The Cavea Arcari project in Zovencedo, designed and realised by David Chipperfield Architects Milan, has won the Regional Award of the 2019 International Architecture Prize organised by the Barbara Cappochin Foundation.

Inaugurated in spring 2018 to coincide with the David Chipperfield Architects Works 2018 exhibition at the Basilica Palladiana in nearby Vicenza, the project takes the name ‘Cavea’ after the tiered seating in theatres and amphitheatres of classical antiquity. The project creates a public space for performers and spectators structured around a series of terraced steps made from local Vicenza stone, the same stone that was extracted to form the ‘Cava’ (quarry) in which it is set.

The Biennial Award seeks to support the role and responsibility of architecture in landscape and environmental transformation processes. It was conceived by Giuseppe Cappochin, President of the Barbara Cappochin Foundation and of the Italian Council of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservationists.

Image © Simon Menges