(“Text as submitted by architect”)
Mario Cucinella
Mario Cucinella was born in Palermo in 1960 and graduated in Architecture at the University of Genoa in 1986. In 1992, in Paris, he founded MCA – Mario Cucinella Architects, an architecture and design firm that has now headquarters in Bologna and Milan, and of which he is also the creative director.
In 2015 he founded SOS – School of Sustainability, a school for young professionals and recent graduates that focuses on the application of sustainable architecture and design to give future decisions makers the tools necessary to tackle the environmental issues that are emerging globally with an open-minded, holistic, research-driven, and human-centered approach.
In 2018 he was curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale with the exhibition “Arcipelago Italia”. Mario Cucinella has taught at the universities of Ferrara, Naples, Munich, and Nottingham. He is the author of many publications including
Building Green Futures (2020, published by Forma), Architecture of Education (2021, published by Maggioli), and The future is a journey to the past. Ten stories about architecture (2021, published by Quodlibet).
Practice Ideology
Mario Cucinella Architects founded in 1992 in Paris by Mario Cucinella, the MC A – Mario Cucinella Architects studio is now based in Bologna and Milan and is made up of over 100 professionals. MC A specialises in architectural design that integrates environmental and energy strategies, with a dedicated internal R&D department that investigates the issues of sustainability through a holistic approach.
The studio has carried out projects in Europe, China, North and Central Africa, the Middle East and South America. MC A is currently planning and/or building about fifty projects. These include the new Unipol business centre; the SeiMilano residential and mixed-use project; the Etruscan Museum of the Rovati Foundation; and the new surgical and emergency centre of the San Raffaele Hospital – all in Milan.
In 2015 Mario Cucinella founded SOS – School of Sustainability, a post-graduate training center to create professionals in the field of sustainability. SOS collaborates in synergy with MC A to give life to innovative and sustainable projects such as TECLA: the first eco-sustainable house model 3D printed in local raw earth in Massa Lombarda, Ravenna, Italy, completed in April 2021.
MCD – Mario Cucinella Design – specialised in the theme of recycling and the circular economy – was launched in 2018, since which time it has enjoyed numerous collaborations with the most famous Made in Italy companies.
