Vatican to debut at 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale with chapels in the woods

The Holy See will make its first-ever appearance at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018, with ten architects from ten countries designing individual chapels in a forest on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The project, promoted by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and coordinated by the Pontifical Council for Culture, is curated by architectural historian Francesco Dal Co, former director of Casabella and former architecture sector director at the Biennale (1988–1991). The selected architects include Francesco Cellini (Italy), Norman Foster (UK), Eduardo Souto de Moura (Portugal), Flores&Prats (Spain), Smiljan Radic (Chile/Serbia), Carla Juaçaba (Brazil), Javier Corvalán (Paraguay), Sean Godsell (Australia), Andrew Berman (USA), and Teronobu Fujimori (Japan). Each must design a chapel inspired by Gunnar Asplund's 1920 Skogskapellet at Stockholm's Skogskyrkogården cemetery (a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994), emphasizing integration with nature and potential reuse after the Biennale. The chapels will be isolated in a natural, abstract setting symbolizing life's pilgrimage. A special event on September 21, 2018, organized by the Cortile dei Gentili, will feature a dialogue between four internationally renowned architects and the public, exploring the message of Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si'. The official presentation is scheduled for April 2018.