On tour
“Together” Exhibition at Olivetti Showroom / Venice
IQD, FAI – Italian Environmental Fund – and the Association of Architects, Urban Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservation Architects of the Province of Venice present the exhibition “Together”, the contemporary way of living yesterday, today and tomorrow; a project designed and curated by Daniele Lauria.
The “Together” exhibition opened on September 14th inside the Olivetti showroom, a masterpiece of the twentieth century architecture designed by Carlo Scarpa in 1958 as a display space for the Olivetti products. The exhibition about the contemporary way of living yesterday, today and tomorrow, has been organized by our architecture magazine IQD, FAI, – Italian Environmental Fund – and the Association of Architects of Venice and curated by Daniele Lauria. It will be open until November 21st.
“Together” has been conceived to offer a contribution to the debate arisen around the subject chosen by Hashim Sarkis for the Venice Architecture Biennale (“How will we live together?”) through the three sections – Yesterday, Today, For Venice – of the exhibition which involve architects and urban planners from all over the world.
Generated by the dialogue between the curator and the 2018 Pritzker Prize Laureate, Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi, published on IQD, the exhibition starts from Sarkis’s question to emphasize the word “Together” as the keystone to formulate answers capable of elaborating the complexity aggravated by the ongoing pandemic. A reflection that starts from fundamental themes such as the respect for the ‘genius loci’, the use of local materials and techniques, the involvement of communities in the projects, sustainability as a gesture of respect for nature and for the future generations. And the urgency to find new ways of using the urban space and new forms of collective life is the common element that characterizes all the projects exhibited in the three different sections.
The exhibition path
Yesterday
On the ground floor of the space designed by Carlo Scarpa there is on show a series of projects, sometimes little known in Europe, which suggest solutions for buildings, neighborhoods and cities based on models of participation and sociality. There are not only the famous Unité d’Habitation by Le Corbusier, of which some never-before-published photos of the construction site are exhibited, or the Viennese examples of “social housing”, but also works by Hassan Fathy, Vilanova Artigas, Lina Bo Bardi, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Giovanni Michelucci and a sample of the experimental project of PREVI – Proyecto Experimental de Vivienda, in Lima, which involved the most authoritative architects of the world.
Today
Reserved for works that have been completed recently or are still in the design phase, this section hosts a reflection on the involvement of local communities, on the prominence of the public spaces, on sustainability understood as collective responsibility and on restoration and adaptive reuse of the existing buildings. Therefore there are also schools and museums, infrastructures, places of worship and cultural spaces. Among the latter, there is a small yet highly interesting selection of theaters, whose great social value we have understood during the prolonged closure due to the ongoing pandemic.
For Venice
The selection of drawings and projects on the past and future of this city is dedicated to Venice. As part of the yesterday section, there are some of the Venetian drawings by German Samper, an exclusive for Italy, Gino Valle‘s project for the Giudecca houses and a contribution by Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Instead, the “visions” of a series of architects selected by the curator and the Association of Architects of Venice, referred to today and to the future, prefigure new scenarios of sociality, new ways of sharing the urban space, new forms of collective life.
The exhibition design is by Studio Lauria Network, and it has been engineered and built by De Castelli, with the support of Martinelli Luce for the lighting design. The exhibition was also realized thanks to the support of Barausse, FranchiUmbertoMarmi and Tabu.
We thank the many professionals who honored us with their presence at the Gala Opening and invite you to visit the exhibition, open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6.30 pm until 21 November 2021 at the Olivetti Showroom in St. Mark Square 101, Venice.
