The Diriyah Art Futures Project by Schiattarella Associati on show at the Querini Stampalia. What does it mean to be “rooted” today? What strength can the word “tradition” still hold at a time when global architecture appears exhausted by an endless iteration of self-referential codes and decontextualized morphologies? The exhibition ”A light footprint”, curated by Marta Francocci at the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice and extended until August 30, offers a precious opportunity to reflect on these questions. It does so through a project that acts as a bridge between worlds – temporal, geographic, symbolic: the Diriyah Art Futures (DAF) in Riyadh, the first center in the MENA region fully dedicated to New Media Arts, designed by the Roman firm Schiattarella Associati. Set within the evocative Scarpa-designed spaces of the Querini – where architecture itself becomes silent and tactile narration – the exhibition showcases not merely a building, but a vision: that of architecture capable of existing without occupying, of being rooted without rhetoric, of projecting towards the future without betraying history.
The project: between vernacular tradition and emerging codes
The DAF rises in the At-Turaif area, a UNESCO World Heritage site on the outskirts of Riyadh, and is the first of 24 museums planned as part of Saudi Vision 2030. In this regard, Schiattarella Associati’s work fits within a broader framework that is not only urban or cultural, but almost geopolitical. Saudi Arabia is rewriting its narrative through art and knowledge, and the decision to entrust an Italian firm with the design of such a symbolic institution is a statement in itself: a desire to overcome the West/East binary in favor of a new, necessary, and complex dialogue. The building unfolds as an integrated complex rather than an isolated object: it rests gently on the rocky slope instead of dominating it, harnesses the landscape and climate to minimize energy consumption and environmental impact, and revisits the vernacular wisdom of Najdi architecture (mud brick, stone, adobe plasters) through a contemporary lens. Nothing here feels mimetic or folkloric: tradition becomes a design grammar, not a nostalgic citation.
The footprint that remains
The title A Light Footprint is not just a poetic metaphor. It is the manifesto of an ethical and formal position. In an age where architecture often asserts itself with loud gestures or dissolves into vacuous formalism, the DAF and its curatorial narrative reclaim the possibility of a low-voiced design, where each choice (material, spatial, climatic) is aimed at creating continuity rather than rupture. The exhibition – alternating models, sketches, photographs, videos, and drawings – effectively conveys the complexity of the design process. The photographic work by Paolo Pellegrin, with his powerful yet intimate gaze, portrays the construction site as a deeply human place, a terrain of vision and transformation, where building technology meets sand, light, and wind.
A model for future cultural institutions?
The DAF, as the project’s promoters state, is intended as a multidisciplinary hub for digital arts, but also as a prototype for the cultural institutions of tomorrow. With artist residencies, educational programs, and a collaboration with Le Fresnoy – National Studio for Contemporary Arts in France, the DAF positions itself at the threshold where the museum is no longer just a space for exhibition, but a living laboratory, a workshop, an archive in motion. Yet, more than any cutting-edge technology, what stands out is the delicacy with which this structure inserts itself into its physical and symbolic landscape. A rare quality in today’s global cultural architecture, which often chases spectacle, landmark status, or innovation for its own sake. Here instead, the guiding logic is that of the threshold, the interstice, the silent continuum between inside and outside, past and future.
A Biennale of collective intelligences
The project’s inclusion in the Intelligens Canon section of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – Biennale Architettura 2025, curated by Carlo Ratti, confirms its centrality in the contemporary debate. In a Biennale exploring the forms of intelligence – natural, artificial, collective – the Diriyah Art Futures project shows how architecture can mediate between multiple intelligences: those sedimented in material culture and those emerging through digital languages.
CREDITS
Project: Diriyah Art Futures (DAF), Riyadh
Architecture: Schiattarella Associati
Founders: Amedeo, Andrea, and Paola Schiattarella
Querini Stampalia Exhibition Curator: Marta Francocci
