Archinect - News

Pope Francis announces return of Parthenon fragments in a potential precedent-setter

2022-12-20T18:39:00-05:00

Pope Francis will send back to Greece the three fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures that the Vatican Museums have held for two centuries, in the latest case of a Western museum bowing to demands for restitution of artifacts to their countries of origin.

The bequest was labeled a “donation” from the Vatican by Pope Francis, who also called it “a concrete sign of [his] sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth.”

The British Museum, meanwhile, is also reportedly in talks with Greece to return parts of its argued-over trove of Elgin Marbles as early as next year. A timeline for the Vatican's return to the Acropolis Museum has not yet been verified by either party.

Previously on Archinect: The British Museum is under fire after refusing Parthenon Marbles 3D scan

Pope Francis moves the Vatican's cultural program forward with a new contemporary art space

2021-11-11T09:00:00-05:00

The Vatican is making another foray into contemporary art with the launch of a dedicated space for exhibitions of works by 21st-century artists. [...] The move comes after the Vatican Museums cancelled an exhibition in 2018 of works by Andy Warhol which was intended to explore the Pop artist’s “spiritual side”.

The transformation of a hall in the Vatican’s historical Apostolical Library was underwritten in part by the heirs of US film producer and philanthropist Kirk Kerkorian. Pope Francis has been behind the push to incorporate contemporary artists into the Vatican’s cultural program since his ascension eight years ago. The new space will be inaugurated with an exhibition from Rome-based artist Pietro Ruffo titled Everyone: Humanity on the Move on view until February 25th.

“I appreciate this endeavour to open a dialogue. Life is the art of encounter. Cultures become sick when they become self-referential… when they exclude instead of integrate,” the Pontiff said at last week’s unveiling of the new exhibition space. “We are in need of a new beauty.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Vatican Library (@bibliotecaapostolicavaticana)

Pope Francis greens Vatican Gardens

2019-08-11T12:00:00-04:00

The head of the Vatican’s extensive gardens has announced an initiative, already underway, to totally eliminate the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

The use of chemical substances at the 37-acre Vatican Gardens has fallen by 96-percent since an effort to reduce the use of these toxic substances was started back in 2017.

"Under the initiative, the Vatican Gardens has adopted the use of organic products to eliminate destructive insects, and has changed its strategy so as to help the plants help themselves," writes Aleteia editor, Zelda Caldwell.

The Vatican picks Norman Foster, Eduardo Souto de Moura + others to present chapels at the 2018 Venice Biennale

2018-01-16T18:59:00-05:00

The Vatican has announced that it will be participating in this year's Venice Architecture Biennale. They have previously had a presence at the International Exhibition of Art of the Biennale di Venezia, but it will be the first time ever the city-sized country has had a pavilion at architecture's version of the event

Overseen by the Italian curator and architecture historian Francesco Dal Co, the pavilion will involve 10 chapels, each one designed by an architect from a different country. In the spirit of Catholic generosity, the chapels are also to be relocated to places in need of spaces of worship after the biennale is over.

The ten architects building chapels are as follows:

Smiljan Radic, Chile
Carla Juaçaba, Brazil
Javier Corvalán, Paraguay
Sean Godsell, Australia
Eva Prats & Ricardo Flores, Spain
Eduardo Souto de Moura, Portugal
Francesco Cellini, Italy
Norman Foster, United Kingdom
Andrew Berman, USA
Terunobu Fujimori, Japan

Pope Francis calls for "morally driven" city design in his climate-change encyclical

2015-06-19T15:07:00-04:00

Collectively, the encyclical affirms how important it is to make the moral case for city design. Too often, developers, urban planners and city leaders seem to think that it is obvious or implied why the decisions they make are in the best interest of the public. But there is no shortcut to articulating why our planning choices speak to the fundamental human dignity of the communities we’re working in.

"Given the interrelationship between living space and human behaviour, those who design buildings, neighbourhoods, public spaces and cities, ought to draw on the various disciplines which help us to understand people’s thought processes, symbolic language and ways of acting. It is not enough to seek the beauty of design. More precious still is the service we offer to another kind of beauty: people’s quality of life, their adaptation to the environment, encounter and mutual assistance. Here too, we see how important it is that urban planning always take into consideration the views of those who will live in these areas."

Pope Francis tells it like it is in his latest 184-page encyclical, in response to humanity's "principal challenge" of global climate change.

Vatican's Renovated Public Restrooms Provides Showers, Haircuts for the Homeless

2015-02-18T15:02:00-05:00

The Vatican said Friday it had finished renovations on public restrooms just off St. Peter's Square that will include three showers and a free barber shop for the city's neediest. Each "homeless pilgrim," as the Vatican called the clients, will receive a kit including a towel, change of underwear, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, razor and shaving cream. The showers will be open every day but Wednesday, when the piazza is full for the pope's general audience. Haircuts will be available Mondays.

The sleek, clean facilities – with grey walls, white washbasins and a "hi-tech looking" barber's chair – opened two days ago. According to Pope Francis' chief alms-giver, Monsignor Konrad Krajewski, the initiative is intended to help the homeless secure jobs and residences, something that is often incredibly difficult if they are perceived as dirty and smelly. Staffed by volunteer barbers, the facilities will be open everyday except Wednesday, when Bernini's famous square is filled with people attending the Pope's general addresses.

Emerging out of the new Pope's stated imperative to (re)orient the Catholic Church around its poorest constituents, the bathrooms come after the Church recently distributed umbrellas and sleeping bags to the homeless. Additionally, over Christmas, the Church distributed 1,600 phone cards to migrants – chiefly Muslim and from North Africa – on the island of Lampedusa.

Projects like the new bathroom facilities are a great way to address the issue of homeles...