“When we build, let us think that we build forever,” Italian fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli quoted English polymath John Ruskin at an address to celebrate being the first recipient of an honorary doctorate in “Design for Made in Italy: Identity, Innovation, and Sustainability”.
The same quote is inscribed on a plaque in the centre of Solomeo, the hamlet which Cucinelli has made the home of his family, business and spiritual life since 1985. Once a crumbling site at the top of a hill among the rolling Umbrian countryside, it has been lovingly restored over the years thanks to funds from the Cucinelli enterprise.
