In this pill we met Michele Bertolini, a brilliant architect with a passion for ultra trail and his homeland. But we tell you something more…
You practice ultratrail, a sport that represents energy and energy to the maximum. Can you describe in one sentence how you feel when you practice it?
At the start, the effort is great. But the true ultra trail exercise involves the mind before the body. A mind full of energy overcomes any limitation dictated by body fatigue. it is the energy that comes from the brain that is the real endurance in sport.
We talked about your career as an architect in a big city like Milan, and then about the change you have decided to implement in your life. What was the driving force behind this change of course?
The need to return to having daily contact with nature.
What are the most significant examples of sustainable architecture for you?
A virtuous example of sustainable architecture is certainly all the research of Zumthor, a famous Swiss architect, who, in my opinion, brilliantly manages to integrate architecture into natural environments. Lately I have also been very interested in Mario Cucinella, an Italian architect who dedicates a lot of his studio to the search for solutions that look at environmental sustainability.
Can you tell us more about the Ice Music Festival you organize?
Sure. Ice Music Festival was born almost by chance about three years ago, when an American artist named Tim Linhart arrives in our mountains in search of a glacier to build an ice cello. He showed us the various projects that in 30 years of research he had managed to carry out: practically all musical instruments can be built with ice. He attracted my attention as an architect even more when he told me about the existence of an ice cathedral. We then began to study together the project of an igloo, inspired by this Cathedral, which could host a concert played entirely with ice instruments, and from there the project started. We can say that our igloo today is truly the most sustainable building in the world: it exists in the colder months and melts with the change in temperature. The same goes for tools. Today we are very proud to host Italian and international artists enthusiastic about taking part in this very special event, and to have attracted the attention of various players in music and the world of sustainability.
What are the next steps to make your territory even more sustainable?
At the moment, as Consorzio Pontedilegno Tonale, we are thinking about how to make the mass tourism that we experience seasonally in our territory as sustainable as possible. We have identified the shelters as touch points on which to focus our attention: We are working to make them more energy efficient, we are looking for solutions to minimize the use of plastic, and we are focused on building a network of suppliers in the food and wine sector for refuges that enhance local products.
Change for you is ….
Change starts from the awareness of what we live, first of all. The process of acknowledging the need to change behavior can only arise from a clear reading of the present. This would be enough to realize that we can make a change.
