Querini Stampalia Call for Ideas

Querini Stampalia Call for Ideas asks designers to rethink the café/bistro and restrooms on the ground floor of the Venetian foundation. Both areas must form one coherent proposal, responding to the building’s architectural layers, water, everyday use and universal access.

Five essentials

Design task and materials

The challenge is to renew visitor facilities within a building shaped by Carlo Scarpa, Valeriano Pastor, Mario Botta and Michele De Lucchi. The call emphasizes reversible interventions, durable materials, maintainability and a clear relationship between the two programme areas. It is not an invitation to redesign the entire foundation.

Submit through the Domus platform after registering or signing in. The package requires an English concept report of up to 3,000 characters, PDF drawings, a construction-cost estimate, a participant or team profile and the mandatory release and indemnity form. Collect the materials in one ZIP of no more than 30 MB. The FAQ states no numerical drawing/page limit, permits one proposal per participant and says applications cannot be amended after submission.

The published three-page drawing set provides plans, sections and elevations. These help establish existing spatial relationships; they should not be treated as a complete technical survey or as permission to alter protected fabric.

Anonymity, jury and rights

Project drawings and text must carry no names, logos, signatures or other identifying information. The requested professional profile initially appears at odds with anonymous assessment, but the FAQ resolves this: identity and experience belong in a separate document withheld from the committee until evaluation ends.

The committee comprises Cristiana Collu, Giovanna Mazzocchi, Walter Mariotti, Mario Cucinella, Toshiko Mori and Emilio Faroldi. Assessment covers contextual coherence, spatial and functional quality, originality, accessibility, sustainability and technical/economic feasibility. Numerical weights are not published in the reviewed rules. Reputation and professional experience are not scoring criteria.

Authors retain copyright while authorizing Domus and the Foundation to use material to administer and promote the call. The EUR 3,000 award is before deductions and is explicitly not a professional fee or an appointment. The Foundation decides separately whether to develop or build the proposal.

✦ ArchUp Competition Review

This brief gives everyday service spaces architectural importance. The most convincing response may depend on a legible accessible route, careful wet-area detailing, operational separation and the ability to reverse new additions, rather than a conspicuous formal gesture beside Scarpa’s work.

The free entry and named jury are strengths. The modest award and absence of a guaranteed commission make control of design effort essential. A detailed construction proposal would go beyond what a preliminary ideas stage can responsibly establish from the published information.

Two checks deserve attention. First, the criteria refer to coherence with a budget range, but the reviewed public rules and FAQ do not identify a numerical construction ceiling; entrants should state cost assumptions and request clarification. Second, the release form is mandatory, but its linked PDF could not be retrieved during our review. Its full wording remains unverified here and should be read before uploading. The separate identity file is an explained procedure, not an unresolved contradiction.

Related: Courtyard Stories, another competition addressing contemporary use within an existing building.

Reviewed 15 November 2026: Foundation announcement, Domus rules and FAQ, and downloadable drawing set. Photograph: Adriano Mura, via Fondazione Querini Stampalia.