A recognition worth pausing on, and a good occasion to say something about where, and how, we practice.
Archi & Interiors (archieinteriors.com), an Italian online magazine dedicated to architecture and interior design, has published a guide titled “20 migliori studi di architettura a Catania da conoscere” (“20 Best Architecture Studios to Know in Catania”). bureau69 architects appears in seventh position among the twenty studios selected. You can read the full feature here: 20 migliori studi di architettura a Catania da conoscere.
Since the piece is written in Italian, here is our own translation of the passage dedicated to the studio (the original text is at the link above):
“bureau69 architects is an architecture studio based in Catania, led by Max Strano. The studio’s profile is particularly interesting because it combines knowledge of the Sicilian territory, international experience and attention to sustainability. Max Strano is a registered architect in Italy, a RIBA Chartered Architect in the United Kingdom and a Passivhaus designer; the studio works with local and international clients on villas, interiors, renovations and residential projects in Sicily.
bureau69’s research focuses on an idea of responsible architecture, attentive to energy performance, construction quality and the relationship with the Mediterranean climate. This studio’s presence in the selection allows us to introduce a theme that is increasingly central for the Catania area too: designing contemporary houses and spaces able to engage with the landscape, but also with new housing, environmental and economic needs.
It is a studio worth knowing because it looks at Sicily without nostalgia. The project becomes a tool for building value over time, through measured, sustainable interventions, designed for those who wish to live in, or invest in, this territory with greater awareness.”
We read that description twice before deciding it earned a place in our own journal, not out of vanity, but because it puts into words something we rarely manage to say about ourselves clearly: that working well in Catania is not a matter of choosing between roots and horizon. It is, most days, a matter of holding both at the same time.
What “local market” actually means for an architecture studio in Catania
Being named among Catania’s best architecture studios is a useful prompt to be precise about what local positioning actually means here, since the phrase gets used loosely. For bureau69 it means something quite specific: registration with the Italian Ordine degli Architetti, working knowledge of Sicilian planning procedures and building regulations, established relationships with local contractors and artisans, and enough time spent on Sicilian sites to know how volcanic stone, summer heat and older housing stock actually behave once construction starts. An architect in Sicily who understands the drawings but not the territory tends to discover the difference at the client’s expense, usually mid project and never cheaply.
That local grounding is also what makes the international side of the practice credible rather than decorative. Max Strano’s RIBA Chartered Architect status and ARB registration in the United Kingdom, together with Passivhaus Designer training, sit alongside the Italian qualification rather than instead of it (you can read more about the studio’s full profile and credentials here). For an owner planning a villa renovation, an interior project or a new residential build in Sicily from abroad, that combination is the practical reassurance it should be: the studio can read a UK inspection report and a Sicilian building permit with equal fluency, and answer to both.
Catania as a base, and why the map matters to clients abroad
For readers approaching bureau69 from outside Italy, it is worth being explicit about geography, since it does real work in a project brief, not just in a postcard. Catania sits on Sicily’s eastern coast, served by its own international airport, and functions less as a destination in itself than as a base from which the most recognisable parts of eastern Sicily are all within a short drive. Mount Etna’s slopes are roughly 45 kilometres away, about an hour by car. Taormina sits at a similar distance, comfortably under an hour along the coastal road. Siracusa, with its Greek and baroque old town of Ortigia, is about 65 kilometres to the south, again under an hour away.
That proximity is not a marketing flourish, it is a planning fact worth factoring into any brief. A villa near Taormina, a restoration in Siracusa’s historic centre and a countryside property on Etna’s slopes can all realistically be served from a single studio based in Catania, without the coordination overhead of engaging a different practice for each town. For anyone weighing where in Sicily to build or renovate, that reach is part of the answer, quietly and without needing to be argued twice.
A studio that looks at Sicily without nostalgia
The line from the Archi & Interiors piece that stayed with us longest is the closing one: a studio worth knowing because it looks at Sicily without nostalgia. It is, we think, the right ambition for architecture practised in a region so often described through what it used to be. The genuinely interesting question in Sicilian architecture at the moment is not preservation for its own sake, it is deciding, project by project, what from the past still performs and what simply used to be picturesque (an amusing distinction to make on paper, a humbling one to make on site).
Passive design, careful material choices and measured interventions are how that decision gets made in practice rather than in principle. If you are exploring a property purchase, renovation or new build in Sicily, our guide on buying, building and renovating in Sicily sets out the process in more detail, and our note on the real cost of building a passive house in Sicily is a useful companion if energy performance is part of your brief. If you would simply like to talk through an early idea, get in touch with bureau69 architects directly.