Mario Cucinella
Mario Cucinella is an Italian architect, designer and academic, particularly renowned for his environmentally sustainable buildings.
Born in Palermo, Mario is the founder and creative Director of MC A - Mario Cucinella Architects, an international design studio, based in Bologna and Milan, specialising in research-based architectural design linked to sustainability issues according to a holistic approach.
He recently explained in an interview “We must not commit the error of demonizing buildings: it is true that they are often sources of energy dissipation, but buildings are also beautiful and add life to the environment.”
MC A recently finished the 40,000-square-metre San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. Its large ceramic fins with a titanium dioxide coating on the outside of the building can break down smog particles.
The curved design also provides large amounts of daylight for both patients and staff, and has a planted garden on its roof.
Mario’s work as an architect and educator has been recognized with the Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects (2017) and with the International Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (2016).
In 2015 he founded SOS - School of Sustainability in Bologna, a post-graduate training centre aimed at training professionals in the field of sustainability. A Milan branch opened in 2021.
In 2018 he was curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale with the exhibition “Arcipelago Italia”.
In 2019 he founded MC D - Mario Cucinella Design, a product design department, focused on the theme of recycling and circular economy with many collaborations with the most famous Made in Italy companies.
In 2021 Mario Cucinella and the studio participated in COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, with the TECLA - Technology and Clay project, the first innovative model of an eco-sustainable 3D-printed home made entirely of local raw earth designed by MC A - Mario Cucinella Architects and WASP, displayed in the Build Better Now virtual exhibition. In the same year MC A was the only Italian design firm to sign Architecture 2030's "1.5°C COP26, Communiqué", an open letter to governments demonstrating the commitment of companies and organisations to the 1.5°C reduction plan of the Paris Agreement and asking governments to do the same.
Mario has carried out projects in Europe, China, North and Central Africa, the Middle East and South America. Among the most important are the "La Balena" nursery school in Guastalla, Reggio Emilia; The Arpae (Regional Environmental and energy agency) headquarters for the regional agency for prevention, the environment and energy, in Ferrara; the Sino-Italian Ecological and Energy Efficient Building, in Beijing.
The practice has about fifty projects under design and/or construction. Among the most important are: the new Unipol Management Centre, the SeiMilano residential and mixed-use project, the Rovati Foundation Etruscan Museum, and the new Surgical and Emergency Centre of the San Raffaele Hospital, all in Milan.
Also in progress is the Valle D'Aosta University Hub project in Aosta and two "Viertel Zwei" residential and office towers in Vienna, two residential projects in Tirana and various private projects in the Middle-east.
Mario Cucinella is proudly sponsored by:
