Mario Cucinella was born in Palermo in 1960 and graduated in Architecture at the University of Genoa in 1986.

In 1992, in Paris, he founded MCA – Mario Cucinella Architects, an architecture and design firm that has now headquarters in Bologna and Milan, and of which he is also the creative director.

In 2015 he founded SOS – School of Sustainability, a school for young professionals and recent graduates that focuses on the application of sustainable architecture and design to give future decisions makers the tools necessary to tackle the environmental issues that are emerging globally with an open-minded, holistic, research-driven, and human-centered approach.

The importance of his work and continued commitment as an architect and educator on environmental and social issues have been recognized with the International Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (2016) and with the Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects (2017).

In 2018 he was curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale with the exhibition “Arcipelago Italia”.

Mario Cucinella has taught at the universities of Ferrara, Naples, Munich, and Nottingham.

He is the author of many publications including:
Building Green Futures (2020, published by Forma), a volume that investigates, through a collection of the latest projects and most representative architecture of Mario Cucinella Architects, possible answers that architecture can provide to the global challenges of the future.
Architecture of Education (2021, published by Maggioli), an analysis of how the most important places in civil society will be able to evolve thanks to architecture and the dynamics it is able to generate, through a multi-voiced narrative alternating with design solutions developed by Mario Cucinella Architects.
The future is a journey to the past. Ten stories about architecture (2021, published by Quodlibet) In this book Mario Cucinella – together with Valentina Torrente and Laura Zevi – describes ten trips to cities and places that gave him valuable insights into environmental issues and the rational use of available energy.