Stefano Boeri designs Italy's pavilion as a piazza for Frankfurt Book Fair

For the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair (October 16–20), Italy returns as guest of honour for the first time since 1988. The Italian Pavilion, titled "Radici nel futuro" (Roots in the Future), is designed by Stefano Boeri Interiors. The concept centres on a piazza, developed with art historian Giovanni Agosti, intended to evoke Italian sociality and community. The pavilion will feature an Arena and a Caffè Letterario hosting over 100 speakers. Evening concerts are planned, including a tribute to Puccini and a performance by Il Volo. Boeri and Agosti will hold a talk on architecture. The piazza is conceived as a fixed spatial frame (columns, porticoes, steps) allowing unpredictable behaviours. Visitors enter via an info desk, with the piazza revealed as a surprise. The 2,300 sqm space uses prefabricated wood panels (to be reused) and polyurethane columns (33 columns, 4 metres high, five families). Surrounding rooms will host exhibitions, including one on Machiavelli's "Il Principe" and another with 600 books translated from German to Italian. Boeri's studio often draws on urban typologies, as seen in a small piazza in Amatrice and a Buddhist centre in China.