The choice of materials is one of the most critical factors in the sustainability and performance of a project. The functions performed by materials go well beyond aspects of construction and aesthetics and include the energy comfort of buildings.

Confindustria Ceramica has been promoting the EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) amongst its member companies in order to communicate the green performance characteristics of ceramic surfaces that serve to earn credits in building sector rating schemes.

For Solano Benítez "architecture 'speaks' through materials, it communicates using ceramic and stone. We acquire knowledge through action".

The project laboratory created by a group of friends who followed the same career path from Gregotti Associati in the mid-eighties through to the foundation of the practice Piuarch represents a new form of professionalism in Italian architecture.

Japanese designers Setsu and Shinobu Ito, who work together in Milan, follow a design approach based on the relationship between human beings, nature and technology and share a fascination with Italian design

The buildings created by Peruvian architecture practice Barclay & Crousse look like pre-Colombian ruins with pure geometries, seemingly timeless volumes extruded from the soil.

Paolo Asti’s architecture practice offers “homeopathic” remedies that give new life to historic buildings in Milan’s city centre.