Mario Cucinella

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. The firm is active in industrial design and technological research - through partnerships with universities and research programs of the European Commission - to which it devotes a special internal unit.

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.

The importance of his work and continued commitment as an architect and educator on environmental and social issues have been recognized with the International Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (2016) and with the Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects (2017).

In 2018 he was curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale with the exhibition “Arcipelago Italia”.

He studied architecture at the University of Genoa, Italy (1986). He has taught at the universities of Ferrara, Naples, Munich, and Nottingham.

His publications include Building Green Futures (Forma, 2020) that investigates possible answers that architecture can provide to the global challenges of the future, Architecture of Education (Maggioli, 2021), and The future is a journey to the past. Ten stories about architecture (Quodlibet, 2021) describing ten trips to cities and places that gave him valuable insights into environmental issues and the rational use of available energy.