A work, an architect, a business and a gastronomic place. According to young architects of the Association “Architecture plug-in” of Syracuse, these are resources showing a territory’s identity when put together. The Aretusean association wanted to communicate not only a theoretical, but also physical path with the project “Cities of the world” – a project made of viewings, trips and itineraries offering direct knowledge of places, works and architects. Moak was one of the stopovers during the journey dedicated to “Hyblean architectures”. After having visited the former convent of Santa Maria del Gesù in Modica, students and new architects lead by Professor Fabrizio Foti, president of Architecture Plug-in, had a stop-over in the Moak business district, where the for[me]moak team explained that nowadays it is more important to know the real market needs, rather than moving business headquarters to large cities. Gain as much information as possible from the outside and convert them into projects that have to comply with social and economic changes as well as with the target they are addressed to, besides being good. “Including Moak as stop-over in our trips – Fabrizio Foti explained – has been an exceptional choice. We usually visit a construction-related company. The Moak model is an example of how you can create synergy between production, research and development through the work of creative talents and a well-organised marketing area. An architect has to have the same synergy, as he not only designs buildings or monuments, but also has to have a methodological approach that recognises planning feasibility in any work”.

Aim of the project “Cities of the world. Visits” also is to reveal the good and bad sides of being an architect: the good thing on one hand is the designer’s vocation and passion to create a work. The bad aspect is bureaucracy, assisting defenceless to negligence and abandonment of works of historical interest. A metaphor Foti associates to places. As in the case of Modica, “where the bad aspect is having seen the abandonment of a Renaissance work like the formers convent of Santa Maria del Gesù, which now is a district prison, while the good one is given by a reality like Moak that represents a business example being able to do innovation, without giving up artisan production and close connection to its territory”.