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MCA Mario Cucinella Achitects

📌Ready for Milan Design Week 2025?

In the meantime, let's remember some events of the FuoriSalone 2024 edition, when we went to visit the "CROSS VISION" event organized by Interni Magazine, at the University of Milan Statale.
Interni Magazine asked the designers and companies that participated in “CROSS VISION” to talk about this all’-Italian uniqueness (the ability to merge the qualities of industry and the soul of manufacturing through the Project) by putting it in a constructive comparison with the cultures of others countries, deepening research, innovation, experimentation and following the universal principles of sustainability and protection of the places in which we live: Nature and Landscape, Environment and Artifice, designed following the common objective of cultivating the sense of beauty.
We thank the companies and artists present for their availability and the material provided, not least Interni Magazine.
At the bottom you will find some useful links.

Enjoy the reading and I hope you like our photos.

Gabriella Ruggieri for 1blog4u

📌 “Sparking Change” by MCA (Mario Cucinella Architects) with ROCA

A journey through history between tradition and industrial innovation in ceramics.

The idea
"Sparking Change" installation, designed by Mario Cucinella Architects for Roca, is part of the INTERNI CROSS VISION exhibition event with a narrative that traces the path between tradition and industrial innovation in the ceramic sector, where Roca is a pioneer.

The project
Built with 1200 3D-printed ceramic blocks, the installation demonstrates innovation that respects the environment and enhances tradition, reflecting the ROCA’s essence.
A semi-circular backdrop of modular ceramic elements, reaching a height of 4.5 metres, acts as a bridge between the physical and digital worlds. It is inspired by the evolution of digital technologies and tools, no longer tools just for doing but for thinking.
Based on a curved geometry, through variations in height, the installation adapts to the conformation of the area and creates multiple spatial and functional configurations.

“Sparking Change highlights an innovative technique that respects the environment and enhances tradition through the creation of a semicircular backdrop composed of 1,200 3D-printed ceramic blocks. This installation is evidence that technology and digital tools are no longer merely instruments for creating but also for stimulating new ideas.”

The platform and its chromatic gradient
The platform of the installation itself, with its chromatic gradient, becomes part of the narrative that tells the story of the renewal cycle underlying sustainability.
The shape and colour gradient of the curve are symbols of the operating temperatures of ceramic firing processes.

The block production process
Each block that makes up the project is produced through a low-environmental impact process and is manufactured from virgin clay and recycled ceramics from bathroom component production. The dimensions (50x40x25cm) and design enable a self-supporting and dry-assembled structure, which will facilitate its disassembly and reuse at the end of the event.

Embodying the principles of circularity and decarbonisation, the project shows the positive impact on the environment of the first electric tunnel kiln for production of ceramic components for the bathroom. Knowledge, experience, and technology have led Roca to develop the greatest innovation within the sector, turning the challenges of the present into the laboratories of the future (www.mcarchitects.it).

Short CV

Mario Cucinella (Palermo, 29 August 1960) is an Italian architect and designer.

He graduated in Genoa with Giancarlo De Carlo in 1987 and worked in Renzo Piano’s studio until 1992, first in Genoa and then in Paris, as a project manager. In 1992, in Paris, he founded MCA – Mario Cucinella Architects, an architecture and design studio that today has offices in Bologna and Milan.

In 2014 he collaborated with Renzo Piano on the G124 project for the redevelopment of the suburbs in Italy.

In 2015, Mario Cucinella founded SOS - School of Sustainability, a school for young graduate professionals that aims to provide them with the tools necessary to address environmental issues.

In 2016 his work was recognized with the International Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects and, the following year, with the Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects (2017).

In 2018 he was the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale with “Arcipelago Italia”, an exhibition-project dedicated to the internal areas of the country.

In 2023, the project presented by the group led by Mario Cucinella won the tender for the design and construction of the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka: the Italian Pavilion will represent a modern version of the ideal city, a symbolic image of the Italian Renaissance.

Mario Cucinella has taught at the universities of Ferrara, Naples, Munich, Nottingham.

The studio Mario Cucinella Architects, which he founded, has created and is currently creating projects in Europe, China, Africa, the Middle East and South America.