Dream of Venice Architecture edited by JoAnn Locktov, photographs
Bella Figura Publications, 2016
Hardcover, 96 pages

About a week before I went to Venice to cover the Biennale for World-Architects I received this book in the mail. It is the second "Dream of Venice" book, following plain old Dream of Venice from 2014. I have not seen the earlier book, but from its description on the Bella Figura website it sounds similar to the new one: "luminous photographs compliment the intimate thoughts, memories, poems and stories of notable contributors from the worlds of art, literature, design, cuisine, music, and filmmaking." Dream of Venice Architecture does the same, but with a clear focus on architecture, with contributions by Tadao Ando, Mario Botta, Cynthia Davidson, Massimiliano Fuksas, Jonathan Glancey, Frank Harmon, Jürgen Mayer H., Robert McCarter, William Menking, Witold Rybczynski, Annabelle Selldorf, Thomas Woltz, and many more architects, writers and others in the realm of architecture.
The book is presented as the contributors' short texts or "dreams" accompanied by Riccardo De Cal's photographs. There isn't always a 1:1 relationship between text and image, but in most cases the two are aligned remarkably well. Architect Michael P. Johnson, for instance, describes Carlo Scarpa's Monument to the Female Resistance Fighter, located in the waters near the Giardini, while De Cal's photo captures the steps and sculpture in a fog,...