Ambassador Andreas Ferrarese hosts renowned Italian architect Marco Casamonti to showcase work in Islamabad

Islamabad: Renowned Italian architect Professor Marco Casamonti on Thursday showcased his work before a galaxy of audience including businesspersons, investors, diplomats and journalists.

Speaking at the event, hosted here by Italy’s Ambassador to Pakistan Andreas Ferrarese, Professor Casamonti said architecture through “the art of building” can change and modify the appearance of the earth’s crust.

“This great responsibility should be given only to people who really have such professionalism and awareness of the importance of their work,” he said.

The architect said if you go to the supermarket you can see a large amount of food. If you want to understand how they are born and where they come from, you need to be patient and spend more time researching.

So the solution is to get out of the supermarket and go to the countryside, he added. “Ours is a very hard work and only if supported by a great passion we can practice it. The architect’s profession must be considered a non-canonical work because “architecture is art”. If we don’t understand this, architecture becomes a profession,” he remarked.

Professor Casamonti, Archea is one of the most important architecture studios in Italy and carries out projects all over the world, in the most varied scales and themes.

Professor Casamonti said for architecture this is an extraordinary period because “we live in a full era of styles and often they are more or less valid. Within this cultural situation in dealing with a project we can release ourselves from the appearance and concentrate on the contents. What is basic for me is to set up a working methodology.”

Professor Marco Casamonti teaches Architectural Design at the Faculty of Architecture-University of Genoa. He has been the editor in chief of the international architecture magazine “Area”, co-editor of the magazine “Materia” and the scientific director of the Foundation “Annali dell’Architettura e delle città, Naples.

Back in 1988, Casamonti co-founded the architecture studio “Archea” in Florence. Today, with its offices in Rome, Milan and Florence, over a hundred architects are working at Archea.

Thanks also to the collaboration with partner companies in Beijing, Dubai and Sao Paulo, the studio has realized works of Architecture, Design, Interior Design and Graphic Design all over the world.

The studio has created a series of works of architecture that have been published in major international magazines and books and have been selected for important architectural exhibitions and reviews.

Archea has participated in many of the most important national and international architectural competitions and consultations, obtaining numerous awards and prizes.

In 2010, as part of the Universal Exposition, Archea realized Pavilion B3-2 in the Urban Best Practices area at Shanghai Expo. In 2011 the expansion and redevelopment of the company headquarters of Perfetti Van Melle in Lainate, Milan was completed.

In 2012 the Green Energy Laboratory in Shanghai was inaugurated. The new Antinori Winery in San Casciano Val di Pesa, the Day Centre for the Disabled in Seregno, the International Grape Exhibition Garden in Yanqing, the Liling World Ceramic Art City in China and the transformation of the Former Wine Warehouse in Trieste have just been completed.

Among other notable projects are the new Municipal Library of Nembro, the Campeggio Albatros in San Vincenzo-Livorno, the Edison Library in Livorno, the new Town Hall in Merate-Lecco and the Municipal Library and Auditorium in Curno-Bergamo.