A new work for Arte Sella: it's The Journey, created by young students

The Arte Sella contemporary art park in Borgo Valsugana (Trento) is enriched with a new work: it is The Journey, a work created by the young designers of YACademy under the guidance of MC A - Mario Cucinella Architects, promoted by Scrigno Group. The work, included in the path of Villa Strobele (one of the three that make up Arte Sella), is intended to be a nomadic architecture, an invitation to travel understood as an inner journey and to the sacredness of the relationship between man and nature. Indeed, the idea was to create a kind of sanctuary in the heart of the mountains of Trentino, a light structure that becomes a network connecting the outside and the inside. Devising The Journey were young students Anna Collatuzzo, Arezoo Mohebpour and Paula Strieder from the courses in Architecture for Humanity and Architecture for Exhibition at YACademy, an academy of higher architectural education in the heart of Bologna.

The project was selected from those developed within the A Door on a Better World workshop curated by YACacademy and promoted by Scrigno, a leader in opening solutions: the young designers from YACademy worked under the mentorship of MC A - Mario Cucinella Architects and architect Mario Cucinella himself in developing a series of creative concepts for Arte Sella dedicated to the theme of sustainability and the future. “Thanks to the workshop,” said Cucinella, "I once again had the opportunity to engage with young people and, for the umpteenth time, I was impressed by their creative force. The Journey shows their ability to go beyond the limit of today and to be able to imagine beyond established patterns. This attitude can really bring about change and can open up unexpected visions of the future."

The architecture of The Journey resembles that of a tent, composed of simple profiles grafted onto a sheet metal base ballasted with, among other things, local stones. The structure consists of wooden rods that start from two bases drawn on the profile of the golden section, meeting at the top. To enter, the visitor walks on an annular path, finding himself in the center that is a kind of vantage point toward the sky and the beginning of the “journey”: once you get to the heart of the work, you find yourself inside in a cozy but “open-air” space, where it is also possible to stop and look toward the sky by sitting on a large boulder from the Moggio stream, which flows nearby a few meters away. The encounter between the element of earth and that of the sky, in its simplicity, symbolizes the return to the origins as well as the precarious and nomadic character of man’s permanence with respect to life on a constantly changing planet, with respect to which everyone experiences his or her own smallness and transience.

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The entire project was designed to be Climate Positive, thus planning to absorb more greenhouse gases than were emitted during the construction of the work and thus embodying the desire to leave a better world for new generations. To achieve this, the installation of the work was accompanied by restoration and maintenance of the forests of the Sella Valley and the planting of new trees of various species (maple, birch, rowan, beech, hornbeam, hazel, and spruce) in the vicinity of the structure, as reforestation work in the area. The installation will thus leave the host area better than it found it, creating a concrete synergy between art and nature. The environmental projects will be carried out within the 12 hectares of Arte Sella exhibition areas, which were severely damaged by the 2018 storm Vaia that hit the valley and the entire Triveneto region, destroying millions of trees and disfiguring the mountains of Valsugana. The planting and maintenance work was coordinated by Etifor through the WOWnature initiative.

“The project,” says Francesco Bigoni, CMO of Scrigno Group, “allowed us to offer an opportunity to these young and talented students who were able to shape their commitment and social responsibility, combining artistic creativity and respect for the environment. An alternative, original and effective way to communicate shared values. In this sense, we have contributed, together with our partners YAC, MC A and Arte Sella, to generate a virtuous circle linking economy, territory, architecture and the art world. Scrigno’s vocation for a higher quality of life goes hand in hand with the desire to stimulate a cultural change oriented toward sustainability.”

“Architecture responds to human needs, from the basic to the most complex,” emphasizes Alessandro Cecchini, CEO of YAC. "The Journey represents the meeting point between these needs, presenting itself as a shelter and at the same time as a temple, at the confluence of the earthly and spiritual dimensions of man. In its nature as nomadic architecture, it refers to the journey as an archetype, to change as the very condition of existence, to the need, which is also irrepressible, to leave a meaningful trace for the future, with a message of respect and care for an environment that, today more than ever, must be considered in its sacredness."

YAC - Young Architects Competitions promotes design competitions and educational paths in collaboration with prestigious professional and academic entities. Founded in 2013 by the intuition of three young engineers, convinced that the competition of ideas could be the privileged tool to enliven the debate and research inherent to architecture, it has gained experience working and collaborating with the main signatures of contemporary architecture, tackling and deepening numerous architectural design themes. Five years after the start of its activity, YAC decided to open its network of renowned architects to young designers, with the aim of supporting them in their professional path: four training courses were born, conducted with partners of the prestige of Ferrari, National Geographic and Agenzia del Demanio. The courses are held at the YACademy headquarters: a historic building in the heart of Bologna, next to Piazza Santo Stefano.

MC A - Mario Cucinella Architects, founded in 1992 in Paris by Mario Cucinella, is now based in Bologna and Milan and consists of more than 100 professionals. MC A specializes in architectural design that integrates environmental and energy strategies, making use of an in-house R&D department that carries out research on sustainability issues using a holistic approach. The firm has completed projects in Europe, China, North and Central Africa, the Middle East and South America. MC A has about fifty projects under design and/or construction. Among the most notable are: the new Unipol Business Center, The SeiMilano Residential and Mixed-Use Project; the Rovati Foundation Etruscan Museum; and the new Surgical and Emergency Pole at San Raffaele Hospital, all in Milan. In 2018, the Product Design department launched MC D - Mario Cucinella Design focused on the theme of recycling and circular economy with numerous collaborations with the most renowned Made in Italy companies to its credit. In 2015 Mario Cucinella founded SOS - School of Sustainability, to train a new generation of professionals in the field of sustainability, able to face the great global challenges in the economic, environmental and social fields.

A new work for Arte Sella: it's The Journey, created by young students

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