THE ARCHITECTS SERIES – A DOCUMENTARY ON: MINO CAGGIULA ARCHITECTS
The Architects Series – A Documentary on: Mino Caggiula Architects is the latest instalment of this series that focuses on the most interesting and innovative practices operating in Italian and international architecture. The series is produced by The Plan Magazine in partnership with Iris Ceramica Group. This episode focuses on Mino Caggiula Architects, an architecture firm founded in Lugano by Swiss-Italian architect Mino Caggiula, whose design vision brings together construction practice, theoretical research, and a human-centered approach.
The premiere of the documentary will stream live on Wednesday 19th November, at 6 pm CET / 12 pm EST / 5 pm GMT, followed by the roundtable session: “Return to Inspiration: The value of human-centered design in an increasing technological environment”.
Founded in Lugano by Swiss-Italian architect Mino Caggiula, the studio is a growing business with offices in Switzerland and Italy. The hallmark of the firm’s design philosophy is its unique blend of on-site construction experience, theoretical research, a human-centric approach, and a drive for innovation. For Mino Caggiula Architects, architecture never occurs in a vacuum but grows from a process that combines construction practice, cultural vision, and social awareness. The founder’s career path reflects this approach, with Caggiula starting work at a young age on construction sites. After nearly 30 years of practice, he has combined his hands-on knowledge of materials and construction processes with advanced studies. The result is an approach that treats every project as an opportunity to balance the human and environmental, technology and nature, and community and the individual.
The firm’s portfolio ranges from site-specific projects to urban-scale developments, all of which are hallmarked by the same constant attention to contextual integration and the quality of spaces for their users. Mino Caggiula Architects’ projects are known for balancing a strong formal and conceptual identity with integration and dialogue with their context. Design goes beyond simply meeting functional requirements to become a cultural act that generates meaning and reflects the complexities of the present.
An important element of the firm’s work is its focus on well-being, understood not only as physical comfort but as a state of mental and emotional balance. It works to make the spaces it designs places of regeneration that are open to light, nature, and social interaction. Its architecture is therefore a tool for improving people’s lives by creating environments that foster relationships, creativity, and contemplation.
Mino Caggiula Architects views technological innovation simply as a means to the end of expanded design possibilities. Advanced digital tools, material research, and harnessing sustainable processes open the door to examining new solutions, while the human and cultural dimensions of a project remain central.
Mino Caggiula Architects has received awards and mentions in international competitions, distinguishing itself for tackling complex challenges with an innovative and poetic vision. Prime examples are projects such as Paguro, Blade, Atelier Villa Trepp, and Nice Paradise Residence.
The firm’s philosophy was recently set down on paper in the monograph Open Being, published by THE PLAN Editions, which brings together projects, thoughts, and images that capture the essence of an architectural journey that balances the concrete and the conceptual. Caggiula describes the book as “an account of our relentlessly frenetic lives, which force us to keep moving yet still offer transitional moments that invite reflection.”
With an approach that combines technical rigor and poetic openness, experimentation and memory, and innovation and humanity, Mino Caggiula Architects has become a key figure in international architecture. Rooted in experience yet always pushing the boundaries of established practice, its architecture sees the built environment as functional as well as an aesthetic, cultural, and vital experience.
Register here for the webinar.
The course is under approval by AIA CES-USA and by RIBA CPD-UK for 2 LUs