My name is Andrea Ghidone and I was born in Asti on August 6th 1975. I completed my school education at the Istituto Giobert, Asti, in 1994.
After training at the Sacco Trinchero survey office in Monale, I passed the State Professional Examination and registered with the Register of Chartered Surveyors (Albo dei Geometri della Provincia di Asti) of the Province of Asti in 1998.
That same year, I began collaborating with the firm R&T Costruzioni, where I gained considerable experience, particularly in planning and site support for the construction of small apartment buildings.
Since my early years in the profession, I have worked in architectural design, particularly for renovation of residential and former farm buildings.
In 1998, I oversaw the renovation of a residential building in the municipality of Asti, and, the following year, I dealt with a similar project in the municipality of Tigliole.
In 1999, I began the redevelopment of a building that would subsequently be used as a Bed and Breakfast thanks to public funding associated with the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
During these early years in the profession, I gained experience in drafting of land registry documents, inclusion of buildings on the map, drawing up of plans, and parcelling. Having continued to work tirelessly in this profession over the years that followed, I can now claim a wealth of experience in the land registry field.
In 2003, I obtained my certificate of qualification as Safety Coordinator pursuant to Italian Law 494/96 (now Legislative Decree 81/2008), permitting me to expand my professional activities to include a specialisation which would, over the years, become increasingly important, namely protecting the safety of building site workers.
The following year, I began performing the role of Execution Phase Safety Coordinator for new buildings constructed by the firm R&T Costruzioni.
In 2005, with a view to further extending my knowledge of the building trade, I attended a specialising course in Fire Prevention and, subsequently, registered with the Italian Ministry of the Interior’s register of qualified technicians.
For several years, from 2004 to 2007, I also held the role of apartment building administrator, deciding to move away from this activity in 2007 as I considered it too far-removed from my true professional aspirations.
During this same period, I began collaborating with the Court of Asti, after joining the register of expert witnesses (Elenco dei Consulenti Tecnici d’Ufficio del Giudice) in 2005. This experience, which is ongoing today, has, for me, been a valuable opportunity for professional development and permitted me to specialise not only in economic property valuation but also in valuing those legal and bureaucratic aspects that affect a building’s market appeal. In the years that have followed, I have therefore been able to offer my clients the experience I have gained in the fields of valuation and property investigation.
2008 was a turning point in my profession. This was the year in which I purchased the building that once housed the school of the district where I was born from the municipal authority of Asti and renovated it to become what is still our office today.
The opening of an office in a busy area and the ten years’ experience I had gained in the field up to that point were a major driving force for the growth of my business.
In the interest of continuing to develop my professional skills, I enrolled on the course for inclusion in the Register of Energy Efficiency Certifiers (Albo dei Certificatori Energetici) of the Piedmont Regional Authority. After attending the classes and passing the final examination, I joined the Register in 2010.
This has enabled me, on one hand, to certify existing buildings and issue Energy Performance Certificates (Attestati di Prestazione Energetica) and, on the other, to plan renovation and new construction projects with the necessary expertise on the subject of energy.
The following years have seen the business continue to grow in terms of workload and also the quality of the commissions received. While seeking to broaden my spectrum of services, I have also made every effort to equip myself with the tools to enable me to provide my clients with the highest possible standard of work. For this reason, I have invested a considerable part of the office’s income in the purchase of software and hardware, equipping myself in the space of a few years, for example, first with a total station and then a land surveying GPS for measuring wooded areas, and opting to collaborate with the Swiss company Leica, a world leader in the sector.
The continual growth of the office’s workload between 2008 and 2014 led me to a crossroads: to refuse commissions or to expand by involving another person in the business? There wasn’t a shadow of a doubt in my mind as to the right choice, and I was equally sure of the professional profile I needed. Not another surveyor, of course, as that would simply have meant passing off part of the work without taking the office forward professionally.
The profile that best met my needs was that of an architect. The search was long and far from easy, and I often wondered whether I was at fault in terms of character or excessively particular.
In 2014, I finally met the first person with the necessary qualifications to be included in the studio staff. Thanks to that person’s skills, and those of the people who subsequently collaborated with us, work has become more and more oriented in the direction of architectural design, both in the field of new constructions, and especially in the restoration and renovation.
Following the evolution started in 2014, I got a degree in Architecture in 2022 and after passing the qualifying examination the following year, I joined the Register of Architects of the Province of Asti in 2024.
Today, the studio has undergone a further evolution, enhancing an increasingly positive trend that began a decade ago, achieved thanks to the collaboration with foreign professionals and clients who decided to invest in Italy.
Thanks to this trend, today we can say that we have a clientele scattered in different European and non-European countries, to have met people with cultures very different from our own, but with a great passion that we all have in common: the love for Italy and especially for Piedmont, its history, its culture, its landscapes and above all its architecture.
The results achieved from our study, and the recognition granted by UNESCO concerning the area in which we operate as a World Heritage Site, represent the greatest stimulus to improve and offer customers services more and more advanced compared to national and international standards.