PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE – PEOPLE OF DESIGN VERSION!

What prescient youthful memory relates to your present career?

One of my youthful memories was visiting Zurich, the world-famous capital of financial exchanges. I was thoroughly impressed.

Zurich, Unsplash

What are three basic rules you learned from your mentors?

1 – Those who do nothing are never wrong. Better to do and repent than to repent of not having done.
2 – Companies work best when there are only a few decision makers, in odd numbers and less than three … draw your own conclusions!
3 – Put the greatest passion in what you do. Only then will you convey positive elements to others.

Organizing, San Marco dei Cavoyi, Italy, 2015. Photo: Alessandro Valente. This picture was taken during the first visit of Moldavian people in Italy.

What project launched your career?

The project that started my career in rural development was the first European LEADER program, in 1994. My role in drafting the project made me fall in love with the LEADER philosophy (LLCD).

Any music playing while you work?

I don’t like listening to music while I’m working. My work is about relationships between people, meetings, speeches so I couldn’t listen to music at the same time.

That being said, I enjoy music to relax. I like blues and rock … in awe of great rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones and Queen.

Source : Vilisvir, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Do you work in PJs or three-piece suits?

Do you work in clothes? Just kidding.
I’m so hanging out with people and meeting new contacts, I prefer sparing my vision of them, and theirs of me, in PJs.

What is your current design state of mind?

I think design is a way to make useful things enjoyable.
And only love, passion and ability, working together, can make objects truly enjoyable.

What living designer/architect do you most admire?

Jaime Bouzaglo, Renzo Piano, Kenzō Tange

Jaime Bouzaglo, GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN Award international jury member

Copyright: Cirone-Musi, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Dijk, Hans van / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, via Wikimedia Commons

What past designer/architect inspires you the most?

I’m not an architect, but there are artists that really interested me, such as (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret) Le Corbusier and John Ruskin.

Source : Joop van Bilsen / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

John Rusky, source: Wikimedia Commons

What is your most marked design quality?

I am not an architect neither a designer…
But I like “designing” projects for social and economic development.

How would you like your designs to go down in history?

My projects concern socio-economic development and their objective is the starting point of the ability and will to find forms of self-realization aimed at leading to an integral development of the social and economic sectors in weak rural areas of European Union.

I think history will be written by those populations who will be able to reach a higher stage of well-being.

What peer quality do you most value?

Surely passion, love, humility and pride…

Which project is the epitome of your work?

A transnational project with Germany, Moldova and Italy, aimed at cultural integration between young European citizens.

How are your country of belonging’s values reflected in your work?

My country, Italy, has a culture rooted in over 2 millennia. It is the country of Rome, Dante, Giotto, Leonardo, Michelangelo.

Matese mountains, Piedimonte Matese, Italy, 2019. Photo: Alessandro Valente. The beauty of a “weak” rural area, in Alto Casertano territory (ancient sanitizing area), Campania Region, Italy. It is the place where I work.

My studies in a classical high school have positively influenced my sensitivity towards harmony, beauty and philosophy. University, on the other hand, gave me the tools for my work. These skills permeate my projects for weak rural areas, where human relations play a fundamental role.

What always inspires you?

Human relationships, Friendship and Love.

If a spell were to transform you into an object, by all means, what would you like to be, and why?

An infinite size hard disk to accumulate knowledge on everything.

Birstonas International Hot-air balloon meeting, Birstonas, Lithuania, 2018. Photo: Alessandro Valente. A back-lit photo during the Birstonas International Hot-Air Balloon meeting.

What is your favorite place in the world?

Any place in the world is my favourite place! Where the sea meets the land, where the ocean bathes the white sand, and the temperature is never below 23 degrees or above 28 degrees.

But it’s important to feel good about yourself and others around you.

What design or architecture project do you wish you would have thought of yourself?

The Roman amphitheatre or the Great Pyramid but also what used to be the Grand Hotel in Montréal!

FeaturedPics, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Nina at the Norwegian bokmål language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Source : https://mtlurb.com/topic/

If you could host any three guests, past or alive, over for dinner, who would you choose and what would you dare serving?

Le Corbusier, Boris Johnson and the Dalai Lama.
I would serve them some simple food from my land, Pasta with seafood, and “Aglianico Riserva Grave Mora Fontanavecchia” red wine.

What is your mantra?

I think I have 2 types of mantras

1- Yoga Deep Breathing
2 – Beer with best friends.

What is your dream? THINK BIG!

Everyone should have the same opportunities, the same well-being. The best minds must be always evaluated in the best way, because they are the ones who lead the evolution of the human race.