Re‑Situating Modernity: Bruno Giacometti’s Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

Amid the orderly grid of the Giardini della Biennale, the Swiss Pavilion appears almost reticent. Its low white volumes, completed in 1952 by Bruno Giacometti, seem to withdraw from the surrounding display of national pride. The building embodies a form of modernism that resists monumentality, where precision and restraint replace spectacle, and architecture becomes less an object than a framework for encounter.

The Reception Pavilion is conceived as an imaginary purgatory — a passage from the polluted urban realm into a landscape of ecological clarity. It stands both grounded and imaginary, kinetic: a tectonic circle in motion, where nature enters from every side and the visitor becomes part of it.

Countryside: A Place to Live, Not to Leave by AMO / OMA presents an exploration of contemporary life beyond the city, examining how rural territories adapt to global transformation. Conceived under the direction of Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, with Yotam Ben Hur as project architect, the exhibition is presented by Qatar Museums in collaboration with the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD), the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC), Hassad Food, and Kahramaa. It is hosted across two venues in Doha, the Qatar Preparatory School and the National Museum of Qatar, and remains accessible to the public until June 30, 2026.

The client's assignment was to expand the existing family house. The existing building was built at the beginning of the 20th century on the edge of a rocky slope above the Sázava River. In 2010, it underwent a major renovation and an extension of the hanging part to the garden. However, it gradually became clear that the size of the building no longer met the client's needs.