Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Rolex Pavilion
Rolex Pavilion
Venice, Italy
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Other Projects by Mariam Issoufou Architects
Rolex Pavilion
Venice, Italy
The 2025 Rolex Pavilion is an ode to sustainability, to the city of Venice and its deep-seated relationship to the art of making. The design departure was the shape of Venice itself, an island sinuously split in half by the Grand Canal, inspiring a form and space to hold exhibitions for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition.
Collaboration with local artisans and makers, as well as material reuse, is at the heart of the Rolex Pavilion. The Venetian glass masters, Vistosi, created the circular glass discs that make up the ceiling of the pavilion, and extend the language of the tree leaves dangling above. The translucent coloured ceiling provides abundant dappled natural light that morphs along the Earth’s natural cycle as the day moves from light to dark. Glass is front of mind on the floor as well, where the terrazzo employs recycled glass shards from Murano as aggregate, while the overall metal structure of the project is composed of bolted fully recyclable steel. An embodiment of material circularity and the folding capacity of time, 200-year-old Venetian Palazzi wood beams are repurposed and transformed into walls for the pavilion, maintaining a connection to the city’s deep architectural history.
The articulation and opacity of the form is ultimately a nod to Italian architect, Carlo Scarpa, who was deeply influenced by the history of Venetian culture, its landscape and its materiality. The exhibition within is orchestrated in a fluid manner starting with a look behind Rolex’s newly crafted flagship stores in Milan and Tokyo. The opposite end of the pavilion showcases the work of this year’s Rolex Architecture Protégé, Lebanese architect Arine Aprahamian, who was mentored by French architect and educator, Anne Lacaton.
Carlo Ratti’s theme for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition is “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.” Through it, Ratti draws our attention to architecture’s ability to respond to a hostile climate while leading with optimism, and the need for an adaptation that requires not only a fundamental shift in our practice but collaborations across different forms of intelligences as well. The pavilion fits this mandate well as an opportunity to apply the firm’s intersectional approach to sustainability to the Rolex Pavilion, ensuring the project extends beyond environmental factors to impact the socio-economic and cultural fabric of the region.
Collaboration with local artisans and makers, as well as material reuse, is at the heart of the Rolex Pavilion. The Venetian glass masters, Vistosi, created the circular glass discs that make up the ceiling of the pavilion, and extend the language of the tree leaves dangling above. The translucent coloured ceiling provides abundant dappled natural light that morphs along the Earth’s natural cycle as the day moves from light to dark. Glass is front of mind on the floor as well, where the terrazzo employs recycled glass shards from Murano as aggregate, while the overall metal structure of the project is composed of bolted fully recyclable steel. An embodiment of material circularity and the folding capacity of time, 200-year-old Venetian Palazzi wood beams are repurposed and transformed into walls for the pavilion, maintaining a connection to the city’s deep architectural history.
The articulation and opacity of the form is ultimately a nod to Italian architect, Carlo Scarpa, who was deeply influenced by the history of Venetian culture, its landscape and its materiality. The exhibition within is orchestrated in a fluid manner starting with a look behind Rolex’s newly crafted flagship stores in Milan and Tokyo. The opposite end of the pavilion showcases the work of this year’s Rolex Architecture Protégé, Lebanese architect Arine Aprahamian, who was mentored by French architect and educator, Anne Lacaton.
Carlo Ratti’s theme for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition is “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.” Through it, Ratti draws our attention to architecture’s ability to respond to a hostile climate while leading with optimism, and the need for an adaptation that requires not only a fundamental shift in our practice but collaborations across different forms of intelligences as well. The pavilion fits this mandate well as an opportunity to apply the firm’s intersectional approach to sustainability to the Rolex Pavilion, ensuring the project extends beyond environmental factors to impact the socio-economic and cultural fabric of the region.
Product Spec Sheet
Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.