Architect Stefano Boeri has responded to charges of alleged bid-rigging in relation to his role as the jury chair for a 2022 competition to design the new European Library of Information and Culture (BEIC) in Milan.

The 66-year-old Boeri told the Italian news agency ANSA this week, “I am calm and confirm my complete willingness to cooperate with the competent authorities to provide all the information in my possession in order to clarify a situation that I find unbelievable,” before saying he would not provide any further comments at this time. 

The allegations were made public as news of an investigation on the part of local tax police broke earlier in the week. Boeri’s role in the investigation remains unclear, however, the “conflict of interest” at the center of the case reportedly includes “false declarations regarding the identity or personal qualities of oneself or others.” The connection architects Angelo Raffaele Lunati and Giancarlo Floridi, whose firm Onsitestudio was awarded the bid, have to Boeri and fellow juror Cino Zucchi via the Politecnico di Milano seems to be the focus of the investigation. A total of 44 entries were submitted overall. 

The project is expected to cost €101 million, equal to about $106 million USD. Its scope entails a split-volume glass and steel greenhouse-topped design that will be located at a disused 30,000-square-meter lot in the center of Milan’s Porta Vittoria district. Funding for its design was included as part of the Italian government’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan. It is unclear whether the investigation has put a pause on the project, which has set an anticipated completion date of 2026.

Boeri recently completed work on his latest iteration of the Vertical Forest concept in Hubei, China. No other comments or information about the BEIC investigation were made available as of press time.