PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY

The Star

14-07-2025

Purposeful and visually striking, well-designed buildings have the capacity to create emotional connections between people and communities.
Rolex, partnering some of the world's most talented artists and leading cultural institutions for more than half a century, champions architectural achievement at the highest level.
Architecture responds to our human and environmental challenges, and profoundly influences our experience of public and private spaces.
Akin to creating timeless watches, architectural masterpieces require meticulous attention to detail, from planning to execution, ensuring structural integrity and aesthetic harmony.
Rolex Pavilion, 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
Partnership with the Biennale Architettura
Since 2014, Rolex has served as Exclusive Partner and Official Timepiece of the
Biennale Architettura, the world's leading forum for architectural ideas and debate.
The Biennale Architettura 2025 exhibition, held in Venice, Italy, was launched on May 10, 2025 and runs until Nov 23, 2025. The exhibition titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective is curated by acclaimed Italian architect and engineer Carlo Ratti.
Ratti has asked for ideas on how the built environment can be adapted sustainably in the face of a warming world, with some 60 countries mounting a national pavilion in the exhibition, each of which chooses its own curator and exhibitors.
Anne Lacaton (left) and Arine Aprahamian, Architects.
Made to last
Replacing the previous structure built in 2018, the Rolex Pavilion has been reimagined along principles of sustainability, using local craftspeople, traditional building methods and recycled materials.
Talented international architect Mariam Issoufou was invited by Rolex to design the pavilion to reflect the brand's identity and its philosophy of sustainability that stems from creating watches that are made to last.
Issoufou, an academic and architectural leader who puts intersectional sustainability at the heart of all projects, runs a practice that extends from Niamey to Zurich and New York.
Mariam Issoufou, Architect.
She founded Mariam Issoufou Architects in 2014, with one of her completed projects named the Hikma Community Complex, a library and mosque complex in Niger, which won two global LafargeHolcim Awards for sustainable architecture.
In 2020, she was named as one of 15 Creative Women Of Our Time by The New York Times.
The ecological vulnerability of Venice, as well as Rolex's commitment to craft, was her inspiration for the pavilion.
Her approach to sustainability is one that extends beyond environmental factors, ensuring that the pavilion promotes the social fabric, cultural history and economic conditions of crafters in Italy, and more specifically in Venice itself.
The pavilion features a wooden facade, crafted locally from recycled wood beams and fashioned to evoke the fluted bezel of many of Rolex's iconic watches.
Inside, the translucent coloured ceiling – made by Murano glassmakers – produces a range of shades and hues that morph throughout the day.
The terrazzo flooring is made of an aggregate that includes recycled 'Cottisso' crushed glass.
Variety of displays
Alongside models showing the evolution of its design, a film about the construction of the pavilion will be on display.
Images of work carried out by Italian craftspeople who live in or near Venice, and who supplied artisanal materials, will also be included.
Reclaiming space in Beirut, an exhibition by French architect Anne Lacaton, espouses building renewal over demolition.
Named a Laureate of the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize along with her partner Jean-Philippe Vassal, Lacaton is recognised internationally for designs that maximise the discipline's human and environmental potential and make sustainable use of what already exists.
In 2025, she received the Jane Drew Prize for Architecture awarded for raising the profile of women in architecture.
Rolex Boutique, Milan.
Through Rolex, in 2023 and 2024, she mentored young Lebanese-Armenian architect Arine Aprahamian.
In a documentary Aprahamian directed, Bourj Hammoud: The Value Of The Existing , she presents her two-year research project under the guidance of Lacaton.
The project explores how small and strategic interventions can improve daily life in Bourj Hammoud, a dense neighbourhood of Beirut where she grew up.
The architect, designer and researcher champions an innovative, affordable and sustainable vision of the future through architecture, drawing inspiration from science fiction and the qualities of existing sites.
She founded architecture and design studio Muller Aprahamian with partner Adrian Muller in 2018, working on cutting-edge buildings and proposals, as well as on forward-thinking projects with notable designers, artists and institutions.
They recently launched Terraforma, an in-house R&D project working with local industry to explore the traditional, ancient building material of clay and produce innovative, domestic alternatives for architectural materials.
Noteworthy enhancements
Rolex's tradition of exquisite craftsmanship is revealed in the refurbishment of two boutiques, through samples of materials and two films displayed in the pavilion.
In Milan, an extensive restoration of a Rolex boutique in the world-renowned Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, offers a new language for retail space design.
This is based on the enhancement for traditional Italian craftsmanship and a selection of refined materials and custom furniture.
ACPV Architects Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel's design was inspired by the original architectural details of the gallery, reviving its Milanese atmosphere in a contemporary key, while preserving the historic value of the location.
Rolex Boutique,Tokyo.
The boutique extends across three floors, and the restoration concept was designed to create a seamless continuity between the Galleria and the retail space, integrating patterns, geometry and Venetian terrazzo flooring to maintain a strong connection with its surroundings.
In Tokyo, the new Rolex flagship store features a facade that shimmers with a unique double bezel pattern thanks to metal mesh produced in Kyoto and embedded in the glass.
In a kinetic effect, the pattern changes depending on the viewer's angle.
Occupying four floors of the Rolex Tower, the facade and store were designed by Gwenael Nicolas of Tokyo-based design studio Curiosity, who worked with local artisans and artists.
Delicate aesthetics are created by the subtle palette of carefully selected materials: travertine, Sen wood and frosted glass. Traditional Nishijin-ori fabric and deep green furniture with a lacquer-like texture provide a distinctly Japanese feel.
Perpetual Arts Initiative
Rolex celebrates achievement, recognising how the journey is marked by milestones, culminating in moments of success – defined by a path followed, not just an award.
Through the Rolex Perpetual Arts Initiative, a broad portfolio of arts that extends through architecture, cinema, dance, literature, music, theatre and visual arts, the brand confirms its long-term commitment to global culture.
In all these endeavours, Rolex supports excellence in the arts and the passing of knowledge to future generations, who in turn pass on the world's cultural legacy.