Massimo Carmassi

Working on historical heritage has always been a passion for Massimo Carmassi (Pisa, 1943). Right from the beginning of the 1970s, freshly graduated and after a thesis on restructuring, the architect started his professional activities by carrying out renovations in historical cities. In Pisa especially, where he has reconverted many buildings: the Palazzo Lanfranchi into an exhibition centre (1976-1980), the convent of San Croce into a university halls of residence (1979), the Corte d'Assise into a school of art (1979-1981), the Convento di S. Silvestro into a prestigious school for teachers and researchers...

An admirer of Louis Kahn, Massimo Carmassi has carefully studied the work of Rafael Moneo in Madrid and in Merida , the perfection of his compositions, his use of red and regular bricks. He is particularly fond of the Scarpa house in Treviso (1969) and is passionate about the work of Kollhoff in Berlin . But how to reconcile today's requirements with historic memory? Carmassi proves that it is possible. By integrating a contemporary architecture at the heart of medieval cities, his projects succeed in preserving the essence of tradition while affirming a certain modernity.

Since 1997, Carmassi Studio di Architettura, created in Florence with Gabriella Ioli Carmassi, has been tirelessly continuing to work on heritage projects with the help of several employees. Tens of projects showing how historical structures have helped to articulate contemporary buildings. In Pisa, the reconstruction of San Michele in Borgo is an exciting urban renovation project, rewarded at the 2004 Wienerberger Brick Awards. Thanks to the use of bricks, thanks also to the high and narrow arcades that break up the stone walls and to the horizontal rhythm of the joints, a painstaking work on the new building has restored the place to its original appearance. Another exemplary project is the reconversion of a historical building in Senigallia - an abattoir built at the beginning of the XIXth century - into a very modern and functional public library. The designers have integrated the existing structures into the new constructions and used master materials (metal, wood, concrete, glass and old bricks) to create intemporal spaces bathing in an atmosphere conducive to reflection.

Each of his designs, prompted by a real quest for the expressive force, sets out to breathe new life into cities without troubling the old urban tissue and to respect the morphology of the old buildings without turning them into a pastiche.