Born in Palermo in 1960, Mario Cucinella graduated in Architecture from University of Genoa in 1986 and worked with Renzo Piano in Genoa and Paris until 1992, when he founded MCA, a studio that today features an international team of more than one hundred collaborators. The firm specializes in architectural design integrated with environmental and energy strategies, carrying out research on sustainability issues through a holistic approach.

In 2012, he founded Building Green Futures, a non-profit organization whose goal is to merge environmental culture and technology to recreate an architecture that ensures dignity, quality and performance while respecting the environment. BGF’s signature project is the Kuwait School in Gaza, developed in partnership with UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian and Middle Eastern refugees and displaced persons.

In 2014, with Renzo Piano he collaborated as a tutor on the G124 project for the recovery of the suburbs in Italy. In Bologna in 2015, he founded the SOS – School of Sustainability, a postgraduate school aimed at training professionals in the field of sustainability. In 2016, the Royal Institute of British Architects awarded him the International Fellowship 2016, and the following year the American Institute of Architects gives him the prestigious Honorary Fellowship Award. In 2018, he curated the Italian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice with “”Arcipelago Italia””, an exhibition-project dedicated to the internal areas of the country. In 2017, he started working as a designer for high-profile Italian companies, and in 2019 for Milan Design Week, he presented “Building Objects”, a design collection inspired by his architectural projects.