Massimiliano Fuksas: the story and interesting facts about one of the most beloved (and controversial) architects of our time

He is one of the most well-known, beloved, and often controversial architects of our time. This is Massimiliano Fuksas, designer of famous buildings such as the Nuvola (‘Cloud’) conference centre in Rome, a glass box with an ethereal ‘cloud’ in the centre made with an innovative micro-perforated fibreglass membrane, a monumental contemporary work that is flexible and adapts to ever-changing needs, so much so that it was transformed into a vaccination hub during the pandemic.

Massimiliano Fuksas: a life like a film

Born in Rome in 1944, Massimiliano Fuksas is one of the greatest Italian architects, recognised internationally. He graduated in architecture from the Sapienza University of Rome, but, as he will tell you, his dream was to be an artist. And, in his practice, drawing by hand is the fundamental part, the engine of all things, his language. Incessant and continuous drawing, which is then translated and engineered into three-dimensional computerised designs.

Fuksas’ vision is different from the Italian architectural mainstream, partly thanks to his early experiences abroad, in the United Kingdom and Denmark.

Success came quickly, with the publication of the Paliano gym in the late 1970s in the French magazine L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui. In his career spanning over fifty years, Massimiliano Fuksas has amazed us with his futuristic, challenging and above all exciting architecture, which breaks away from the norms of Italian architecture and has placed Fuksas among the world’s starchitects.

The ‘Cloud’ in Rome, a dream come true

‘Everyone said it was structurally impossible’, says Massimiliano Fuksas about one of his most famous and controversial works. That work is the Nuvola di Roma, the Roma Convention Centre in the EUR district of Rome, inaugurated on 29 October 2016, after 15 years of construction and numerous controversies, so much so that the architect was prompted to make a decision—later withdrawn—to remove his name from the project.

It is an immense, multi-purpose complex on three levels with a capacity of 8,000 seats. A mammoth, poetic project, with 9,000 square metres of modular space with 30 meeting rooms with a maximum plenary capacity of 5,000 people; 7, 300 square metres of multi-purpose space for exhibitions, gala dinners and product presentations; and an auditorium with 1,800 seats, of which 1,200 are in the stalls and 600 in the gallery, and 3 external foyers, one of which is over 1,500 square metres and the other two 500 square metres each.

The architecture is eco-compatible and uses technologically advanced materials. It’s a dream come true.

Article translated by Jasmina Towers

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