Mario Cucinella

Mario Cucinella is the founder and creative Director of MC A - Mario Cucinella Architects, an international design studio, based in Bologna and Milan, specializing in research-based architectural design linked to sustainability issues according to a holistic approach.

The impact and importance of his work, both from an environmental and social point of view, 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, a post-graduate training center aimed at training professionals in the field of sustainability.

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 Cucinella 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 headquarters for the regional agency for prevention, the environment and energy, in Ferrara; the Sino-Italian Ecological and Energy Efficient Building, in Beijing. The firm 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.