Olbia. Read or listen John Macioccoobserving his works, is like immersing oneself in the deepest meaning of living, that is, “taking care of the entire territory and not only of what we have in proximity of our eyes”. Engineer, architect and urban planner, founder and dean 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. Olbia, his hometown, paid homage to him by hosting a traveling retrospective exhibition entitled “Inhabiting the territory”, which leverages the suggestion but above all the founding idea of Maciocco’s thought and work. Man, the city and the territory, according to a line of continuity and 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 bearers of knowledge: geologists, botanists, epistemologists, engineers, anthropologists, art historians. And naturally with the companies and workers who translate the projects into reality.” Exhibition and catalog 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 Muraarchitect and member of the board of directors of In/Arch Sardegna. Inaugurated at the end of May, the exhibition was supposed to close on Sunday 30 June to be transferred to Rome (then to Barcelona, Lisbon, Cagliari and Sassari/Alghero), but given the extraordinary success with the public and critics, the Municipality of Olbia has decided to extend the opening until see you next July 21st. The resolution was published just in recent days.
A decision welcomed with satisfaction by Giovanni Maciocco himself. «I thank the Municipality of Olbia, In/Arch Sardegna and Ance Sardegna, the University of Sassari, the Uni Olbia center, Cipnes and all the institutions and people who contributed to creating the exhibition, starting from the exhibition curators and catalog Antonello Marotta and Paola Mura – says the professor – but above all I thank the visitors who have honored us with their presence». «A success – specifies Maciocco – due to the spirit of collaboration that has animated the project since its inception. The world today pushes for 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.” They also expressed satisfaction Andrea Casciu e Pierpaolo 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 sail 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 halls and the perspective of the new and modern city at the root of the White Island. The past, the present and the 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 inhabiting the territory. Inside, between beams of light and chiaroscuro, the “corpus” of the architect’s works moves. Images, projects, perspectives, sketches, drafts, a path divided into 55 large panels which offer the visitor an overview of half a century of the career of one of the masters of contemporary architecture. One panel after another shows 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 Casa nell’Emiciclo in Sassari and the Casa 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 projects for the restoration of the churches (Nostra Signora di Sivvarru in Ossi and San Gabriele Arcangelo in Sagama), the restoration of the Capo d’Orso fortress in Palau, the projects for school buildings in Tempio, Bortigiadas (the school in the middle of a forest) and 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 freely or harnessed by the work of man. Many works, but also reflections that 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” that completes the corpus of the exhibition and refers to the principle ofinhabit the territory as a thought out, reasoned, idealized choice, experienced daily before even being built.
