Latest news with #CarloRatti
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
How to skip the tourist traps at the Venice Biennale: where to stay and what to eat, drink and see – from cicchetti and natural wines to the ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective' exhibition
As one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, Venice is, unsurprisingly, also one of the most polarising. Known in equal measure for its gorgeous, winding canals as for its expensive gondola rides, this is a city whose most compelling secrets are revealed only to those who actually take the time to research what's going on beneath its touristy surface. Tourists sail on a gondola along a canal in Venice. Photo: AFP Luckily, Venice also benefits from a vibrant arts and culture scene – one that's among the best in the world by modern standards. Historically, the city played a hugely influential role during the Italian Renaissance period and many relics of this legacy – from outstanding architecture to Murano glassware and Venetian paintings – still stand as major tourist draws today. And in 1895, the city played host to the very first Venice Biennale, now the oldest cultural exhibition of its kind in the world. Advertisement People visit the main exhibition, titled 'Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.' and curated by Italian architect-engineer Carlo Ratti, at the Corderie dell'Arsenale, on May 7. Photo: EPA-EFE The 19th edition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture – which opened on May 10 – runs until November 23 of this year. It's a prime moment for visitors seeking an alternative view of the city, focusing on its best arts and culture and eschewing the busy crowds of St Mark's Basilica and the Rialto Bridge. We're here to help you sift through what's really worth seeing, eating and drinking in this cultural capital of truly discreet – if not quite hidden – gems. Stay at Ca' di Dio Ca' di Dio is a charming, characterful hotel with views of the Venetian Lagoon. Photo: @cadidio_/Instagram An unassuming hotel occupying prime real estate just a 10-minute walk from St Mark's Square, Ca' di Dio boasts some of the best views on this side of the Venetian Lagoon from a discreet location along the popular Riva degli Schiavoni promenade. Don't be fooled by its relatively demure exteriors, however. This humble haven has plenty of character dating back to the 13th century. Spanish architect Patricia Urquiola brought much of this historic charm to life upon renovation, converting the former chapel into an impressive lobby that's equal parts expansive and intimate, with high ceilings, a healthy dose of natural light, and carefully curated artworks and coffee table books. The central courtyard provides much-needed respite from the heat of summer. This is an art lovers' hotel through and through, and the rooms feel somewhat like an art deco bohemian's paradise, contrary to the more stately and classical feel afforded by much of Venice's architecture. Red marble countertops in the bathroom and Murano lamps with a retro feel give the suites a truly lived-in atmosphere that you won't find at many of the city's more extravagant hotels. Accessible via private water taxi or the Arsenale ferry station, the hotel is the perfect home base from which to explore the Biennale, centrally located between its two most prominent venues, the Arsenale and the Giardini. Savour some cicchetti at Nevodi
Forbes
6 days ago
- Forbes
6 Intriguing Installations At The Venice Biennale Of Architecture 2025
Terms and Conditions, the immersive exhibition at the first room of the Corderie dell'Arsenale 'We shape our buildings and afterwards they shape us'. This seminal quote by Winston Churchill is often said in architecture gatherings because it rings true. This especially applies in Venice—a low-lying city built on a network of 150 canals and therefore one of the most susceptible to climate change. It's not surprising that the perils of a warming world inspired many of the installations at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, which runs in Venice until November 23, 2025. Curated by Carlo Ratti, this year's edition called for innovative design solutions to today's pressing challenges under the theme Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. With 750 participants, 300 projects and 66 national pavilions, there's plenty to explore from the Arsenale to the Giardini as well as the city beyond. Here are six standout installations and pavilions that tackled the timely topic of sustainability, circularity and climate change with flair. Terms and Conditions focuses on the omnipresence of air-conditioning in our modern life Setting the tone for the biennale, the opening room at Corderie dell'Arsenale holds an immersive exhibition by Transsolar, Bilge Kobas, Daniel A. Barber, and Sonia Seneviratne centered around a necessity today: air conditioning. Upon entering, one is plunged into darkness and greeted by palpable heat from air conditioning exhausts. One is also forced to focus the eye on dimly-lit pools—water that is generated by the constant air conditioning. By putting people on the other side of air conditioned comfort, the installation forces viewers to confront the reality of our modern life. Called Heatwave, the Bahrain pavilion received the Golden Lion for Best National Participation 2025 From collapsing glaciers in Switzerland to record-breaking temperatures in the Middle East, news on soaring heat are making headlines everywhere. This is exactly what Bahrain's national pavilion, entitled Heatwave, tackles head on. Curated by architect Andrea Faraguna, the site-specific installation showcases the design of public spaces and proposes innovative (and passive) ways to cool them. By sharing experimental solutions to tackle extreme heat conditions, the pavilion was given the Golden Lion for Best National Participation 2025. Elephant Chapel by Boonsem Premthada Architecture is made from elephant dung Reuse, reduce, recycle—the idea of circularity has been drilled into us for the longest time. It's a joy to find a playful idea that repurposes what is considered waste into something useful, even whimsical. Created by Boonsem Premthada Architecture, Elephant Chapel looks like an ordinary 4-meter arch built using organic materials. Organic it is indeed: the light bricks are made from elephant dung; they also resemble mud-bricks, which is a construction material that's been used in ancient buildings from Peru to Egypt. Build of Site, the Danish Pavilion at Venice Biennale of Architecture 2025 The travel industry might get the public blame but according to a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, 'The buildings and construction sector is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for a staggering 37% of global emissions.' This is what first comes to mind when you see the Danish Pavilion, which looks like it's in the middle of a renovation. Curated by architect Søren Pihlmann, the pieces used to create the installation were actually sourced from the scene itself. This drives home the point that there's immense potential in reusing existing materials and resources instead of always looking for something new. Canal Café, an installation by Diller Scofidio + Renfro Would you drink coffee made with Venice's grey-blue lagoon water? This crazy idea forms the backbone of Canal Cafè, an installation by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The premise is simple: to find a way to make existing water potable enough to create espressos (and yes, you can actually order one if you visit). The team set up a laboratory-like contraption at the edge of the Arsenale, which allows you to see the purification process as it unfolds. The machine draws water from the lagoon, it is purified naturally then treated with reverse osmosis and UV light to kill germs. With myriad potential applications, it's no surprise this innovation won the Golden Lion for the best participation. Building Biospheres, the Belgian pavilion at Venice Biennale of Architecture 2025 Developers, architects and designers have created buildings that have little to do with its environment. Biophilic architecture has resulted in a more sustainable approach, but structures that truly celebrate nature are few and far between. This missed connection is emphasized at the Belgian pavilion. Commissioned by the Flanders Architecture Institute and curated by Bas Smets and Stefano Mancus, the installation encourages everyone to look at nature not just as a backdrop, but as the main driver on how to build. Putting the spotlight on the growing field of 'plant intelligence', it shows there's still plenty to learn from Mother Earth. The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia runs until November 23, 2025
Globe and Mail
29-05-2025
- Globe and Mail
At the Venice Biennale, techno-utopianism takes centre stage
Inside a 400-year-old Venetian arsenal, a Bhutanese carver chisels a six-metre log while a robotic arm mimics his every move. Wood chips fly from freshly sculpted dragon wings. This duet of human and machine – courtesy of Bjarke Ingels Group – captures the tone of this year's Venice Biennale of Architecture. Under the theme 'Intelligens,' head curator Carlo Ratti has assembled a show about architecture, AI and 'collective intelligence,' and how they might solve the climate crisis. It's a sprawling, sometimes chaotic fair of ideas, as ever. But, you might ask: How does a robot carving replica dragons help save the world? An air of techno-utopianism spills through the main show and throughout the 65 national exhibitions, including Canada's. The exhibitions fill the Corderie, a 300-metre-long rope factory within Venice's historic Arsenale, with nearly 300 projects and 750 contributors. (A handful of Canadian practices make appearances, including Atelier Pierre Thibault and Reza Nik of SHEEEP.) Models, robots and vague promises of sustainability crowd the centuries-old hall, illuminated by brief AI-generated blurbs. Ratti, who runs the MIT Senseable City Lab, believes deeply in technological progress. Canadians may remember his contribution to Sidewalk Labs in Toronto: LED paving tiles that could reroute traffic at the tap of an iPad. (What could go wrong?) In one powerful moment, an installation led by architectural historian Daniel A. Barber, literally cranks up the heat: A battery of droning air conditioners pumps waste heat into the gallery, confronting visitors with the hidden costs of thermal comfort. Think about the future and you will begin to sweat. Over in the leafy Giardini, the heart of the exhibition, the Biennale's national pavilions offer other kinds of clarity. Belgium, led by landscape architect Bas Smets, uses an indoor garden to regulate temperature and interface with its climate-control system. The Danish team catalogues and disassembles the pieces of their 1950s modernist building in a circular design strategy. Germany reflects on the cooling potential of landscape. Meanwhile, Canada's building, in a corner of the Giardini, presents Picoplanktonics from Living Room Collective. Here, a series of structures, including swooping 3-D printed constructions, all carry a bacterium that can absorb carbon dioxide from the air. 'As an industry, we need to insist on establishing new norms,' explained the collective's leader, Andrea Shin Ling, who is a researcher at ETH Zurich. 'I hope we can prioritize a system that's less resource-intensive and prioritize ecological resilience.' (The collective also includes artist and curator Clayton Lee, and architects and academics Nicholas Hoban and Vincent Hui.) So how does this system perform its ecological work? The showpieces are three sinuous structures of 3-D-printed sand infused with Synechococcus PCC 7002, a species of picoplankton. 'It draws down carbon dioxide from the air, makes it react with calcium, magnesium and other ions in the salt water, and creates minerals that bind the sand more tightly together,' Ms. Shin Ling said. Those structures were created through parametric design software, a standard design tool that defines 3-D geometries based on specific constraints. Here the blobs are 'optimized' to expose as much surface area as possible for maximum air contact. There's art here as well as science. The blobs fall in a tradition of parametric design that goes back to the 1980s work of architects such as Zaha Hadid. As with much in Ratti's show, this reeks of tech for tech's sake. Give the blobs this much: They are elegant. Floating in a shallow pool of brown water, the forms stand at ease in the eccentric Canadian pavilion. The Italian architects BBPR designed the structure in the sixties with a tipi-like form; its semicircular shape and irregularly slanted roof have bedevilled curators ever since. 'What we're finding most interesting is how the exhibition is adapting around the architecture of the pavilion itself,' artist and team member Clayton Lee said. 'Where the light is hitting is where the bacteria are happiest.' The material's utility is another question. This goop grows very slowly; Shin Ling estimates 0.3 millimetres per year. To serve as a meaningful climate mitigation strategy, it would need to expand to a massive scale – imagine something as dull and replicable as solar panels. 'I'm not pretending this will replace concrete,' Shin Ling said. 'But it is something you can put on a building to draw down carbon dioxide continuously. Because it's photosynthetic, you don't have to feed it sugar or use energy-intensive systems.' And yet the installation is being maintained by five full-time staff and 21 student fellows. During the opening event, a staffer in a blue lab coat was spraying the mesh with a nutrient solution, tending it as one would a delicate flower. Q+A: Can architecture save the world? It's worth a try Opinion: Toronto firm LGA is one of the bright lights in Canadian architecture To be fair, architecture exhibitions always include research that veers toward art and others that flirt with technical and scientific research. Canada's theatrical science experiment fits well enough. It's not necessarily a wise choice, though. At the pavilion opening, Canada Council head Michelle Chawla said that 'architecture and design play a crucial role in introducing Canada to the world.' Indeed. But the Canada Council for the Arts has essentially abandoned architecture and landscape architecture in recent years. At the same time, Canadian architecture and the related fields are stagnant. For a generation now the country has smothered young design talent and fattened up a herd of corporate design firms. Canada needs a policy to create better places and incubate talent. Instead, its Biennale pavilion is incubating bacteria.
BBC News
26-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
'Maybe Venice is the city that can save the world'
The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, led by curator Carlo Ratti, explores design as a tool for survival. From climate-resilient innovations to indigenous wisdom, the Biennale invites artists, architects, and audiences to re-imagine the future—and insists that optimism is not just a perspective, but a duty. With over 750 participants, the Biennale becomes a global call to action rooted in urgency and reinvention.
South China Morning Post
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Style Edit: Rolex at the Venice Biennale – the brand champions sustainable architecture, showcasing innovative designs, local craftsmanship and cultural heritage through its Perpetual Arts Initiative
For more than half a century, Rolex has supported the artists and institutions who are doing most to advance and promote global cultural heritage. For over two decades, this support has taken the form of the Rolex Perpetual Arts Initiative , which partners with leaders in fields including architecture, cinema, dance, literature, music, theatre and the visual arts. The first of those has come dramatically to the forefront recently, as Rolex embedded itself deeply into the work of the 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture — the world's leading exhibition of the work of its most visionary and cutting edge architectural geniuses, featuring some 60 national pavilions, and the place where the luminaries of the architectural world meet and debate the future of the built environment. The event opened on May 10 and runs to November 23 this year. This edition of the biennale, curated by Italian architect, engineer and urban planner Carlo Ratti, focuses on sustainable architectural ideas that prepare humanity to adapt to the reality of climate change, under the theme 'Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective'. Advertisement The pavilion showcases a facade made from recycled wood that recalls Rolex's trademark fluted bezels. Photo: Handout Rolex has been the Exclusive Partner and Official Timepiece of the biennale since 2014, reflecting its appreciation of this most vital craft, one that dynamically shapes our interactions with the world and the ways in which people live their lives. There are also pertinent parallels with the world of fine watchmaking, which likewise requires a combination of creative vision and phenomenal technical skill, and which also has profound aesthetic implications. The floor of the Rolex pavilion is in dazzling terrazzo, made at Carobbio Manufatti in Italy. Photo: Handout Rolex has designed its pavilion at the event as a temple of sustainability, realised by local craftspeople using traditional building methods and recycled materials. The creation is by French-Nigerien architectural virtuoso Mariam Issoufou, who specialises in work that considers both the environmental conditions and the social and cultural background of each project, and showcases a wooden facade made from recycled wood that recalls Rolex's trademark fluted bezels. This is complemented by the pavilion's interior, which features a translucent ceiling made of Murano glass and dazzling terrazzo flooring. Venetian glassware by Vistosi for the Rolex pavilion at the 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture. Photo: Handout The displays inside similarly illuminate the transformative possibilities of architectural reinvention. Among them are a film about the making of the pavilion, with models that provide insight into how the design evolved, as well as pictures of the work of the local craftspeople who participated in its creation.
