Designing an installation inside the Olivetti store is a difficult and complex challenge. Carlo Scarpa has designed every inch of this space that overlooks Piazza San Marco and is, rightly, a masterpiece of modern architecture. To fit into this context, we studied and measured the space to find the most suitable and least impactful ways of setting up. The chosen materials are iron and brass in the shades chosen by Scarpa for the metal supports and details.
The construction system of the set-up is that which concerns the mobile construction sites, to emphasize the temporality of our intervention but also to avoid any contact with the walls. The support shape for the exhibition contents is the square, a recurring shape in Scarpa’s drawing. The result is that of having suspended the panels, almost floating in the measured and contained space of the shop.
Daniele Lauria’s statement
“The idea for this exhibition was born about a year ago during the long ‘skype-calls’ with Doshi, Pritzker Prize 2018, and, above all, from the evocation of the fundamental themes of his architecture: respect for the ‘genius loci’, the ability to use local materials and techniques, the involvement of communities in the project, sustainability as a gesture of respect for nature and for future generations.
In summary: architecture as a responsible and collective gesture. A consideration that led me to reflect on the question posed by Hashim Sarkis (“How will we live together?”) and, in particular, on the last word which represents, I believe, the keystone for formulating answers to the complexities of contemporary living, especially in the light of the pandemic in progress.
Therefore, TOGETHER is not only the adverb that qualifies and specifies the purpose of new ways of living together, mainly in urban areas, but ends up being a noun that transforms humanity from a plurality of individuals (“I”) to a collective subject (“We”).
I want to thank in particular: Kengo Kuma for the enthusiastic participation, the “Casa da Arquitectura” for the precious testimonies of Paulo Mendes da Rocha and the family of German Samper to whom we owe not only unpublished images of the Unité d ‘Habitation in Marseille but also some of his extraordinary drawings on Venice, made in 1976 and already exhibited at the MOMA in New York.” Source by Studio Lauria Network.
- Location: Venice, Italy
- Design: Studio Lauria Network
- Design Team: Daniele Lauria with Laura Orrego Ramirez
- Production: DE CASTELLI
- Set-up: Re-biennale.org
- Lighting set-up: Martinelli Luce
- Year: 2022
- Photographs: Daniele Lauria, Paolo Sostenio, Courtesy of Studio Lauria Network
