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An installation by Daniele Lauria pays homage to Carlo Scarpa

“To design a set-up for temporary exhibitions and events inside the family Olivetti store was a difficult, complex challenge.” Daniele Lauria, founder of Studio Lauria Network, had to come to terms with a masterpiece of Italian 20th-century architecture and its maker. The Olivetti store, under the porticos of the Procuratie Vecchie in Venice, was designed by Carlo Scarpa in 1958 as a showroom for the office machines of the Ivrea-based company; after years of abandon, the space was restored and given back to the city by Assicurazioni Generali, which then turned it over to FAI for management and programming. During the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, Daniele Lauria was asked to create a set-up inside the space for the exhibition “Together” organized by FAI, the Architects Association of Venice and the magazine IQD. The new arrangement could then be reutilized for other exhibitions and events.

  Together Exhibition, Venezia, Italy, Studio Lauria Network - Daniele Lauria - Image copyright:©Paolo Sostenio
Together Exhibition, Venezia, Italy, Studio Lauria Network - Daniele Lauria - Image copyright:©Paolo Sostenio

The displays are inserted in a discreet way in the architectural setting, generating minimum impact and never interfering with volumes, transparent parts or decorative elements specified by Scarpa when he reorganized what was once a dark, cramped space. The construction system of the new set-up references worksite scaffolding, to underline the temporary nature of the project, but also to prevent any contact with the walls. The panels applied over the walls thus seem to float in a measured space.

  Together Exhibition, Venezia, Italy, Studio Lauria Network - Daniele Lauria - Image copyright:©Paolo Sostenio
Together Exhibition, Venezia, Italy, Studio Lauria Network - Daniele Lauria - Image copyright:©Paolo Sostenio

The details and forms painstakingly invented by the team of Studio Lauria also pay tribute to the great master, starting with the selected materials (in partnership with De Castelli for the production), namely iron and brass in the same hues applied by Scarpa. The square geometry of the supports for the exhibition contents links back to a recurring shape in Scarpa’s poetics, which defines the spaces of the store themselves.

  Together Exhibition, Venezia, Italy, Studio Lauria Network - Daniele Lauria - Image copyright:©Paolo Sostenio
Together Exhibition, Venezia, Italy, Studio Lauria Network - Daniele Lauria - Image copyright:©Paolo Sostenio

This widespread natural image brings a warm tone to the environment, otherwise organized in black and white for the perimeter framing and the furniture, where the transparency of glass establishes subdivisions of the zones. The sustainable approach is highlighted by the insertion of botanical panels built into the wooden screens: the vegetation absorbs the humidity naturally present in the spaces, without any need for direct watering.

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