"Cities of Stone" is an International Exhibition of the 10th Venice Biennale– Architecture and is part of the Contemporary Senses 2005-2008 project, aimed at improving architectonic and urban contexts in the Regions of the South of Italy.

The Cities of stone are by definition those cities which share the principle characteristic of having been conceived and constructed organically in stone, until the decline of structural concepts based on load bearing walls decreed the end of the (critical and constructive) fortune of this material. This is confirmed by the seeming contrast between:

modern light artificial materials
as opposed to
pre-modern massive natural materials,

terms in which only the contemporary value of the former is recognised.

The cities of stone are those Mediterranean cities that were directly generated by Greek and Roman civilizations, with their particular form of rationality, and the aesthetic values of which have become over time ideals shared by Western culture.
The architectonic characteristics of the Mediterranean city are nowadays subjected to a cultural aggression without precedent.
New aesthetic and cultural models, based on hedonism and elevation of the relative to that of the absolute, impose on and undermine the concept of their very identity.

On one hand the Cities of stone exhibition aims to investigate which are the dominant models that govern the urban and landscape transformation underway... (CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE)

"When the next "Vision of Europe" Number 3 takes place in a few years' time, I hope that by then we shall have taken these civilising ideals even further and that the new Millennium will usher in a new Renaissance in the way our cities are viewed, and provide an opportunity for the vision we share to be realised".
H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES, Bologna1996.

Some years have passed since the first edition of the A Vision of Europe Triennale, and today, as we are approaching the 4th edition, at the very beginning of the 3rd Millennium, the words of the Prince have turned into reality.
The alternative to Sub-Urbanization today is finally available. It is possible to build new plazas and squares, a new public realm, new public buildings as well as new residential settlements according to an ecologically-oriented attitude. It is possible to design and build new urban neighborhoods, demolishing brutal peripheral housing areas built in the second half of the past century, while transforming decaying sub-urban areas into true mixed-use urban neighborhoods.
A new attitude towards the importance of a balanced relationship between urban development and natural eco-system is currently spreading all over the world. A New Civic Architecture.
An architecture based upon civic principles and aiming at contributing to the construction of a true organic city, a place where citizens can exchange ideas as well as goods within a friendly environment.

The 4th edition of the A Vision of Europe Triennale will be dedicated to New Civic Architecture through an international exhibition and a conference where more than 100 projects and built works will be presented as an ecological alternative to sub-urbanization.
For the first time will be displayed in a coherent exhibition interventions in urban areas from more than 20 countries from Europe, the Americas, India, Australia, etc., all showing the new consciousness towards the principles of a sustainable development.

The International Exhibition of
A Vision of Europe Triennale IV
Bologna, Ex-Chiesa di San Mattia

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