The prestigious award for career and high classic achievements in architecture was presented at Casa dell’Architettura in Rome
Architect Francesco Venezia is the winner of the Piranesi Prix de Rome career achievement award 2019. The prestigious award for classic achievements in architecture was conferred by the Scientific Committee of the Piranesi Prix de Rome, in collaboration with the Order of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservators of Rome and province/Casa dell'Architettura and the Mantua Campus of the Politecnico di Milano.
The Piranesi Prix de Rome, organized by the Accademia Adrianea di Architettura, is an annual architecture competition open to Universities and “enlightened professionals”, committed to architecture design aimed at developing and upgrading our heritage. These two competitions are accompanied by the Piranesi Prix de Rome Career Achievement Award which over the last few years has been given to important international architects: Alberto Campo Baeza, Rafael Moneo, David Chipperfield, Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi and Eduardo Souto de Moura, to name but a few.
During the award ceremony, which took place at the Casa dell’Architettura – Acquario Romano in Rome, the architect from Naples Francesco Venezia retraced the highlights of his career. After the degree in Architecture obtained in 1970 at the University of Naples, Francesco Venezia opened his professional firm in 1971, while conducting research at the Architectural Design Institute of the Faculty of Architecture Federico II in Naples, where he was appointed Professor of Architectural Composition in 1986, while in 1998 he was awarded the title of “Accademico di San Luca”. Francesco Venezia has also held teaching positions at other important universities, including the Faculty of Architecture of Genoa, the University Institute of Architecture of Venice, the prestigious Federal Polytechnic of Lausanne (EPFL), the Harvard University in Cambridge and the Architecture Academy of Mendrisio.
Francesco Venezia's main projects
During his teaching career, Francesco Venezia has also created numerous buildings and installations, projects which are considered examples of excellence in design.
Materials Testing Laboratory of IUAV in Mestre
His most important works include Piazza Marginale-Lancelotti in Lauro (1974-1976), Palazzo Di Lorenzo in Gibellina (1981-1987), the Small Garden in Gibellina (1984-1987), the University Library and University Campus of Law and Economics in Amiens (1993-1997), the Materials Testing Laboratory of IUAV in Mestre (1995-2002), the exhibition "Gli Etruschi" (“The Etruscans”) at Palazzo Grassi in Venice (2000), the underground spaces of the Cathedral of Caserta (2011-2014), the exhibition “Pompei e l’Europa. 1748-1943” (“Pompei and Europe. 1748-1943”) at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and at the Amphitheater of the Archaeological Excavations in Pompei (2015), the exhibition “Mito e Natura” (“Myth and Nature”) at Palazzo Reale in Milan (2015), the exhibition pavilion for the project “Arch and Art” at the park of the Triennale di Milano (2016) and finally the exhibition “Pompei e L’Egitto” (“Pompei and Egypt”) in the Palestra Grande at the archaeological site in Pompei (2016).
The University Library in AmienHis “physical” designs are combined with many works and publications which describe his thoughts and projects: “La Torre d'Ombre o l'architettura delle apparenze reali” (1978), “Scritti brevi” (1990), “Francesco Venezia: le idee e le occasioni” (2006), “Francesco Venezia: che cosa è l’Architettura” (2011).
Francesco Venezia’s overall work thus represents not only an important new chapter in the history of the Piranesi Prix de Rome, but an essential element for Italian architecture, an example of continuous research on the essence of the profession, far away from trends, faithful to a “high” idea of architecture, wisely and skillfully playing with volumes, with classical references and an obsession for measure and proportion.
Pyramid in Pompei, for exhibition “Pompei and Europe. 1748-1943” (2015)
