Flavian Basile, an acclaimed Italian architect and entrepreneur born in Benevento in 1985, founded OFFTEC S.R.L. in 2016 after graduating from Rome’s University “Valle Giulia.” A Europe 40under40 award winner, he leads the multidisciplinary firm—with offices in Benevento, Milan, Catania, and beyond—in delivering over 300 projects worth nearly €1 billion, from urban regeneration to infrastructure. Championing “Design the world for a better future,” Basile fuses ESG principles, advanced BIM technologies, and regenerative innovation in projects like Antum Hotel and Tierra Samnium Golf Club, creating sustainable, inclusive spaces that dialogue with landscape, community, and time.

GDN: What principles guide your architectural projects?

Flavian Basile: Architecture is never a neutral act, but a statement of intent. Every project I undertake begins with a simple yet radical question: what impact will this place have on the world thirty years from now?

Three principles guide my work: responsibility, measure, and vision. Firstly, responsibility toward the territory, because nothing should be built before it is truly understood. Secondly, measure, because the most powerful architecture is not the one that shouts, but the one that endures. Lastly, vision, because to design means accepting the risk of the future. 

I do not believe in architecture that erases. I believe in architecture that transforms — that regenerates, that dialogues with memory and makes it contemporary. Every intervention must improve its context — socially, environmentally, and culturally. Today, architecture can no longer be merely beautiful. It must be right.

GDN: How do you balance environmental consciousness with client needs?

Flavian Basile: I do not “balance” sustainability and client needs. I unite them. Sustainability is not a limitation. It is the highest expression of design intelligence. A building that consumes less, lasts longer, adapts over time, and engages with climate and landscape is a building that creates real value — economic, social, and cultural.

My role is not to persuade clients to be sustainable. It is to demonstrate that not being sustainable is now a strategic mistake. Reducing demolitions, limiting land consumption, integrating greenery as living infrastructure, working on CO₂ absorption and environmental quality are not ideological choices, but rational decisions. The true luxury of our time is foresight.

 GDN: How did receiving the Europe 40 Under 40 award influence your path?

Flavian Basile: Receiving the Europe 40 Under 40 award was not an endpoint. It was an act of public responsibility. That recognition reminded me that every project speaks not only about me, but about the generation I represent. And a generation cannot afford superficiality. 

We live in a time when architecture is called upon to respond to climatic, social, and urban crises. To be recognized means being called to do more, to do better, with greater awareness. Awards are not meant to celebrate the past. They exist to raise the standards of the future.

GDN: What legacy do you hope your generation of architects will leave behind?

Flavian Basile: I hope our generation will be remembered for stopping the habit of building without thinking. For understanding that land is a finite resource. That landscape is a common good. That cities are not products but living organisms.

 I hope we leave behind an architecture capable of inclusion, of reducing inequalities, of restoring dignity to public space. Not self-referential icons. But recognizable, liveable, shared places.

If we can prove that beauty can be sustainable, that innovation can be respectful, and that progress can be human, then we will have done our part. Architecture should not celebrate the ego of those who sign it. It must serve both the time in which it is born and the time that will follow.