Opera Aperta Book Launch and Conversation

Join us next Monday, April 6 from 7–8:30 pm for a program on the occasion of the new book Opera Aperta: Repair as a Radical Act. This book proposes repair as a creative practice that goes beyond the preservation of buildings to nurture communities, institutions, ecosystems, and the fragile relationships that sustain them.

We will be joined by three of the book’s editors: architects Tatiana Bilbao, Anna Puigjaner, and Marina Otero Verzier.

Copies of Opera Aperta will be available for sale.

About the publication

At its core lies Opera Aperta, a collective process of social and ecological repair unfolding within and around the Complesso di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Venice’s Castello district for the Holy See Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia (2025). The publication follows this evolving practice across scales, temporalities, and disciplines, tracing the gestures through which a place is tended and reimagined. Drawings, images, and conversations with members of the curatorial and architectural teams, together with local collaborators, bring to light the shared knowledge and labor of artisans, residents, students, musicians, architects, scholars, and public officials—an ever-growing community engaged in acts of maintenance and transformation.

The book also includes a collection of essays by Pope Francis, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça,Umberto Eco, Stephen Graham, Tim Ingold, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Steven Jackson, Elke Krasny, Shannon Mattern, María Puig de la Bellacasa, Laurajane Smith, Elizabeth Spelman, and Nigel Thrift.

Edited by Marina Otero Verzier, Giovanna Zabotti, Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO, MAIO Architects, Ana Robles Pérez

Graphic Design and Layout: Estudio Herrera
Publisher and Translations: Società Editrice Allemandi
Commissioner: Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See. Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça

About the Participants

Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO is an architecture practice based in Mexico City, shaped by research, community-led strategies, and responsible construction. The studio understands architecture as a form of care and designs with this responsibility at its core. TBE is composed of six partners: Tatiana Bilbao, Catia Bilbao, Juan Pablo Benlliure, Mariano Castillo, Alba Cortés, and Soledad Rodríguez. Tatiana Bilbao is a Professor in the Practice at Yale University. The studio’s work has been exhibited at major international institutions, including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Graham Foundation, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Venice Architecture Biennale, T-Space, SFMOMA, Architekturzentrum Wien, Aedes Architekturforum Berlin, the Danish Architecture Center, the National Gallery of Victoria, Exhibit Columbus, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. Tatiana Bilbao has received numerous distinctions, including the Emerging Voice Award from the Architectural League of New York (2010), the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (2014), the Marcus Prize (2019), the Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal (2020), the Richard Neutra Award (2020), Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (2021), and the Miller Prize and ARPAFIL Award (2023). In 2024, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Boston Architectural College.

MAIO is an architecture studio based in Barcelona dedicated to exploring inclusive spatial systems that evolve over time. Their work includes new models for collective living, such as the recently completed social housing project in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, as well as collective care infrastructures, including an urban kitchen for Més que Cures, the care workers’ union in Poble Sec, Barcelona. MAIO’s work has been widely published in international platforms such as Monocle, Domus, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, A+U, Architectural Review, and Detail. Their projects have been exhibited at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Storefront for Art and Architecture, among others. Anna Puigjaner, co-founder of MAIO, is Professor of Architecture and Care at ETH Zürich. Her work, linked to feminist studies, is focused on inclusive domestic architectures able to redefine formerly biased structures. Previously, she taught at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation GSAPP at Columbia University, at the Royal College of Arts, London, and at the Barcelona School of Architecture ETSAB/ETSAV – UPC. Her research project Kitchenless City was awarded the Wheelwright Price (2016) by the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Marina Otero Verzier is an architect and researcher working at the intersection of critical spatial practices, ecology, technology, and activism. She is a Lecturer in Architecture at Harvard GSD and has led the Data Mourning clinic at Columbia University’s GSAPP. Previously, she was Head of the MA Social Design at Design Academy Eindhoven and Director of Research at Het Nieuwe Instituut. She has curated exhibitions at major international venues, including the Venice Architecture Biennale and the Oslo Architecture Triennale. She is the author of Flotando en Litio (2025) and En las Profundidades de la Nube (2024), and co-editor of Automated Landscapes (2023), Lithium: States of Exhaustion (2021), More-than-Human (2020), Architecture of Appropriation (2019), and Work, Body, Leisure (2018), among others. Otero Verzier also works across design, art, and filmmaking. She has co-directed five films presented at major international venues and festivals. Her latest film, Building for Quantum (2025), co-directed with Manuel Correa, premiered at the Venice Architecture Biennale and was recently acquired by MUDAC in Lausanne for its permanent collection.Her work has received several international awards. The Opera Aperta pavilion, which she co-curated, received a Special Mention at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. Computational Compost was awarded by Ars Electronica and the Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism in 2025. In 2022, she received Harvard GSD’s Wheelwright Prize.