Gli Archi di Aldo Rossi

The 3rd International Architecture Exhibition, called Project Venezia, included an international competition for which Aldo Rossi invited well known architects, but also younger ones, to present ideas and innovative projects for the upgrading or transformation of specific areas of Venice and its hinterland. An international jury was appointed, with the task of selecting the best proposals, consisting of Aldo Rossi as president, Sandro Benedetti, Gianfranco Caniggia, Claudio D'Amato, Guglielmo De Angelis D'Ossat, Diane Ghirardo, Bernard Huet, Robert Krier, Rafael Moneo, Werner Oechslin, Gino Valle.

The areas that were the subject of competition were both in Venice, such as the Accademia Bridge, Rialto Market, Ca 'Venier dei Leoni, in Veneto, Piazza Badoere, Piazza d'Este, Villa Farsetti, Palmanova Squares, Castles of Juliet and Romeo, Rocca di Noale, Prato della Valle.

In a city that exhibited its antimodernism and where it was difficult, if not impossible, to create new architectures, the challenge and the opportunity to reinvent the urban spaces offered by Project Venezia received a very high number of memberships: there were about 1,500 participants from all around the world.

The "Stone Lions" for the Project Venezia winners were awarded to:

Robert Venturi, Manuel Pascal Schupp, COPRAT, Franco Purini (Ponte dell’Accademia)

Raimund Abraham, Raimund Fein, Peter Nigst, Giangiacomo D'Ardia (Ca 'Venier dei Leoni)

Alberto Ferlenga (Este's Square)

Daniel Liebeskind (Palmanova Square)

Laura Foster Nicholson (Villa Farsetti in Santa Maria di Sala)

Maria Grazia Sironi and Peter Eisenman (Castles of Juliet and Romeo at Montecchio Maggiore).

Attributed to the "Stone Lion", Rossi made a selection of many other projects that he felt most significant. For each of these, a poster was created with the tables that best identified the project. The posters were printed in many copies with lithographic technique, and they were covered with "arches" arranged at the entrance of the Gardens of the Biennale along the avenue to the Central Pavilion. The exhibition features 70 posters of the selected works and some of the winning projects.

Finally, the exhibition is enriched with archive material consisting of folding, mapping, photographs and materials provided by the Biennale to the participants in order to facilitate the documentation and knowledge of the historical sites. Is the text by Aldo Rossi on the 3rd International Architecture Exhibition - Venice Project, of the Final Verdict of the jury's work (18 July 1985), press release and press review of that time.

The exhibition

The exhibition opens at the entrance of Ca 'Giustinian, where on 10 screens are played the slides of projects that could not be exhibited and that Aldo Rossi himself summarized in a "multivision" ante litteram.

In the room on the left of the Portego there is a selection of projects and documents stored in ASAC, such as:

- a photographic sequence that documents the salient moments of the set up work of the 3rd International Architecture Exhibition and the shots made at the inauguration;

- drawings and photographs of the winning projects of the competition:

. Three drawings of the project for the Palmanova Squares of Daniel Libeskind, Donald Oster, Karl Fredrickson, Jim Cooper, Sixto Beltrandy, Ken Fukishima, Hani Rashid, Lori Rubeling, Ross Yerian, Thomas Han, FRANK Fantauzzi, Hal Laessig, Tom Bish, Koichiro Tanaka, Lovrka Knezevic,

- 20 photographs by Luigi Ghirri made for the covers of the catalog sections of the 3rd Show.

There are also some boards and a plastic of the winning projects of the competition, such as:

- the plastic design of Raimund Fein's Ca 'Venier Leoni,

- the perspective from Villa Pisani towards the meadow and the theater of the project for Alberto Ferlenga's Piazza d'Este, Gianluca Mondini, Carla Celli, Massimo Erba, Riccardo Giraffa, Ferruccio Mainetti, Grazia Manara,

- the project table The split arch: the building on the water of Franco Purini (collaborators Maurizio Morandi, Gianfranco Neri, Efisio Pitzalis, consultant of structures Riccardo Morandi)

- the table of the Accademia Bridge of Coprat Associati,

- three drawings of the project 10 nautical stations for Raimund Abraham's Venetian land.