Louis Kahn and Venezia: The Project for the Palazzo dei Congressi and the Biennale Building

“Venice is architecture of joy. I like a place as a whole where each building contributes to the other. An architect building in Venice must think in terms of sympathy: working on my project I was constantly thinking as if I was asking each building I love so much in Venice, whether they would accept me in their company.”- Louis Kahn

Louis Kahn and Venice: The Project for the Palazzo dei Congressi and the Biennale Building, published to accompany the 2018 exhibition of the same name at the Accademia di architettura diMendrisio, Swiss University of Lugano (USI), brings together previously unpublished architectural drawings, manuscripts, and archival documents from the University of Pennsylvania Architecture Archives in Philadelphia, the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, and the Canadia nCentre for Architecture (CCA). It traces Kahn’s visits to the lagoon city between 1968 and 1972, revealing his profound engagement with Venice’s architectural heritage and his vision for its future through the meticulously designed urban projects.