It will bring together leading international voices, including:

RAFFAELLA LAEZZA, Scientific Director of the Forum and coordinator of the Master’s in Emergency Temporary Circular Architecture (2011–2024), IUAV University of Venice;
PETER EISENMAN, special guest del Forum, special guest, Professor at Yale School of Architecture, New Haven;
WALTER MARIOTTI, Domus Editorial Director;
CLAUDIA CHIAPPINO, Mining Engineer;
FRANCESCO CANALI, Engineer, Director of Construction at the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano;
KINUE HORIKAWA, Angelo Mangiarotti Foundation;
NAJLA EL ZEIN, Designer, Amsterdam/Beirut;
SUGURU WATANABE, Kengo Kuma and Associates, Tokyo;
ANGELA VETTESE, Professor of Visual Arts at IUAV University;
CHRISTIAN PONGRATZ, Director of the M.S. in Architecture, Health & Design, New York Institute of Technology;
MARIA PERBELLINI, Dean, School of Architecture and Design, NYIT;
PETER HARRISON, Stone Consultant, London;
GIOVANNI SANTAMARIA, Associate Dean for Academic Operations, NYIT School of Architecture and Design.

Highly resistant to saltwater corrosion and easily transported across the Adriatic from the Balkan coast, Istrian stone lends a restrained elegance to many of Venice’s most iconic monuments. It features prominently in St Mark’s Basilica—where it is set alongside ornate Oriental polychrome marbles—and defines the harmonious white arcades of the Procuratie Vecchie and Nuove that frame St Mark’s Square. The stone also forms the colonnaded base of the Doge’s Palace, graces the façades of Palladio’s Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore and Church of the Redeemer, and is integral to the structure of the Rialto Bridge. Moreover, it is widely used in the city’s paving, culminating at the edges in distinctive stone inlays known as risse.

The tradition of using Istrian stone in Venice is so deeply rooted that no prestigious contemporary project in the city has dared to overlook it. This is evident in several notable examples: Cino Zucchi’s celebrated residential complex in Giudecca, known for its refined stone details; David Chipperfield’s restoration of the Procuratie Vecchie, where local stone was used for the internal arches; Michele De Lucchi’s work on the Cini Foundation, which retained stone elements to remain consistent with the original structure; and Santiago Calatrava’s Constitution Bridge, where Istrian stone—already present in some architectural details—is set to replace the much-debated glass walkway.

Stone also plays an integral role in the current Architecture Biennale, curated by Carlo Ratti. Titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective, the exhibition calls for an evolution of architecture in response to ongoing climatic and social transformations. Within this vision—particularly in the section dedicated to “Natural Intelligence”—stone is highlighted for its essential qualities and long-term sustainability. Beyond the central exhibition, natural stone also appears in several national pavilions: in the Spanish pavilion as a locally sourced material, and in the British pavilion as a symbol of colonial legacy.

Yet Venice’s cultural landscape extends well beyond monuments, contemporary buildings, and the Biennale. While Carlo Scarpa’s deep connection with stone naturally draws attention to the exhibition Il Correr di Carlo Scarpa 1953–1960 at the Museo Correr, dedicated to his pioneering museographic work, other exhibitions—though less directly connected to stone—are equally evocative. Among them are Diagrams, hosted by the Venetian branch of the Fondazione Prada and curated by Rem Koolhaas with AMO/OMA, which explores the expressive power of infographics in shaping our understanding of the world; and Thomas Schütte: Genealogies at Punta della Dogana, a retrospective spanning over five decades of an artist whose sculptural practice is so conceptually radical that it deliberately excludes the material most traditionally associated with sculpture: natural stone.