GRACE

At the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, Uzbekistan presents a powerful ode to the scientific legacy of Tashkent Modernism (@tashkentmodernism ). “A Matter of Radiance”—curated by @grace.office and @acdfuz —reimagines the futuristic ambitions of the past as tangible possibilities for tomorrow. At the heart of the pavilion is the Solar Heliocomplex “Sun,” a forgotten modernist wonder built in 1987 in the mountains of Parkent. Once a utopian vision of solar energy, it now returns as a central figure in a spatial narrative that feels equal parts time capsule and solar dream. This marks Uzbekistan’s latest appearance at the Biennale—and perhaps its most forward-thinking. A project designed to ignite dialogue between science and culture, art and architecture, the past and the not-so-distant future. One of the pavilion’s most striking elements: a seventeen-meter-high Parade of Planets chandelier—archaic, majestic, and symbolic of the Soviet cosmic imagination. Not content with the Moon or the Sun, it gestures toward the Milky Way. Equally compelling is a cutting-edge innovation by Uzbek scientists—a translucent nanocomposite coating that can be applied to glass to regulate indoor temperature, maintaining a steady 20°C year-round. Developed recently at the Sun Institute, it’s a quiet revolution in sustainability. @uzbekistan_national_pavilion

Research and development center The Sun Heliocomplex is a solar furnace, built by architects Viktor Zakharov and O. Taushkanov. The Sun Heliocomplex stands as a unique result of combining architectural modernism and utilitarian scientific infrastructure. Located in the foothills of the Tian Shan Mountains, 45 km from Tashkent, the complex features a colossal concave shield made up of 10,700 mirrors, reaching a height equivalent to 22 floors. As one of only two such facilities in the world, the Sun Heliocomplex utilises concentrated solar energy to study material behaviour at extremely high temperatures, reaching up to 3,000°C — almost half the surface temperature of the sun. At the core of the solar furnace is a system of rotating mirrors, or heliostats, which follow the sun’s path throughout the day—an approach first pioneered by French engineers. By concentrating sunlight onto a focal point, these heliostats make it possible to reach the extreme temperatures required for advanced research. The construction demanded extraordinary precision, since even a small misalignment could significantly reduce the furnace’s effectiveness. Commissioner: @gayane_umerova @acdfuz Curators: @grace.office @ekaville Artists: Ester Sheynfeld @eafraid , Muhiddin Risqiyev @muhiddinrisqiyev , Azamat Abbasov Graphic Design: @studio.pupilla #BiennaleArchitettura2025 #IntelliGens @labiennale #LaBiennaleDiVenezia

The Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation @acdfuz announces the release of Tashkent: A Modernist Capital (Rizzoli New York) and Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI (Lars Müller Publishers), two new books shedding light on Tashkent’s modernist architecture. These publications mark a milestone in the Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI research project, led by ACDF with GRACE, Politecnico di Milano, Boris Chukhovich, Armin Linke, and Laboratorio Permanente. To date, this project has secured national heritage status for 21 modernist buildings across Tashkent. Tashkent: A Modernist Capital presents 24 landmark sites photographed by Karel Balas, with an essay by Béatrice Grenier. Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI serves as a research archive, featuring an interview with Rem Koolhaas and a photographic essay by Armin Linke, contributing to global conversations on modernist heritage. GRACE, the project’s coordinator, will further this legacy by curating the Uzbekistan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Architettura 2025. @acdfuz @gayane_umerova @tashkentmodernism @rizzolibooks @larsmullerpublishers

Ekaterina Golovatyuk and Giacomo Cantoni, co-curators of this year’s edition of the Uzbekistan National Pavilion, lead GRACE, an international studio of architecture, urbanism, and research, based in Milan. Golovatyuk and Cantoni’s past work experience includes a long-term collaboration with OMA/AMO, focusing on cultural and research projects in Europe and Hong Kong.  Preservation is a central theme of the studio’s work, with particular focus on 20th-century heritage. As well as several individual projects in Central Asia, GRACE’s current collaboration with the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, Politecnico di Milano, and a group of local and international researchers to revise the legal framework and develop strategies to preserve 24 modernist buildings in Tashkent has led to the forming of a particular expertise and the establishment of a critical position on the subject, beyond the current ideological and market-driven paradigm. For ‘A Matter of Radiance’, this year’s edition of the Uzbekistan National Pavilion, the curators work closely with writer Suhbat Aflatuni, artists Ester Sheinfeld, Mukhiddin Riskiyev, and Azamat Abbasov, alongside scientists Odilkhuzha Parpiev and Sultan Suleymanov. Commissioner: @gayane_umerova @acdfuz Curators: @grace.office @ekaville Artists: Ester Sheynfeld @eafraid , Muhiddin Risqiyev @muhiddinrisqiyev , Azamat Abbasov Graphic Design: @studio.pupilla PR: @pelhamcomms #BiennaleArchitettura2025 #IntelliGens @labiennale #LaBiennaleDiVenezia

Responding to the upcoming Biennale’s overarching theme, ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.’, the National Pavilion of Uzbekistan—titled ‘A Matter of Radiance’—builds upon the large-scale research project Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI, launched in 2021 to safeguard the modernist architectural heritage of Tashkent. Led by the ACDF and coordinated by GRACE, this initiative brought together an extensive team of international experts who, for the first time, documented, reinterpreted, and preserved the legacy of 24 key modernist sites in the capital. Over the course of several years, the project demonstrated the importance of these buildings to Tashkent’s identity and secured national heritage status for 21 sites. Focusing on the current and future significance of Uzbekistan’s modernist legacy, the pavilion highlights the Sun Institute of Material Science—originally known as the Sun Heliocomplex—built near Tashkent in 1987. One of the last major scientific endeavours of the USSR, it is also one of only two large solar furnaces in the world designed to study material behaviours under extreme temperatures. Reflecting on its ambivalent character, the pavilion explores how the complex’s gigantic Soviet-era scale now prevents it from functioning as a truly cutting-edge facility. It also celebrates the legacy of Sadyk Azimov, an Uzbek physicist and academician who devoted his career to the Institute’s construction and launch. In Venice, this ambivalence is conveyed through a dual narrative surrounding the furnace: sustainable and unsustainable, modernist and archaic, didactic and secret, celebrative and utilitarian. Participants include writer Suhbat Aflatuni, artists Ester Sheinfeld, Mukhiddin Riskiyev, and Azamat Abbasov, alongside a dialogue with scientists Odilkhuzha Parpiev and Sultan Suleymanov, further illuminating the pavilion’s exploration of this multifaceted modernist legacy. Commissioner: @gayane_umerova @acdfuz Curators: @grace.office @ekaville Artists: Ester Sheynfeld @eafraid , Muhiddin Risqiyev @muhiddinrisqiyev , Azamat Abbasov Graphic Design: @studio.pupilla #BiennaleArchitettura2025 #IntelliGens @labiennale #LaBiennaleDiVenezia

Today, let’s talk about the building of the Cultural and Information Center “Intourist,” which is one of the objects of Tashkent Modernism.XX/XXI project. In the near future, this architectural complex should house French Cultural Center, as well as the Center for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage Objects. Architect Vladimir Narubansky designed the facility in 1975–1980, and construction was carried out in 1980–1986. Located next to the largest hotel in the city “Uzbekistan” Hotel, Cultural and Information Center was created as a place of leisure for foreigners. In terms of planning, the facility was divided into several zones. A courtyard measuring more than 400 square meters connected the public and administrative spaces of the complex. The architectural dominant feature is an oval cinema and concert hall with 600 seats. A small hall with 170 seats, a cocktail lounge, a swimming pool, and a spacious foyer were also designed and built. It was assumed that the walls, made of light-colored facing bricks, would be used for art and other exhibitions. Once put into operation, the building quickly lost its significance as a center of attraction for foreign tourists and eventually fell into disrepair. Many of the original design elements have been lost, but even now the object amazes with its scale and interesting planning solutions. In the near future, it is planned to carry out a large-scale reconstruction of the complex according to a project developed by the co-founders of the architectural studio Grace @grace.office , Ekaterina Golovatyuk @ekaville and Giacomo Cantoni. Captions: 1-2. Republican House of Tourism’s Archive Photo 3-5. Republican House of Tourism (2020) – Gazeta.uz; Khamdam Sharakhmedov Reposted from @tashkentmodernism

Architect, co-founder of Grace @grace.office Ekaterina Golovatyuk @ekaville coordinates the research activities of Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI. According to Ekaterina, the project aims to preserve monuments built to celebrate the socialist society and to function within it, and, at the same time, seeking to make this heritage sustainable within the new capitalist condition. At the conference “Where in the World is Tashkent,” the program of which was co-curated by Ekaterina, the reimagining and ways of preserving the modernist architecture of Tashkent will be discussed. Other members of the Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI project team will also take part in thematic sessions and discussions: Professor of the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at Politecnico di Milano @dastu_polimi Davide Del Curto @davide_del_curto , curator and cultural researcher Boris Chukhovich @boris_chukhovich , and architect of Laboratorio Permanente @laboratoriopermanente Nicola Russi @_nicola_russi . Captions: 1. Ekaterina Golovatyuk Portrait 2-5. Boris Chukhovich, Davide Del Curto and Nicola Russi. Triennale Milano @triennalemilano (2023)

Repost from @tashkentmodernism and @acdfuz . The "Tashkent Modernism.Index" exhibition is on display until April 23rd as part of Design Week at @triennalemilano . This exhibition marks the first public showcase of the unique research project "Tashkent Modernism.XX/XXI", which was initiated and commissioned by @acdfuz , developed over two years by leading architectural theorists, historians, and experts in preservation, including Ekaterina Golovatyuk, Boris Chukhovich, Davide Del Curto, and Nicola Russi. The project was supported by Rem Koolhaas, laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and architectural theorist and modernist architecture specialist Jean-Louis Cohen, as well as many others. The research group lead by @ekaville : @grace.office @dastu_polimi @boris_chukhovich @laboratoriopermanente #tashkentmodernism

Repost from @tashkentmodernism . As part of Milan Design Week, the «Tashkent Modernism.Index» exhibition continues at @triennalemilano The exhibition showcases the work of an international team of architects, historians and conservation experts who have documented and interpreted the unique modernist architecture of Tashkent. With the support of Rem Koolhaas and Jean-Louis Cohen. Through images and stories of 20 buildings, the exhibition explores the architectural, social and cultural history of Tashkent and its current state. Until April 23 at @triennalemilano The research group lead by @ekaville : @grace.office @boris_chukhovich @laboratoriopermanente @dastu_polimi

Repost from @tashkentmodernism • Tashkent Modernism.Index hosts a conversation between Ruben Arevshatyan and Nini Palavandishvili, dedicated to modern architecture of 1960s-1980s in Yerevan (Armenia) and Tbilisi (Georgia). The comparison between Armenia and Georgia shows how the generalized perceptions of “homogeneity” and “monotony” of the post-war soviet architecture are misleading. In the capitals of these republics, the evolution of the modern movement had its own logic, cultural references and professional orientations. Their separate study and analysis of the horizontal links between the republics deconstructs the mono-centricity of the history of soviet architecture and culture. After presenting the evolution of modern architecture in Yerevan and Tbilisi, both experts will speak about different strategies of preservation of modern architecture in Armenia and Georgia. Do not miss a public talk SOVIET MODERNISM. Stories of Appropriation and Engagement: cases of Yereven and Tbilisi. Friday, April 21 2 PM at @triennalemilano

Reposted from @tashkentmodernism . Preserving Modernism public talk between Gayane Umerova, Executive Director of the Art and Culture Development Foundation of Uzbekistan, Rem Koolhaas, Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, architectural theorist and a largest specialist on modernism architecture and Jean-Louis Cohen, French architectural historian, specializing on modern architecture, moderated by Ekaterina Golovatyuk, was attended by over 300 guests at the @triennalemilano . A discussion based on Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI research project expanded on the subjects like the preservation of the Mahalla, traditional Tashkent settlements, another layer of the city which was not previously preserved and the resemblance of Casablanca and Tashkent architecture as of two postcolonial cultures. Full video of public talk will appear on @acdfuz YouTube channel #tashkentmodernism

Repost from @tashkentmodernism • The talk between Davide Del Curto, Boris Chukhovich and Nicola Russi presents the research outcomes of Tashkent.Modernism XX/XXI project and addresses relevant questions: how to assess the cultural significance of Tashkent's modernist architecture? How to protect the fragile monuments of the 20th century from the risks associated with the rapid development of a country? What role will such heritage of the recent past play in the new urban geography of a 21st-century global capital? We will discuss how to preserve the figurative qualities and experimental constructive features of such delicate heritage, how to sustainably manage this recent legacy, and how to valorize it by means of a cultural trail. Join us on Thursday, April 20th at 3 PM at our exhibition venue at @triennalemilano for a public talk called Towards a Conversation Management Plan for Tashkent Moderniest Architecture.