TU Wien: rediscover the social and environmental value of architecture

Rediscover the social and environmental value of architecture. This is the title of the lectio magistralis that Mario Cucinella will give to the students of the Polytechnic of Wien (TU Wien), on Friday 17th May 2019 at 05:00 p.m. at the Department of Housing and Design.

Starting from the story of the most representative projects of his work, the architect will tell students about the importance of the social and environmental value of architecture and the fundamental role it plays in the design and creation of educational places. In May 2017 the architect Cucinella, during the conference “Making School between reconstruction and educational innovation”, said «…designing is like loving. In particular, designing schools is even more important, because it is an action of responsibility: rebuilding the places of education to restore normality to our children is a powerful action and, designing schools well is essential».

Quality architecture promotes important values such as beauty, design, ecology, environmental quality, innovation, sustainability and contributes to giving value to the territory by creating a new “empathy” with the landscape «building is an act of generosity towards the territory and towards people».

These are the same values that Cucinella recounted in the Italian Pavilion, during the 2018 Architecture Biennale in Venice with Arcipelago Italia, giving voice to the world of “empathic architecture”, which is expressed in small actions of improvement and dialogue. What emerged from the policy of listening has allowed us to recognize the reasons why contemporary architecture no longer seems to be able to interpret the territory and its inhabitants and thus be a spokesman for the most current needs. Gathering examples of “empathic architectural design”, the architectural forms that try to find a way to solve Italian problems, Mario Cucinella, in 2018, transformed the Italian Pavilion into a hub of concrete architectural proposals, characterized by the ambition to find answers for the territorial future of a country as heterogeneous as it is delicate.

The aim of the lectio will be to offer ideas for reflecting on the relationship between architecture and society while respecting the landscape and nature.

For information: Prof. Michael Obrist – obrist@wohnbau.tuwien.ac.at