The material from the archives of Margraf/Industria Marmi Vicentini will be going on display for the first time. It includes original drawings, huge amounts of correspondence, documents about the various stages of construction, photographs, historical videos and 1:1 scale architectural features.
“Architecture and marble: synergy between material and ingenuity. Hossein Amanat and Fariborz Sahba: structural spirituality” is an exhibition that will take place from 20 October to 19 November 2017 at the Palladio Museum’s International Architecture Study Centre (CISA) in Vicenza. Visitors will be taken on an unprecedented journey through the 20th-century architectural works produced in the Middle East and Asia by two architects from Iranian backgrounds: H. Amanat and F. Sahba. The buildings that are presented along the exhibition route are all projects that were carried out for the Baha’i Community and they all feature the ancient, highly prized flawless white Pentelikon marble from Greece, which was used to build the Parthenon. Hossein Amanat is an architect who was born in Iran in 1946 and subsequently acquired Canadian citizenship. He showed his prodigious talent from a young age and in 1966 – shortly after graduating from the University of Tehran – he won a design competition for the “Azadi Tower”: an architectural work that was commissioned by the last Shah of Iran to mark the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Achaemenid Empire. Included in the exhibition are three of the Iranian-Canadian architect’s buildings in the Bahá’í Arc in Haifa (the “Seat of the Universal House of Justice”, the “Centre for the Study of the Sacred Texts” and the “Seat of the International Teaching Centre”), as well as the “Bahá’í House of Worship” in Samoa. Fariborz Sahba was born and educated in Iran and subsequently acquired US citizenship. The exhibition will feature documents by the architect regarding the “Lotus Temple” in New Delhi and the 18 terraces around the “Shrine of the Báb” in Haifa.
The exhibition route ends with a presentation of an innovative project by Raffaello Galiotto called Arcolitico: an experimental parabolic arch made of Fior di Pesco Carnico marble, of which Margraf owns the only quarry in the world. It is very large (12×3.5×14.5 m) and it was designed on a computer using parametric software, then processed in an entirely cutting-based procedure using a CNC wire frame. In this project, the designer has pushed beyond the traditional concept of shaping rocks by removing excess materials. He has created a complex, curved, fluted and empty form through separation: he divided the pieces and reduced waste to almost 0%.
INFO EXHIBITION
Architecture and marble: synergy between material and ingenuity. Hossein Amanat and Fariborz Sahba: structural spirituality”
Curator: Elisa Gagliardi Mangilli
CISA – Palladio Museum
Contra’ Porti 11, Vicenza, Italy
20 October – 19 November 2017
Opening times: 10.00 am – 6.00 pm – closed on Monday
Admission: Free
