The relationship between the built and natural environment may always have been important, but today it is an indispensable part of every phase of design. Last century, the balance between human action and nature, of which our ancestors had no doubt, fell by the wayside in a race to modernity that predictably ended in hubris - a very human concept the Ancient Greeks knew well, but which we have ignored at our peril, believing that, thanks to increasingly sophisticated,
high-performing technology, we are omnipotent.
True as it may be that for 30 years or so, in the design and construction world, academia has been promoting first ecology, then sustainability, only recently has public opinion truly understood (and embraced) the ecological crisis, ultimately becoming the driving force behind global environmental awareness.
Environmental awareness does not in any way mean abandoning the level of technology we have reached; rather, it is a matter of setting new, higher standards to reach and pursue through research. When we talk about sustainability - or today, resilience - it is clear that it is not sufficient merely to “guarantee a future for future generations”, we must ensure that they live better, in harmony with natural resources.
Piuarch, the Milanese design studio founded in 1996 by Francesco Fresa, Germán Fuenmayor, Gino Garbellini and Monica Tricario is, to all intents and purposes, a collective of over 30 people working together to formulate an approach to architecture that makes it a veritable spokesman for the concept of glocalization, on a case-by-case basis coming up with appropriate, local-scale solutions that always have an international dimension and horizon, in which technological and stylistic advances are a constant, and the focus on environmental and social issues is far more than mere lip service.
Located on the southern shores of Lake Maggiore in Castelletto sopra...
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