A tribute from his city to the architect Giovanni Maciocco. For everyone, here he is “Vanni” and he was honored at the archaeological museum of Olbia with an exhibition entitled “Giovanni Maciocco. Living in the territory”, dedicated to the designer, urban planner and university professor from Gallura, who has been a protagonist of contemporary architecture for over half a century.
A tribute marked by that empathy with which the person who invented the Architecture department in Alghero went through his teaching, that distinctive trait of common feeling with the students and former students who crowded the room of the archaeological museum that he himself designed. Thus the value of an extraordinary man, in his teaching and example, as well as for the value of his urban planning work, had – if there was any need – further recognition in the presence of the leaders of the Region: from the president, Alessandra Toddeto the vice president and councilor for Budget and Planning, Giuseppe Meloniuntil Francesco Spaneddaregional councilor for urban planning, but above all his student and the one who oversaw the presentation of the book dedicated to his work.
The book starts from the assumption that today the urban world has become a city-territory, as settlement factors, such as environmental and infrastructural conditions, are territorial. In search of Giovanni Maciocco the requirements of the space project, which concern the territorial future of the city, are explored from a conceptual and operational point of view. The expansion of the urban area will lead to an act of responsibility on the part of the inhabitants in the future. «The meaning of living in the territory is to take care of it, extending our interests beyond a space of proximity, but taking care of the territory, since a city is no longer contained in a defined image but extended to its entire territory – explains architect Maciocco –. In a city like Olbia the environmental system must be seen from this perspective, it can be an exemplary case of the construction of urban conviviality extended to the entire territory. The future of Olbia is governed by its own environmental system, these important signs of the safety of the city become generative structures of a new urban reality”. In front of an ecstatic audience, the mayor of Olbia himself, Settimo Nizzi, a personal friend of the architect Maciocco since ’97. And then the look at the academic sphere, so dear to Maciocco, with Aldo Carta, president of the UniOlbia University Consortium, who announced how Maciocco can already be considered one of the fathers and mentors of the new course of studies of the Department of Innovation of University of Sassari, which will have its headquarters in Olbia from the next academic year. «Education to talk to students through the project means being able to turn on a light in their eyes – said Maciocco -. We must create work, because I had the opportunity to train my students through a people project, to live in an environment that creates favorable conditions: thus I discovered a collective intelligence, both in Cagliari and Sassari.” The exhibition has a traveling nature: the calendar includes stops in Rome (La Sapienza University), in Barcelona (Order of Architects), in Lisbon (Faculty of Architecture), in Cagliari and Sassari/Alghero. The exhibition is accompanied by a rich catalogue, with essays by university professors, architects, engineers and representatives of multiple disciplines and categories. Their interventions interpret the long professional path that led Maciocco to develop his personal vision of an environmental project. The exhibition and catalog are two initiatives by In/Arch Sardegna – which awarded Maciocco a lifetime achievement award – and Ance Sardegna and are curated by Antonello Marotta, professor at the University of Sassari and Paola Mura, architect and member of the In/Arch board. The exhibition project is from the Leap international laboratory of the Uniss Architecture Department.
