Olbia. Read or listen John Maciocco, observing his works is like immersing yourself in the deepest meaning of living, that is, “taking care of the entire territory and not just what we have close to our eyes”. Engineer, architect and urban planner, founder and head of the faculty-department of Architecture of Algheroprofessor emeritus of the University of Sassari, at the height of a brilliant career was awarded the prestigious prize In/Arch 2023 Sardiniaawarded by the National Institute of Architecture. Olbiahis hometown, paid homage to him by hosting a traveling retrospective exhibition entitled “Inhabiting the territory”, which draws on the suggestion but above all on the founding idea of Maciocco’s thought and work. Man, the city and the territory, according to a line of continuity and an evolution that become a manifesto of contemporary living.
The motivation for the award awarded by In/Arch is the synthesis of 50 years of career. «The jury also awarded Giovanni Maciocco for his ability to conceive and create quality contemporary architectural works, rooted in the territory and in the lives of the people who live there. And to do so through a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue with other knowledge holders: geologists, botanists, epistemologists, engineers, anthropologists, art historians. And of course with the companies and workers who translate the projects into reality». The exhibition and catalogue are initiatives of In/Arch Sardinia e Reeds Sardinia (the National Association of Building Contractors), developed together with Leap – International Laboratory on Environmental Design of the Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning of the University of Sassari. Both the exhibition and the catalogue were curated by Antonello Marottaprofessor at the University of Sassari, and from Paola Mura, architect and member of the board of In/Arch Sardegna. Inaugurated at the end of May, the exhibition was supposed to close its doors on Sunday 30 June to be transferred to Rome (then to Barcelona, Lisbon, Cagliari and Sassari/Alghero), but given the extraordinary success of the public and critics the Municipality of Olbia has decided to extend the opening until until next July 21st. The resolution was published just in recent days.
A decision welcomed with satisfaction by Giovanni Maciocco himself. «I would like to thank the Municipality of Olbia, In/Arch Sardegna and Ance Sardegna, the University of Sassari, the Uni Olbia hub, Cipnes and all the institutions and people who contributed to the realization of the exhibition, starting with the curators of the exhibition and catalogue Antonello Marotta and Paola Mura – says the professor – but above all I would like to thank the visitors who honoured us with their presence». «A success – specifies Maciocco – due to the spirit of collaboration that has animated the project since its birth. The world today pushes on competition, but I believe that with cooperation better results are achieved: in functional terms it yields much more. In particular, the spirit of collaboration allows situations considered peripheral to achieve results comparable with other situations where the hegemony of the competitive model dominates». Satisfaction was also expressed Andrea Casciu e Pier Paolo Tilocca, respectively president of In/Arch Sardegna and Ance Sardegna: «The great interest of the public, institutions and the press comforts us about the quality of the initiatives linked to the In/Arc awards for Sardinia, and confirms their ability to promote the culture of design and good architecture”. The exhibition layout occupies a large hall on the ground floor of the archaeological museum of Olbia, the first complex work created by Maciocco himself. The whole is fascinating and suggests the idea of traveling through time to discover the territory to inhabit and experience: a hall illuminated by enormous windows overlooking the sea around the island Peddone where the floating museum is “moored”, which recalls the profile of a dream ship ready to set sail and navigate towards new horizons, beyond the Gulf of Olbia.
The archaeological museum is a highly evocative work with the remains of the ancient Roman ships kept inside the rooms and the perspective of the new and modern city at the root of the White Island. The past, present and future summarized in a single construction. Not only that, the museum also represents the relationship between man, the city and the sea, a true manifesto of living in the territory. Inside, among beams of light and chiaroscuro, the “corpus” of the architect’s works moves. Images, projects, perspectives, sketches, sketches, a journey divided into 55 large panels that offer the visitor an overview of half a century of career of one of the masters of contemporary architecture. One panel after another parades public buildings, such as the headquarters of the School of Architecture of the University of Sassari, built in the ancient bastions of Alghero, or the Cruise Terminal of Porto Torres; private homes such as the House in the Hemicycle in Sassari and the House in via della Stazione in the historic center of Olbia, a project presented at the Architecture Biennale in Venezia in 1996; then buildings immersed in nature, such as the Mediterranean Arboretum of Monte Limbara, the Anglona paleobotanical park and the botanical garden of the La Maddalena national park.
Then there are the public spaces to be reorganized and redeveloped such as the Piazza del Comune in Loiri Porto San Paolo, the seafront of Palau and that of Portoscuso in Sulcis Iglesiente, the Piazza del Popolo in Berchidda, known throughout the world also because for decades it has the theater of the best concerts of the festival Time in Jazz. A “place of the heart” dedicated to music, culture and the joy of living and being together under the stars. One of those magical moments when Sardinia meets the world. Then there are the restoration projects for the churches (Nostra Signora di Sivvarru in Ossi and San Gabriele Arcangelo in Sagama), the restoration of the fortress of Capo d’Orso in Palau, the projects for school buildings in Tempio, in Bortigiadas (the school in in the middle of a forest) and in Jerzu, in Ogliastra. Even the Scoglio Lungo restaurant overlooking the sea in Porto Torres.
The images of the works flow before the eyes of the visitors and “Inhabiting the territory” becomes more and more a continuous dialogue between man and nature, between the city and the landscape. The story of the bond between the urban fabric and the nature. Thus the project of the environmental city of Barbagia, which will ideally connect eight towns (Tiana, Sarule, Ovodda, Oniferi, Olzai, Ollolai, Lodine and Gavoi) through a natural element such as the flow of water that flows free or harnessed by the work of ‘man. Many works, but also reflections which over time have been a stimulus to many colleagues and many architecture students. Giovanni Maciocco, in fact, is the author of articles and essays published in various languages. All material (along with drawings, sketches, projects and construction instructions) collected in four large browsable albums of 50 pages each, available to visitors to the exhibition. A documentary part proposed as “author’s notebooks” which completes the corpus of the exhibition and refers to the principle ofinhabit the territory as a choice thought out, reasoned, idealized, lived daily before being built.
