Make buildings is not an ecological action
Arch. Mario Cucinella was invited as a keynote speaker on the World Architecture Festival stage, speaking about Sustainability in the Built Environment. The World Architecture Festival (WAF) is an annual festival and awards ceremony, one of the most prestigious events dedicated to the architecture and development industry. This year was Amsterdam to host all the events, where around 550 shortlisted architects present their projects. SOS, which participated in the selection, was shortlisted in two categories with the MO(O)D – A Prototype for an Office Building project, winner for the category WAFX – Climate, Energy & Carbon and finalist for WAF – Visualisation Prize.
The presentation made by Mario Cucinella was focused on the challenges that the architects have to face in the next future. We must build a bridge of knowledge between the present and the past to rediscover the synergy between architecture and nature:
“We completely forgot the relationship with nature and the empathy with climate, because we build building that have no relation with climate at all. For too many years of technologies, architects forgot the knowledge and now the climate presents the bill: an increasing of pollution everywhere. Buildings produce almost the 50% of the C02 emissions. Green Architecture will be a balanced hybrid of technological innovation and empathy with the climate. It throws a bridge towards the past, rediscovering and intimate complicity with nature.”
As already mentioned by Stefano Mancuso, director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV), humans can learn a lot from plants:
“Plants lived in the planet for 5 millions years, Homo Sapiens just 300 thousand years: the gap of knowledge of adapting to climate is huge. Plants, like buildings, cannot move and they are obliged to stay in the same place and dealing with climate: the climate change and the plants adapt themselves. Plants have intelligence, they don’t have brain, but they are intelligent; they transform CO2 in oxygen by leaves, producing humidity and shading; the roots are always looking for sources, for energy. But if you look our buildings, they’re still not so intelligent.”
So, Arch. Mario Cucinella has invited to look at the Plants and at the Past to restore that empathy between man and nature: during crisis men have always been able to produce great innovations and turn a criticality into an opportunity. Now it’s time to act and build a real sustainable future!
