DANTE BENINI

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Skyline of Porta Nuova, Milan. A Company at the top building into future. For over 75 years, Mapei has been at the top with their quality chemical products for the building industry, products for a better job on both large and small sites. Their commitment became reality with 62 production facilities in the 5 continents, 18 main Research & Development centres with more than 800 researchers, a range of more than 1,500 products and more than 200 new products every year. These are the “gures” which make Mapei the leading international Group of chemical products for the building...

Dante Oscar Benini Mario Arlati PROJECTS WALL COATINGS AND RESIN FLOORINGS Living Art: the largest work of art in the world COVER STORY REFERENCES PORTFOLIOS 2014 Olympic Games: Mapei was there too LAYING CERAMIC TILES Rolls Royce showroom in Moscow LAYING RESILIENT AND TEXTILE MATERIALS Westend campus at Goethe University in Frankfurt LAYING PVC FLOORINGS House of Representatives in Brussels LAYING WOODEN FLOORS Grand hotel et de Milan Bulgari hotel in Milano SPORT FACILITIES A multisport court in Montmeló LAYING GLASS MOSAICS AND STONE MATERIALS Atlantis hotel in Dubai UNDERGROUND CONSTRUCTIONS...

No alternative model to Europe Giorgio Squinzi launches a pro-European message during the conference “European scenario under the Italian presidency” Europe is the only possible way ahead. That is why the forthcoming European elections (to elect the representatives of the European Parliament) next May, from 22nd to 25th depending on the country, are a crucial test and business people are ready to get involved and conrm their support for Europe, in order to defeat the Eurosceptics. This, in a nutshell, is the message that the President of the Conndustria (the Confederation of Italian Manufacturing...

The future of the European Union Giorgio Squinzi’s lectio magistralis given at the opening of the 838th academic year at Modena and Reggio Emilia University On 13th January, the University Rector, Professor Angelo O. Andrisano ofcially declared the opening of the 838th academic year at Modena and Reggio Emilia University. The ceremony, hosted at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in Modena (Central Italy), included a series of speeches culminating in Giorgio Squinzi’s lectio magistralis on Europe and the future of the European Union. Young people and universities: the driving force behind Europe...

Dante Oscar Benini Architecture without borders You are renowned for being free from predetermined schemes. So who were your maestros and what do you think you owe to them? As is, perhaps, quite well known, my initial training came from the fact that I grew up in the same neighbourhood as Carlo Scarpa and spent time with him from the age of 9 to 23, which actually resulted in me working with him on a very empirical basis from the age of 14 and then much more seriously at a later date. I then moved to Brazil, where I gained a much more aggressive and determined professional education from Oscar...

More and more skyscrapers are being built around the world. What do you think about this process and how do you think the kind of cityscapes we are used to seeing can coexist with these new extremely tall buildings? Building skyscrapers is simply a means of saving space and I believe it is merely a consequence of protecting our soil and the results of technological progress coming from United States in the early 20th-century that the world is only now really becoming aware of and understanding. If I were asked the question “What don’t you like about skyscrapers?”, my answer would be “Anger at...

PROJECTS WALL COATINGS AND RESIN FLOORINGS Living Art: the largest work of art in the world Mapei in Moscow to decorate ve “made-in-Italy” skyscrapers

A joint Italian-Russian collaboration has conceived a residential complex of enormous cultural, artistic, economic and architectonic value in Moscow. This is “Living Art” by Dante Oscar Benini and Mauro Arlati, the largest work of art you can actually live in, built in an area that, until just a short time ago, was regularly invaded by cars. In fact it is so big that, once completed in 2016, it will have a place in the Guinness World Records as “The largest work of art in the world”. At the moment, two of the ve towers are ready. Presented in Milan last year on the 25th of November, this residential...

Mario Arlati All your works stand out for an obvious symbiosis of material and art. Where does this idea come from and how has it evolved over time? It comes from a period of gurative painting on the island of Ibiza in the early 1970’s. While I was studying the motion of sunlight on a wall in a little alleyway in Ibiza on a Spanish afternoon, I sensed the beauty of the colour white lit up by powerful sunshine that was gradually fading and colouring the white wall with the various shades of twilight. What is your relationship with the world of architecture and design? I have always worked with...

nini and the avant-garde artist and Maestro of colours Mario Arlati. Living Art has a unique architectural form: over an area of 45,000 m2 four 160 m towers with 45 oors (each tower has 600 apartments with 50 m2 of oor area for each apartment) and a 110 m tower with 33 oors will reach towards the sky, along with an arts park, a sports complex and underground car parks, all to create an urban environment in which everything you need is within easy reach. The project has been conceived within a framework of urban requalication and the promotion of sporting and cultural activities and has been created...

PROJECTS WALL COATINGS AND RESIN FLOORINGS MAPEI’S CONTRIBUTION FOR THE ROSSO | RED | ROJO EXHIBITION BY MARIO ARLATI The relationship between Mapei and Mario Arlati, just like the Moscow experience of Living Art, is based on a constant exchange of ideas between the Milan artist and the company’s technicians. Their common objective is to create nishes with the ability to express all the power of colour, but without forgetting all its functional aspects. Mapei offered support for Rosso | Red | Rojo, an exhibition held from the 29th of June to the 21st of July, 2012 at the Milan Stelline Foundation,...