An exhibition on the development of the Vitra Site organized by Vitra Design Foundation in collaboration with ISR-Spazio Culturale Svizzero di Venezia photos by Olivo Barbieri, Gabriele Basilico, Giovanni Chiaramonte, Paola De Pietri

ISR-Spazio Culturale Svizzero di Venezia, Campo Sant’Agnese, Dorsoduro 810

September 12 - 30, 2008 daily 10:00-18:00 Opening event : September 11, at 19:00. Access with special invitation only

Jacques Herzog, Alejandro Aravena

A conference organized by Vitra Design Foundation in collaboration with Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, Aula Magna, Ex Ospedale degli Incurabili, Zattere, Dorsoduro 423 September 12, at 11:00

Vincenzo Casali, “Behind my back Vitra Headquarters by F.O. Gehry”: An outdoor installation by Vincenzo Casali with the support of Vitra Design Foundation, Comune di Venezia Galleria Contemporaneo Campo Sant’Agnese, Dorsoduro September 12 - November 30, 2008

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The “new projects” are the works planned and underway on the Vitra Campus at Weil am Rhein which, with buildings by Nicholas Grimshaw, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid and Álvaro Siza, is an icon of late-20th century architecture. The architectural complex and its context were the focus of an intense photographic campaign by photographers Olivo Barbieri, Gabriele Basilico, Giovanni Chiaramonte and Paola De Pietri. Now, for the first time, the exhibition presents a selection of the original photographic prints, accompanied by a comprehensive graphic description of both the Weil am Rhein and Birsfelden sites.

As well as illustrating and interpreting the reality, models and material describing the three new projects underway – by Herzog & de Meuron (Switzerland), SANAA (Japan) and Alejandro Aravena (Chile) respectively – illustrate the changes being made to the Vitra Campus and allow visitors to analyze the design approach of these leading lights of the international architectural scene.

The exhibition also responds to and interacts with the work by the architect Vincenzo Casali presented at the Galleria Contemporaneo of the Comune di Venezia and in a larger outdoor installation in Campo Sant’Agnese. Without actually showing them, his work evokes the Vitra headquarters built by Frank Gehry in Birsfelden, Switzerland, in 1994.

Completing the cycle of initiatives planned for the Architecture Biennale 2008 is a lecture by the architects Jacques Herzog and Alejandro Aravena, organized by the Vitra Design Foundation in collaboration with the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia and to be held in the Aula Magna of the academy headquarters in the former Ospedale degli Incurabili at 11am on 12 September.