Much more than an architect

Enzo Eusebi is in love with beauty. Yet this architect is also a humanist and wants to confront social issues with sensitivity. He speaks to Simonne Pace.

If you shout the name Vincenzo, the chances are that Enzo Eusebi won't look back. Both his grandfather and great-grandfather were Vincenzos, but he was baptised Enzo and prefers to be called this way.

"The nickname is my name," chuckles the friendly 50-year-old architect from Le Marche as he places a pile of art books on a huge table for my perusal.

Eusebi was in Malta for a few days to see to the final details of the new Domestica showroom in Birkirkara, which he designed - a glass structure based on the concept of integrating outdoor with indoor living.

"Architects are considered young up till the age of 70," he jokes. He then moves on to focus on what has been truly meaningful in his life - his family and the strong social approach he has always shown towards architecture and design.

Eusebi feels at one with the world of art, and music brings harmony to his heart. "We all delight in beauty because beauty brings us closer to God. That is probably why we try our best not to contaminate anything pure," he thinks out loud.

The world-renowned architect talks passionately about art and is surrounded by it in his home and career. He shows me a picture on his iPhone of the second favourite furniture item in his home - a six-metre-high bed with a view to a starry sky.

However, Eusebi's most precious piece of furniture remains the 'Not for Food' concept he designed for kitchen manufacturer Berloni - a €300,000 piece which is on show at the Shanghai Expo.

The world-renowned architect and great mind behind the Kunlun Towers in Peking believes there is so much more to architecture. "Our first mission as architects is to confront social issues with sensitivity." In almost all his projects, Eusebi puts solidarity on a pedestal and lives through social issues on a daily basis.

One of his latest projects is the 'zero impact' structure for the Church of the Resurrection in L'Aquila, a task he hopes to complete by the end of this year.

The idea originates from water, explains Eusebi. "Water is a symbol of death. But through water you rise again and join God in heaven."

This simple, functional and resistant structure is dedicated to the 308 victims of the April 6, 2009 earthquake.

Eusebi praises this initiative, "as the Church can now have a closer relationship with contemporary society."

First an engineer, then an architect, Eusebi hails from a family of mathematicians. One of eight founders of the Libera Università dei Diritti Umani, Eusebi is involved in a project that aims to create a fresh outlook on human rights "within a modern, manipulated world".

Toing and froing between China and Italy, he still finds the time to offer the unimaginable through his architecture. "We have to make good use of the great powers of architecture to be able to think beyond a prison sentence, help break Mafia organisations, whatever these could represent, and go against the flow if necessary," he stresses.

Eusebi is a free spirit and describes the non-urban home as a prison. "The ultimate vision for the home would be a tree with access to internet."

Eusebi nurtures a great respect for nature while embracing the many intellectual services that technology offers for better communication with the outside world.

"The future holds a mixture of ingredients. Like a chef, the architect must place these ingredients on a table and come up with something both tasty and aesthetically amazing. A clever design could be a concoction of an item bought from a forlorn market in Stockholm, an authentic 1930 piece, and a carbon structure."

Carrying out 90 per cent of his work on a plane, Eusebi talks about the importance of visiting a site and building a human relationship with the customer. "You don't just launch a product. You need to put your heart into it, create originality and feel fulfilled."

The architect is a pessimist when it comes to discussing architecture and being an architect. "Being a good architect is so laborious, it can be devastating. It is difficult to adhere to your principles, and as a generator of ideas you need to fight against everything and everyone."

Eusebi has always lived among friends and looked at society from far away - "just like looking out of an aeroplane".

Together with his team from Nothing Studio, Eusebi is busy working on an orphanage in Africa and is setting up a laboratory for the restoration of the Riace Bronzes in Reggio Calabria.

"We are all rich and we are all poor," he says. "Architecture also serves to get to know more about contemporary society."

Eusebi is a traditionalist at heart, having studied Latin and Greek at school and been an altar boy until the age of 15. His parents were always "very present" and he has been with his wife since she was 16 years old, so she is "a strong reference point" in his life.

He laughs loudly and is taken aback when I ask, "Your heart beats fast and you feel a rush of excitement when you think of...?"

He pauses for a while before the words just pour out of his heart - "cultural dialogue... and I jump at the opportunity for a challenge. After all, greatness is the ability to start afresh."