“Città Miniera. Design, Dismantle, Disseminate” [“The City as a Resource to be Mined. Design, Dismantle, Disseminate”] by MCA - Mario Cucinella Architects was created for the “Solferino 28" event, now at its second edition, and organised by Living e Abitare, the Design supplements of Il Corriere della Sera to mark Milan Design Week 2024.
The installation tackles the theme of the city of the future from a regeneration perspective in which the space, inhabited by humans, is no longer seen as something that takes away from nature but, on the contrary, draws inspiration from it and regenerates itself. MCA’s project develops the theme Città Miniera, Urban Mining by laying bare the process of recuperating and managing the "anthropogenic heritage" (raw materials extracted and then transformed into infrastructure, buildings, and everyday goods) with the aim of regenerating that material and reusing it.
Mario Cucinella, Founder & Design Director of Mario Cucinella Architects, says "Città Miniera is a story of the city as a possible reserve for the future. Pursuing that idea, we can imagine the urban space as an ecosystem which by deconstructing itself, transforms itself out of its own material, as in nature: an idea of circularity applied to architecture, where the creative process becomes central".
In the courtyard of the historic headquarters of Corriere della Sera, "Solferino 28" has been redesigned as a series of elements that dismember themselves and self-regenerate in accordance with the cycles of Nature. The installation begins from a simple "everyday" object: a vegetable collection box. The idea is that during the season when this "humble" object is taking a rest from harvesting, it can be assembled to compose an urban space, the Città Miniera: an urban backdrop that can be dismantled and reassembled infinite times, describing a new way of building and designing our cities and our lives, respecting the rhythms of the natural world.
The visitor will find themselves immersed in a skyline that can be dismantled, a forest of luminous towers in which, along the way, some of the possible themes of the Città Miniera and the society of the future are disseminated, such as: The Materials Of The City; The Material City and the Immaterial City; The Wood of the City; Shared and Smart Micromobility; The Living City (with the "city vegetations") and The City Lived by People.
Some of these themes that contribute to the story of the Città Miniera are addressed thanks to the innovations and support of the project partners, which include Koelliker, Acrobatica, Fantoni, and MV Line, with contributions from A2A and Biorepack and technical support from Artemide, De'Longhi, Kartell, Vimar, and Gardenia with the Central Park nursery.
Thus the installation “Città Miniera. Design, Dismantle, Disseminate” becomes an opportunity to catalyse debate during Milan Design Week on urgent themes such as circularity and virtuous development models, not only from the perspective of "reduce, reuse, recycle," but also to focus attention on how we design.
About
Founded by Mario Cucinella in 1992 in Paris, MCA - Mario Cucinella Architects currently has offices in Bologna and Milan and consists of more than 100 professionals. Making use of its own internal R&D Department, which carries out research on sustainability issues, MCA specialises in architectural design that integrates environmental and energy strategies. The practice has completed projects in Europe, China, Africa, the Middle East, and South America. They include a new art museum for the Fondazione Luigi Rovati in Milan; a new surgery and emergency healthcare centre for the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan; the Church of Santa Maria Goretti in Mormanno; the new Rector's Office for Roma Tre University in Rome; One Airport Square in Accra, (Ghana); the new headquarters for NICE in Limeira (Brazil); and the Sino-Italian Ecological and Energy Efficient Building, in Beijing (China). At present the practice is engaged on approximately 50 other projects including in Milan, the masterplan of the MIND - Milano Innovation District, the SeiMilano mixed-use project, and the Unipol Group Headquarters; the Valle D’Aosta University Campus in Aosta; The Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka; the two mixed-use "Viertel Zwei" towers in Vienna; and the MET Tirana Building in Tirana. MCA collaborates with the SOS - School of Sustainability Foundation, a school based on an open, holistic, and research-driven approach that gives young design professionals and recent graduates the necessary tools for addressing environmental issues. The school was founded in 2015 by Mario Cucinella and is based in Milan.
