The Vatican will participate for the first time in the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale ! The announcement was made last Wednesday, the 20th, during a press conference at the Holy See. The event will take place between May 26th and September 25th, at the Giardini di Castello. Giardini di Castello, em Veneza (Reprodução)
The Vatican will have a special pavilion, the Vatican Chapels , and has selected 10 architects from around the world to design them. With representatives from five continents, the spaces promise to bring together diverse cultural references. During the construction process, the professionals must consider reassembling the chapels in other locations, taking into account that some of them may travel after the end of the Biennale or even be rebuilt in Italian communities that have been victims of earthquakes in recent years. The buildings will be located on the Isla di San Giorgio Maggiore, next to the Basilica Palladiana, by Andrea Palladio. Basílica Palladina (Reprodução)
According to Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's minister of culture, the pavilion was inspired by the Woodland Chapel in Stockholm, designed by Swiss architect Gunnar Asplund. The cardinal recently complained that modern churches are "ugly and not pleasant or welcoming to pray in" and hopes that the Vatican Chapels will restore the dialogue between the sacred and architecture. Under the curatorship of architectural historian Francesco Dal Co, important names were selected for the projects. Among them are Andrew Berman, from the United States; Carla Juaçaba from Brazil; Eduardo Souto de Moura, from Portugal; Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores - Flores & Prats office, from Spain; Francesco Cellini, from Italy; Javier Corvalán, from Paraguay; Norman Foster, from the United Kingdom; Sean Godsell, from Australia; Smiljan Radic, from Chile and Teronobu Fujimori, from Japan. Eduardo Moura and Norman Foster are winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Foster even designed the building that received CASACOR Rio de Janeiro 2017 . AQWA Corporate, de Norman Foster, no Rio de Janeiro (Reprodução)
The Brazilian architect has already revealed her project for the construction of the chapel. It will be made up of four square beams, measuring 12 x 12 cm and eight meters long, which form two crosses: one standing upright and the other lying down. The horizontal cross serves as a bench and the other as the cross itself, bringing two important elements of the Catholic church into its construction. Projeto de Carla Juaçaba visto de frente (Reprodução)
The chapel will be raised off the ground and built on concrete sleepers, meter by meter. The beams are made of polished stainless steel and transformed into mirrors that reflect the surroundings. The chapel may “disappear” at times, depending on the reflections of the sun and trees, and the viewer’s point of view. Projeto de Carla Juaçaba visto de cima (Reprodução)
