The architect Mario Cucinella will be the curator of the Italian Pavilion for the 16th Venice International Architecture Exhibition. The Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism announced it after the invitational competition, specifically proposed for the Biennale 2018 led by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara.
With the “Arcipelago Italia”, the team led by the Bolognese designer will focus on the interior areas of the country, by extension the cornerstone of the territorial context and historical and cultural stratification.
«This reflection - explains Cucinella - arose from the scientific literature of the territory, basing on four cross themes: architecture and landscape, infrastructure, society and economy». The opportunities come out from this research will find a declination in the important selection of about thirty projects aimed at promoting solutions to the needs of living, connecting, sharing and progressing, even in an integrated way.
Therefore, special attention will be given to the post-earthquake emergence of the Central Apennines, a further opportunity to launch a targeted call-to-action.
Within the scope of the proposal, the study also suggested MIBACT to bring the Pavilion out of the Biennale spaces, concretely involving local communities to establish a mutual relationship with the territory.
Cucinella, besides boasting an important career in the international architecture world, is the founder of Mario Cucinella Architects, since 2004 is Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham, currently Director of the Scientific Committee PLEA (Passive Low Energy Architecture), and winner of the prestigious Honorary Fellowship Award 2017, according to the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
In 2012, he founded the Building Green Futures, a non-profit organization whose symbol project is the Kuwait School in Gaza, developed in partnership with the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian and Middle East refugees). In 2015, he also established in Bologna the S.O.S. - School of Sustainability, a school for the training of new professional figures in the field of sustainability.
Among his most important projects there are: the Sino Italian Ecological Building (SIEEB) in Beijing; the new headquarters of the Bologna Municipality; the Center for Sustainable Energy Technologies (CSET) in Ningbo (CHINA); the Nursery school of Guastalla (in the Reggio Emilia province); the new UnipoSai Tower in the Porta Nuova district in Milan.
