost as an extension of the design process itself rather than as a final visualisation step.

05

## What does the recognition mean to you, and what would you do differently next time?

The recognition means a lot to me, especially because the competition was developed in such a short and intense timeframe. It confirmed that the core idea of the project — the relationship between the individual pavilions, the infrastructure and the landscape — was communicated clearly enough to be understood and appreciated. It is also encouraging to see that a project developed through a very experimental workflow can still maintain a strong architectural identity.

Next time I would probably define the overall system and final site configuration slightly earlier. I spent a lot of time exploring alternatives, which was useful, but it also meant that some decisions came quite late. I would also try to be even more selective with the final images, producing fewer but more precise visualisations from the beginning.

06

## Anything else you would like to share about GENDO 48?

It was intense, fast and very enjoyable. The format forces you to make decisions quickly and trust the main idea of the project instead of overworking every detail. At the same time, the competition encouraged experimentation, and that made it a good context to test a workflow where design, drawing and AI visualisation were constantly feeding each other.

Previous

A Journey Through Five Cultures: The Spatial Narrative of a Spa Complex in Vindstad
https://gendo.ai/gendo-48/soldagen/winners/a-journey-through-five-cultures-the-spatial-narrative-of-a-spa-complex-in-vindstad

Next

Første lys
https://gendo.ai/gendo-48/soldagen/winners/f-rste-lys