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This post is brought to you by Ceramics of Italy What began as a joint venture between Confindustria Ceramica and the Italian Trade Agency in 1994 to celebrate the work of North American architects and designers using Italian ceramic tile has evolved into a 30-year survey of the built... View full entry
UK-based studio VATRAA has created a monument in Milan, Italy composed of thousands of plastic water bottles. The installation, titled Plastic Monument, seeks to bring attention to the issue of plastic pollution. “Some plastics last up to 1000 years in our landfills and oceans while others might... View full entry
The real value of one of the world’s most well-recognized historic sites is now officially set after the global financial consultancy Deloitte published their assessment of Rome’s ancient Colosseum on Monday. According to Deloitte, the nearly 2,000-year-old Flavian amphitheater is worth... View full entry
A trial has opened in the Italian city of Genoa over the collapse of the Morandi Bridge. A total of 59 people are facing charges over the collapse, which killed 43 people on August 14th, 2018. As reported by Reuters, the defendants are facing a range of charges from manslaughter to making false... View full entry
Lanfranco Cirillo, the designer of a mysterious 18,000 sq. m mansion on the Black Sea that many believe was built for the Russian President Vladimir Putin, is being investigated by the Italian authorities for allegedly failing to pay a €50m tax bill. Officials raided the 63-year-old Italian architect’s own sizeable villa in February, where they discovered and confiscated a treasure trove of works by artists including Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, [and] Wassily Kandinsky. — The Art Newspaper
The architect’s private helicopter was also confiscated by Italian authorities, who have been on a tear as of late, seizing yachts and other luxury items from Russian nationals associated with President Vladimir Putin. Cirillo is well known as the man behind the biggest gem in Putin’s... View full entry
Cathedrals, churches and basilicas across Italy are at risk of being razed by earthquakes that could strike at any moment. But the government is on a mission to protect some of the country’s most significant and vulnerable religious buildings from disastrous seismic shocks. A new national project backed with €250m from Italy’s multibillion-euro pot of EU Covid-19 recovery funding is unprecedented in Europe for its scale and reach, officials believe. — The Art Newspaper
In one of Europe’s most earthquake-prone countries, the anti-seismic plan will allow the Italian culture ministry’s heritage safety department to distribute resources around the country that will mitigate the impact of future disasters. Straps and chains will be wrapped around bell towers... View full entry
One of the most successful recent additions to the European cultural scene is about to grow after the MAXXI Museum revealed a call for submissions to an international competition for a new green corridor and multi-purpose building project named MAXXI Grande. The ever-popular Roman... View full entry
The Italian state is spending €70 million ($86 million) to rehabilitate structural remains at Santo Stefano and neighboring coastal sites. At the former, the government is building an open-air museum that will illustrate the site’s dark past, along with gardens and conference rooms that will be used for seminars and events focused on cultural and political themes. — ARTnews
The cultural center will be located inside the site of a former 18th-century prison originally constructed under the reign of King Ferdinand IV in a now aging village called Santo Stefano. The project is being overseen by the state’s cultural minister Dario Franceschini and mirrors efforts... View full entry
Italy’s financial center is taking cues from Silicon Valley to transform an area more than twice the size of the Vatican into a sustainable, post-pandemic technology center. The 4.5 billion-euro ($5.1 billion) redevelopment of one of Europe’s biggest vacant lots includes research labs, a startup accelerator and a science campus. — Bloomberg CityLab
The district will be located about 7.5 miles north from the city’s main core and financial district, which has helped it to power the Italian economy for generations. Plans for the new district include offices and housing accommodation for up to 60,000 people run entirely on renewable energy and... View full entry
Yet today these two pieces of fascist architectural propaganda are the centrepiece of a bold artistic experiment in addressing the debate around contested monuments, one which offers a template for other communities divided over whether to tear down or keep up monuments with racist, imperialist or fascist connotations. — BBC
Bolzano, the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy, has become an important case study over its demonstrated ability to thoughtfully frame several of its local fascist monuments in a contemporary light that presents the public with a challenge to improve its own... View full entry
The opulent Sicilian castle featured in the third installment of The Godfather franchise has just gone on the market. For a cool €6m prospective buyers can expect 22 bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a wine cellar, an artist’s studio, a library, a private chapel and 2.1 acres of parkland. — The Art Newspaper
The fate of the sizable art collection located inside the house remains an important (and much more valuable) question as so far only the in situ works that exist in the house have been confirmed included in the sale. The manse was commissioned as a collector’s de facto private museum by a Baron... View full entry
Italy’s highest administrative court has definitively barred McDonald’s from building a 10,000 sq. m outlet in the shadow of the third-century Baths of Caracalla, one of Rome’s most celebrated ancient sites. Published on 28 December, the council of state’s ruling upheld the verdict of a lower court preventing the fast food chain from using a tract of land adjacent to the baths to open a drive-through restaurant and parking area. — The Art Newspaper
The court also stated that government authorities are entitled to halt future development projects in or around other important heritage sites. As reported by The Art Newspaper, the Lazio region and the Italian culture ministry can now suspend works in not only existing heritage sites but in... View full entry
Italian furniture and interior design studio Savio Firmino has unveiled a collection of 16 chairs inspired by some of the world’s most iconic architectural landmarks. Titled CITYNG, and designed in collaboration with artist Cosimo De Vita, the collection was exhibited at the 2021 Salone del... View full entry
Construction has begun on BIG’s CityWave, the building that will complete Milan’s revitalizing CityLife development after previously being announced as a participant in 2019. The Danish studio’s contribution to the €2.5 billion ($2.95 billion) development comes in the form of an East-West... View full entry
Edoardo Tresoldi has unveiled the latest of his signature wire mesh cathedrals, with his installation titled “Sacral” currently on display in the Italian city of Ravenna. Designed for the Dante exhibition at the MAR, Ravenna’s art museum, Sacral is currently on display in the museum’s... View full entry
