Green empathy

Containing the latest creations by Mario Cucinella Architects – many of which were inspired by the plant world – this monograph showcases the search for new forms. Intertwined with the latest sustainable technologies

Sustainability can be applied to the architectural project at any scale, from individual homes to the design of a city and its major functions. That is what emerges from the latest monograph by Mario Cucinella Architects. Through a selection of the most recent works designed by the Bologna-based studio – the UnipolSai Group Headquarters in Milan, Beijing’s SIEEB, the ARPAE headquarters in Ferrara, the MET in Tirana and the New Valdodostana University campus – this book explores the experimentation of an architect who has managed to codify the way he expresses himself in relation to the environmental issue.

For Mario Cucinella, “the creative act is never an end in and of itself” and indeed must convey a “creative empathy” capable of interfacing with places and people on the level of the political and social challenge that most characterises our age, in other words the environmental one. Thus, the study of the processes put into effect by the plant world can constitute a cognitive device for the practice of architecture, stimulating its growth and results through a way of seeing space that doesn’t just pay attention to energy savings and reducing emissions to protect the terrestrial ecosystem, but also offers tools for architectural composition.

From here the search for forms that intertwine with the latest sustainable technologies. An undertaking that demonstrates how Italian architects can still play the role of global vanguards in the design of the architectural project.

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