In
Ferrara there is a businessman who has revolutionised the protection of
archives and museums all over the world. Makros - around a dozen employees and
a multi-skilled team of experts - deals with the protection of cultural assets
against fire, water and deterioration: this is how parchments, antique books,
documents, works of art and furnishings, generally stored in repositories, are
protected. And artificial intelligence is now also involved. For FARE INSIEME
Giampaolo Colletti interviewed Massimo Luise, founder and CEO of Makros.
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
Do you
believe in superheroes? I know, it's a strange question, but listen to the
story I'm about to tell you and - even if you are a die-hard sceptic - I’ll
convince you that they really do exist and, above all, that they are sometimes
by our side protecting not only our future, but also our past. But let's
proceed with order. This story begins with a gentleman who at the dawn of his
51st birthday became a start-upper. So, one fine day - but after much thought
and, above all, much study - he decided that it was worth taking a 20
millimetre long triple pike jump. Because the fireproof buffer cavity that
Massimo Luise, founder and CEO of Makros, invented is only 20 millimetres wide
and offers archives of all kinds high-level protection.
Company
history. So this expert of archiving systems wrote his own patent and filed it
with the Ferrara Chamber of Commerce. Over the years, Luise worked for several
companies that only made filing containers, and went around museums, libraries
and archives offering those solutions. Then came the eureka moment. ‘I saw a
multitude of archives and realised what was still missing: real protection of
cultural heritage," Luise explains. Now Makros does just that: it
manufactures archiving systems measured in hundreds of metres or even
kilometres for the protection and preservation
of cultural assets against fire, water and deterioration: this is how
parchments, antique books, documents, works of art and furnishings, generally
stored in repositories, are protected. And so the superhero's role of
protecting cultural property against fire and other problems, returns to the
fore. The company has registered seven patents throughout the world. ‘The
biggest challenges are not those related to fire. Indeed, that is a rare event,
but you have to be ready for anything. A major problem is water and we offer a
shell that protects and acts as a barrier. And then we have to consider how
conservation happens on a daily basis,’ says Luise. So Massimo Luise and his
team - together with biologists, mathematicians, sensor experts - study the
conditions that are replicated in cabinets to prevent the presence of fungi,
mites and bacteria and have filed a patent to prevent those degrading elements
of the environment with artificial intelligence algorithms. State-of-the-art
sensors dialogue with software created ad hoc. It's extraordinary. The
protection of the Central State Archives, a good thirteen kilometres located in
the Eur area in Rome, was conceived in this way. But also the protection of the
Cultural Centre in Istanbul: a good twenty-seven kilometres of fortress at a
depth of twelve metres for the Rami Barrack library centre in Istanbul,
containing up to two million books. But there are protected archives also in
Italy's largest universities such as Turin, Milan, Bologna and Ferrara. Or the
first installation in the Vatican City. Today, Makros is among the hundred
realities featured in the latest Italian Cultural Spaces Stories Report
promoted by Symbola and presented at the Adi Design Museum in Milan. The
company has a network of around one hundred external professionals including
biologists, mathematicians, computer scientists, architects, designers and
lawyers. And how far it has come since its early days. ‘I remember the feeling
at the beginning of having had an important insight, the desire to work on it
day and night, the tiredness and enthusiasm as everything happened. I studied
non-stop. The most rewarding moment? When we tested the Blockfire prototype at
the Giordano Institute in Rimini thirteen years ago. After an hour in the
flames at a temperature of one thousand degrees, the contents were still
intact. I realised I had gone from theory to practice,' Luise recalls.
Company
profile. We are in Ferrara, located halfway between the university engineering
faculty and the Tecnopolo. The planning, conception and design activities take
place here. For now, production is based in Veneto, but there are plans to set
up a local network, creating a dedicated supply chain. Nine employees including
the CEO plus a network of a hundred or so external professionals including
agents, architects, biologists, computer scientists, lawyers. The outlet
markets are Europe and Asia, but the American one will soon be added to the
list. Clients include public and private cultural institutions, i.e. archives,
museums, universities, banks, courts, large companies. 'Our DNA is the
continuous search for systems to protect cultural heritage. Science does not
lie. We have remained true to ourselves by maintaining a lean and dynamic
organisation, with the introduction of new figures and the prestige of the
scientific technical committee. Today, our company does not work only in
design,' Luise points out. We protect works of art, paintings, sculptures,
photographs, furnishings. We talk about smart protection and conservation. Our
competitors deal mainly with the container, i.e. the external object, not with
the protection of the material it contains. We have developed protection,
taking care of preservation, leveraging new and modern technologies and
intelligence. Protection is needed from time to time, while preservation must
be constant, continuous and effective,' says Luise. Technology is applied to
advanced information technology: environmental surveys are carried out before
every installation. All this entails continuous and transversal research. So
70% of the profits goes back into R&D. The secret wish for the future?
Luise does not hesitate: 'To take our installations to all cultural sites
around the world. Giving concrete form to all our patents. To export Made in
Italy wherever cultural heritage needs it.' After all, that's what superheroes
are. Dreamers with a clear vision.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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