LUCE estratti LUCE 319_Calatroni_Mario Cucinella | Page 8

Mario Cucinella:
playing with sunlight
An intimate dialogue between man, space and lighting
How would you describe your personal
relationship with light?
I always had a very strong empathy with light.
I always tried to find a substantial relationship
between built space and light, particularly the
natural one. In a project, light is about quality
rather than quantity. I believe that the
beneficial effect of natural light is one of
the most qualifying principles of architecture.
When buildings have a good relationship with
light, the quality of life within them increases.
Our work is a continuous research on this
relationship, especially when it comes to
offices or collective buildings, such as schools,
kindergartens or hospitals. The light/built-
space relationship must be strictly connected
with the daily rhythm, the light quantity, and
the emotional and psychological consequences
connecting us to this crucial element.
An architecture that denies this relationship
is of no interest to me. We work to ensure that
the construction doesn’t become a barrier,
a negative filter; we aim to an architecture
that amplifies light and creates a great
empathy between man, space and lighting.
Five upcoming projects in Milano: Unipol HQ,
Coima HQ, San Raffaele Hospital, City of Health
and the Rovati Foundation Museum.
Five variations on your idea of sustainable
architecture?
Yes, these are five variations on the same
conception of architecture, in accordance
with the different topics faced each time.
In offices, the natural lighting must interact
with the artificial one, somehow denying the
natural sunlight cycle. In a dialogue between
a technological aspect and a totally natural
one, the artificial light, with its constant
temperature and intensity, must dialog with
the natural one. As for hospitals, light must be
filtered and managed to respond to specific life
conditions. A good lighting in hospitals is the
most important element for the psychological
wellbeing of patients. Light is very important
in museums too. In this case, we decided to
provide little light because the exhibition
is tied to the historical/artistic experience
– the Etruscans – that considered darkness
as the access to another world. In order to
respect this concept and to accentuate the idea
of a mysterious place, the underground level
is only lit by a dim artificial light. It is very
important to properly use a delicate element
such as light, which must have different
intensities according to different places.
Natural and artificial light are in a constant
dialogue. One Airport Square is a good
example: different shadows and lights
define the building and its perception.
What kind of relationship do you establish
with lighting designers?
We often work with lighting designers because
they can transform our idea of light into reality,
since they are specialized professionals trained
in this specific field. Moreover, they have
a superior narrative sensibility in terms of
which typology of light should be used each
time. Like that of other consultants, their
contribution is relevant for the final outcome.
I think we should have more lighting designers
in Italy: here it is like they’re a protected
species. I noticed that the urban lighting is
generally quite poor here, and I think we focus
too much on technical issues and little on
creativity, while we should be more attentive
to the luminous interpretation our cities.
Now, focusing on the One Airport Square
project, we had to carefully control the natural
lighting, since in Ghana this has a major
impact in terms of heat and on the operation
of the entire building in general. The building
plays with sunlight and the large cantilevered
terraces that shades the building. Facing a
problem, architecture always finds a solution.
In this case, we used an oblique grid, giving a
feeling of instability and creating an interesting
play of lights on the façade. The dialogue
between day and night carries two different
messages – a dynamic one and a very static
one –, with different scenographic aptitudes.
Your studio designed for iGuzzini the Woody
family of projectors. Could you tell us more
about it?
This project was born from a company specific
request: to create the first projector made of
two pieces only – a body and a cap (the lens).
The company wanted to reduce the numbers
of components, which implies a significant
decrease in terms of costs and assembling
time. There is then the idea of a family of
products, of a projector coming in several sizes
that could answer all lighting needs.
The family idea has always been very
fascinating to me, a bit like the strings family,
ranging from the violin to the viola and cello.
They all have the same function, but they
interpret it in different ways. This project was
very interesting, both on the production level
and on the operative and engineering one.
Besides the functional one, products like this
have a major aesthetic content: this is the plus
that defines all Italian products.
In your architecture light goes beyond simple
lighting: it has a sculptural and emotional
function. The ARPAE rooftop, the so called
fifth façade, is quite paradigmatic.
How was the idea born?
The project is for the ARPAE in Ferrara.
We felt the need for the building itself to
narrate the relationship between the various
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environmental elements, in a way that it
would represent a new concept of public
building. In Italy, it is quite uncommon to
build a wooden public building and to do this
with such carefulness. Since these are the first
communication and education form, we
thought that the matter was the proper way
to narrate it. ARPAE is totally built with wood
coming from controlled forests, using certified
and renewable raw materials. This building
has a peculiar relationship with light, since
the artificial one is only turned on late in the
afternoon - in winter as well. The main idea
is that, inside the building, the light is
amplified by the light ducts on the roof, which
multiply the amount of inner lighting,
especially the vertical one, which is much more
powerful than the horizontal one. These
chimneys, in addition to bringing light inside,
are also means for the natural ventilation of
the building. We believe that public buildings
have to be bearers of innovative messages:
it’s their historical role, and we need to tell
who we are through these buildings.
Materials, technology, research and light:
which are the first suggestions that come
to your mind before you start designing?
Hard question. It’s impossible to rationally
encode the creative process. We work with
a so-called creative empathy, with the idea
that architecture responds to the environment
through a direct dialogue. In recent years,
we lost the relationship between architecture
and nature. Our effort has always been to
measure ourselves with all the different
environmental factors and climatic contexts.
Our creative process is also led by concrete and
rational elements: this means that there
is a deep understanding of the site and its
conditions, and the establishing of such
empathy that, using creativity, allows us
to give a correct answer. It’s not an easy path,
and it doesn’t leave room to formalism
for its own sake; we always try to find a link
between architecture and environment,
between the history of humanity and its
relationship with the world.
INTERVIEWS / LUCE 319
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