Marco Casagrande

Marco Casagrande (born May 7, 1971) is a Finnish architect, environmental artist, architectural theorist, writer and professor of architecture. He graduated from Helsinki University of Technology department of architecture (2001).

Casagrande was born in Turku, Finland, to a well-off Finnish-Italian Catholic family. He spent his childhood in Ylitornio in Finnish Lapland, but went to school in Karis, a southern Finland small town, before moving to Helsinki to study architecture.

Casagrande claimed that he volunteered for the Bosnian Croat Defence Forces HVO in 1993 after his service in the Finnish Army. He wrote under the pen name Luca Moconesi a controversial book Mostarin tien liftarit / Hitchhikers on the Road to Mostar (WSOY 1997) about his alleged experiences in the Bosnian Civil War, and based on descriptions of war crimes committed by the main character in the autobiographical book, he came under suspicion as a possible war criminal. After becoming under suspicion he claimed that the book was in fact a work of fiction. The truth about Casagrande's involvement in the war remains uncertain.

Later Casagrande has expressed views condemning war crimes: "Those troops know that they are doing wrong. This is the very opposite of constructive collectivity and group spirit. Anybody can understand that it is by no measures militarily efficient to go kicking the doors of old people's home." Casagrande has been lecturing in the National Defence University of Finland since 2006 on courses of strategy and leadership.

...
Wikipedia