Floriana Marotta (Palermo, 1977) studied architecture at the Università degli Studi di Palermo and at the École d'Architecture de Luminy in Marseille, where she collaborated with the Etablissement Public D'Aménagement Urbain Euroméditerranée. In 2001, she moved to Barcelona to pursue a Master's degree in Landscape Architecture at ETSAB, and from 2002 to 2005, she worked with the internationally renowned studio MBM Arquitectes (Martorell, Bohigas, Mackay).
In 2005, she founded the architectural firm MAB Arquitectura with Massimo Basile. The studio has since won several prestigious public competitions, including the first-place award in Milan for the development of a mixed-use project consisting of social housing, services, and a park Abitare a Milano 1 - Via Gallarate, for the Municipality of Milan. Together with LAPS Architecture, the studio won the competition for the Patronage Laïque, a cultural association center for the City of Paris (2012).
In 2015, she moved to Milan, where she established the Italian office of the studio. Today, the firm counts approximately twenty collaborators and works on projects of various scales through an integrated approach that combines urban planning, architecture, and landscape design, following a holistic vision for each project.
The firm's activities span from implementation planning to landscape and public space projects, the redevelopment of brownfield sites, the construction of large residential complexes, and the retrofitting and restyling of existing buildings.
MAB arquitectura's research focuses on the urban project as an intermediate scale for intervening in the city and explores the theme of housing from the perspectives of typology, efficiency, and environmental and economic sustainability. This includes the development of off-site industrialized systems to optimize construction processes and enhance housing availability. Among the most recent projects are the residential and co-living complex on Via Moneta, Redo Merezzate residential district in Milan, the parish complex in Reggiolo, the conversion of the Faro di Capofaro lighthouse into a 5* Relais & Châteaux hotel in Salina, the restoration of an Art Nouveau villa in Mondello, and the Palmento Tascante on Mount Etna.
Current projects under development in Milan include the new R8 Inspire-UpTown lot in Cascina Merlata, the redevelopment of the Rogoredo railway yard, the urban regeneration of the former Taliedo warehouses and the former Neca area in Pavia, the transformation of the former Ferretti site in Settimo Milanese, and the development of the Milano4You smart district in Segrate.