Post War Re-Construction: Tools For After – Exhibition
April 16th, 2025
Showcasing Italian Architecture Innovation for a Sustainable Future.
The Italian Cultural Institute of Beirut and the Lebanese American University-LAU present the Exhibition Post War Re-Construction: Tools For After, a selection of the most interesting and innovative proposals of new Italian architecture, presented to the Lebanese audience. The exhibition was conceived by Dr. Angelo Gioè and curated by Architect Maurizio Corrado.
The Exhibition will immerse visitors in the world of Italian design culture and its innovative solutions to address the critical challenges stemming from human activities on Earth’s ecosystems and geology.
In the Anthropocene era, the priorities for architecture are the reconsideration of materials and construction practices. It is on this that the exhibition focuses its attention. Sir David Chipperfield, 2023 winner of architecture’s top accolade, the Pritzker Prize, says “Environmental issues are so important that they call everything into question and reframe the priorities of architectural practice. We can no longer ignore the fact that the construction and development industry in which we operate are major contributors to climate change.”
The Exhibition presents alternative, ecological, natural, and biotechnological materials for an effective and possible building culture, rather than architects themselves. The proposed solutions range from ancient construction culture to vegetal architecture and projects for the environment of man on other planets.
Projects and Designers:
Bamboo – Mauricio Cardenas Laverde
Around Donax – Margherita Bertoli (Arundo Art), Matteo Mannini (Canya Lab)
Terra Cruda – Geologika Collettiva, Barbara Narici, Maddalena Ferraresi
Straw – curated by Eliana Baglioni
Biomaterials – Selenia Marinelli
Space Architecture – Valentina Sumini
Sustainable Mobility and Architectural Research – Massimo Iosa Ghini, Massimo Mariani
Tools For After is a cultural project that won the first Capitali della Creatività [Capitals of Creativity] competition, promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aimed at both the Italian Cultural Institutes and the Italian diplomatic-consular network, worldwide. The project, created by Angelo Gioè, the current director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Beirut, and curated in its entirety by architect Maurizio Corrado, was presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Melbourne, the Italian Cultural Institute in Beirut (Design), and the Italian Cultural Institute in Sofia (Design), and will soon be presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Belgrade. The initiative showcases the Italian approach to tackling the challenges of the Anthropocene.
The Anthropocene is a method of reading reality. Everything is changing: the economy, how to think and make culture, the very view of the world and the human being’s place in the cosmos. The issues, fears, needs, concepts, rules, scenarios and discourse on which our culture is based have suddenly become obsolete and unusable. The point of no return is behind us; we have entered the aftermath.
What can we do? What are the tools for the after? What scenarios await us? What issues need to be addressed? We need to imagine.
TFA is a workshop of ideas, solutions, projects, imaginings, models and tools to draw a collective map of the imaginary of the Anthropocene, a collaborative exploration of possibilities, solutions and ways to deal with everyday practice. It is a call to a utopia, to develop the imaginary, to propose ideas, and to build a survival manual for the world’s coming transformations, an atlas of solutions, a range of strategies.