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ROLEX CONTINUES PARTNERSHIP WITH INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION – LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA – AS 2016 EDITION OPENS

Venice, 26 May 2016 – Rolex is supporting the world’s most important architecture exhibition, which runs from 28 May to 27 November in Venice. This marks the second of three editions (2014, 2016 and 2018) with Rolex as the exclusive Partner and Official Timepiece of the International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

“We are very proud of our association with the Architecture Biennale,” said Arnaud Boetsch, Director Communication & Image at Rolex. “Architecture and watchmaking have much in common, as both must achieve a perfect rendering of function and aesthetic pleasure. This can only be accomplished by meeting the highest standards of precision and performance, something we at Rolex excel at and which is being showcased at the exhibition in this historic city over the next six months.”

Rolex’s success as the world’s leading luxury watch brand can be traced back more than a century to company founder Hans Wilsdorf who was motivated by a sense of excellence at every level. He created nothing less than a new architecture for the watch case, making the iconic Oyster the first waterproof watch, one that, like great buildings, has stood the test of time.

In the design and construction of its own buildings over the past 50 years, Rolex has demanded the same values of excellence manifest in its watchmaking. The company’s two newest buildings, a tower in Dallas, Texas, by Kengo Kuma and a building in by Italy’s own Studio Albini, are the focus of an exhibition presented by Rolex in the Giardini.

Great architects such as Lord Norman Foster, Daniel Libeskind, and Ryue Nishizawa have also assisted the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative as programme advisors. Rolex mentors who have participated since the Initiative’s beginnings in 2002 are Álvaro Siza, Kazuyo Sejima, Peter Zumthor and, currently, Sir David Chipperfield, who himself was the curator of the Biennale Architettura in 2012.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT PRESS & PUBLIC RELATIONS Rolex SA Virginie Chevailler [email protected] T +41 (0)22 302 26 19 ROLEX PRESS ROOM pressroom.rolex.com The quest for excellence

Just as great buildings are created by visionary architects, visionary watchmakers create watches that exceed the highest standards of precision and performance. Rolex has long acknowledged a profound synergy between the two disciplines – which both spring from the twin forces of innovative thinking and powerfully creative ideas.

In its own way, the miniature architecture of a watch is like a building, which is refined until it seems effortlessly resolved. At Rolex, excellence – both technical and aesthetic – is always the goal and, in the quest for that supreme blend of form and function, minute attention is applied to the design and fabrication of each tiny detail.

Rolex’s support for the International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, for three editions from 2014–2018, emerges naturally from its commitment to architecture of the highest quality. The company is proud to be associated with the world’s most important forum for thinking about the built environment and how it can shape the future.

The founder of Rolex, Hans Wilsdorf, was visionary. In 1926, he revolutionized watchmaking, launching his most famous timepiece, the Oyster. Now celebrating its 90th anniversary, the Oyster remains the perfect encapsulation of an idea that gave new shape to the future. It was the first watch that the wearer could rely on everywhere – on land and in water, in extreme heat and in biting cold. Its elegant aesthetic was matched by a technical brilliance that changed forever what a watch could be. Since then, constant technological refinements, including new movements, have kept it as the gold standard of watch design, and it is still held in reverence. Like a great work of architecture, it has stood the test of time. Building the future

Two new Rolex buildings, in Dallas and Milan, have continued the company’s commitment to outstanding architecture, a reflection of Rolex’s ethos of design and innovation of the highest quality.

The company’s building projects have involved internationally acclaimed architects, including Pritzker Prize winner , who designed two Rolex buildings in Japan ; the Lititz Watch Technicum in Pennsylvania, designed by the late and celebrated American architect, Michael Graves ; and the Pritzker Prize-winning Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, whose groundbreaking Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, is critically acclaimed. Sejima was the director of the 2010 International Architecture Exhibition, and her theme was “People Meet in Architecture”. Rolex’s ties to these exceptional architects and to the International Architecture Exhibition are a reflection of its pursuit of excellence.

In Milan, one of Italy’s leading practices, Studio Albini, has delivered a Rolex service and logistics centre that can genuinely be described as precision-made, in keeping with the company’s dedication to precision and performance.

In Milan, Rolex’s And now, in Dallas, Texas, the great Japanese architect, Kengo Kuma, is producing ultra-modern service and a Rolex office building whose form and environmental qualities have set new logistics centre, by Studio benchmarks in the city. Kuma, who was chosen to design the centrepiece of the Kengo Kuma’s design for a Rolex Albini, has a dynamically building in Dallas rotates like a moving, super-precise 2020 Tokyo Olympics – the National Stadium – has an international reputation based slightly twisted deck of cards. metal façade. on his mastery of highly original connections between buildings, sites and nature. A dynamic tower for Dallas

With the Dallas tower by Kuma, Rolex will be introducing a completely new kind of office architecture to the city. The building is on a site in the Harwood District near Rolex’s original 1984 building – the first office block ever built in uptown Dallas. “The theme of the design is the integration of the land with the building,” Kuma explains. “Usually, office buildings are independent monuments, and the building is separate from the land around it. So I thought of starting with the landscape by connecting the building to the ground with a low Japanese castle wall, and twisted the building to show the continuous movement from terrain to building, from the bottom to the top – the dynamic form of the building.”

In the construction of its own buildings, as in its watchmaking, Rolex has always embraced innovative ideas and the Dallas tower is no exception. The adventurous and environmentally sophisticated design is typical of the work by Kuma, whose first building, in 1988, was a small, irregularly formed bathhouse in Izu composed of metal, bamboo and concrete.

Since then, the way Kuma uses natural light, space and subtly modulated surfaces in his approach to buildings – “dissolution and disintegration”, as he puts it – continues to be unique. His architecture has been featured at four editions of the International Architecture Exhibition and this year his work will be presented again.

Kuma’s design approach produces highly diverse buildings, such as the Asakusa Culture Tourism Centre in Tokyo, which resembles a stack of eight different kinds of houses ; the Daiwa Ubiquitous Computing Research Building, with its exquisitely meandering veils of cedar shingles ; the Plastic House in Tokyo, whose walls are made of 4 mm-thick plastic, with added fibre, rice paper or bamboo ; and the Suntory Museum of Art, whose vertical ceramic louvres recall historic musougoshi screens.

Historic Japanese architecture has also supplied the quite literal bedrock of the design of Rolex’s new Dallas office, which will be used as a sales and service centre. Its base is surrounded by a low rock rampart, a reference to the ishigaki walls around Japanese castles in the Edo period. In the Dallas building, the rampart is seen more as a point of connection with the city than as a defence from it. The floors of the seven-storey building rise from its raised base at the corner of Harry Hines Boulevard and Moody Street, and rotate like a slightly twisted deck of cards.

Kuma has a philosophy of integrating nature into his buildings. The way Kuma uses natural light, space and subtly modulated surfaces is unique. His architecture has been featured at four editions of the International Architecture Exhibition and again this year. “Creating an in-between space is a very important tradition in Japanese homes... But it is also a good solution for the hot summer climate in Dallas,” Kuma says.

Kuma is interested in blurring the boundaries between interiors and exteriors and takes great care to create in-between spaces and verandas in his buildings. Courtesy of Sadafumi Uchiyama Courtesy Kuma has a philosophy of integrating nature into his buildings, encouraged by Rolex, which, as a company championing the natural world, was keen to bring nature right into the heart of the busy streets of Dallas. The projecting edges of each floor-deck are covered with plants, and there are also gardens in the open, two-storey event space at the top of the building, and around its base – a “greening” provided by third-generation landscape designer Sadafumi Uchiyama. The event space is planted with trees, and the base around the building also has small pools and waterfalls.

Also typical of Kuma’s work are the design references to historic Japanese architecture. He is particularly interested in blurring the boundaries between interiors and exteriors : he always takes great care to create in-between spaces and verandas, known as engawa, in his buildings. “Creating an in-between space is a very important tradition in Japanese homes, and its function is ambiguous. But it is also a good solution for the hot summer climate in Dallas,” he says.

Kuma’s dematerializations of form and surfaces in the Rolex building are masterly. Each of the rising floorplates is screened externally by a set of three brise-soleil. “We wanted to give an impression of lightness, so there is thin aluminium for the brise-soleil, etched like wood grain on the underside. The edges are very precise – a sharp edge that’s as thin as possible, because edges are an important part of our design. Natural sunlight in Dallas is very strong, so we control that with 400 mm deep brise-soleil. The green balconies also control the reflection of sunlight into the building.”

Internally, there is a striking use of wood in what must be some of the most unusual office building interiors in Dallas. The walls and ceiling of the boardroom, for example, are lined with projecting wooden boards ; the staff lounge ceiling has overlapping boards ; and the walls of the ground floor reception area – which contains artefacts from Japanese warriors of the Edo period – are composed of gapped boards.

The delicate layered “These gaps are to increase the sense of lightness,” says Kuma. “And that was design of the Rolex very important because we wanted to avoid a feeling that was too solid.” And so, building’s exterior has the delicate layered design of the Rolex building’s exterior has been repeated, in a been repeated, in a different way, inside different way, inside the building. Every part of it embodies Kuma’s uniquely sensual the building. articulations of space, form, surface and nature.

Internally, there is a striking use of wood in what must be some of the most unusual office building interiors in Dallas. Historic Japanese architecture has been referenced in the design of Rolex’s new Dallas office, which will be used as a sales and service centre. Its base is surrounded by a low rock rampart, similar to a Japanese castle.

Rolex building, Dallas Floor area : 12,714 m² Office area : 5,241 m²

Images and sketches: courtesy of Kengo Kuma and Associates Precision-made in Milan

In Milan, the design commission for Rolex’s new repair and logistics centre was originally meant to transform an existing 1950s building in the Porta Romana area into something strikingly different to Rolex’s 19th-century offices in the city centre. Rolex appointed Studio Albini Associates because the practice’s excellent track record is based on projects involving the meticulously detailed modernization or adaptation of existing, often historic buildings. These have ranged from the Consob headquarters in Milan, in a skilfully modified 19th-century building ; the painstaking renovation of the historic clay and mud-brick Masmak Fortress in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ; and, more recently, the innovative restoration and extension of the St Maria Assunta Benedictine Monastery in Lombardy, Italy.

Francesco Albini, 45, realized immediately on taking the commission that the existing Rolex building on its V-shaped site at the junction of the Viale Angelo Filippetti and the Via Cassolo could not be adapted. Studio Albini found a radically different solution, producing a building with a dynamically moving, super-precise metal façade. This ability to meet challenges innovatively is central to the theme of the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, directed by Alejandro Aravena, and mirrors Rolex’s own long-held dedication to the spirit of enterprise.

Studio Albini, renowned for its sensitive reinvention of old buildings, created a design for an entirely new building : an ultra-modern structure featuring highly refined steel and technical systems, and maximized green areas. The stainless-steel look created a design reference to the steel used in Rolex watches.

The new repair and logistics centre in Milan has servicing workspaces on the ground and first floors, and a multi- function conference room on the top floor. Studio Albini was founded by Franco Albini (left) in 1930. A versatile architect, he designed Francesco Albini is the third museums, subway stations and iconic furniture, such as the Veliero bookshelf. His son generation of his family working Marco (right) now heads the studio with his own son Francesco, pictured as a young child. as an architect in the atelier. The building provides servicing workspaces on the ground and first floors, and a multi-function conference room on the top floor – the latter with wood-lined internal louvres. The service specialists have direct access to roof gardens – one on the wing that stretches along the Via Cassolo, the other in the quiet courtyard on the north side of the building ; and a third on an extension of the ground floor. The courtyard contains a watch-servicing training school. The logistics and storage segment of the building is in the two-level basement.

The building is neatly “split open” at the angle where the two streets meet, creating a light-filled, three-storey entrance atrium. The structural design, with supporting columns passing down between the two-layered glass facades, ensures that the floors on the servicing and conference levels are column-free, making it easy to reconfigure the workspaces if necessary.

This degree of internal clarity and functional flexibility required a great deal of fine- tuning, a process that has been part of Studio Albini’s ethos since it was founded by The new Rolex building is an example Franco Albini in 1930. He was a highly versatile architect who produced museums, of refined modern subway stations and a stream of iconic furniture, such as the Canapo rocking chair architecture, and a new and the brilliantly minimalist glass, steel and wood Veliero bookshelf. Renzo Piano, kind of visual presence one of the 21st century’s greatest living architects, once worked as an intern in befitting the brand. his practice. Today, Studio Albini is headed by Franco Albini’s son, Marco, and his own son, Francesco – who, rather fittingly, was once an intern at Piano’s atelier.

Motorized vertical metal louvres automatically change angle as the sun passes.

The building has perfect control of the light, and privacy – so the people working inside can see out, but they cannot be seen from the street. The structure is neatly “split open” at the angle where the two streets meet, creating a light- filled, three-storey entrance atrium. Franco Albini described his designs as artigianato razionalizzato – rationalized The building has craft. And that’s exactly what was involved in the design and fabrication of the 1,000 stainless Rolex building’s louvres and screens, which are the key features on its facades. steel perforated screens, 1 mm thick, The vertical metal louvres are motorized and automatically change angle as the positioned between sun passes across the street-facing elevations ; and there are 1,000 stainless the two layers of steel perforated screens, 1 mm thick, positioned between the two layers of glazing on the facade. glazing on the facade. “The building has perfect control of the light, and privacy – so the people working inside can see out, but they can’t be seen from the street,” says Albini.

Studio Albini’s tests on full-scale mock-ups of offices and the complex facade elements took a year. “This meant we could really study the detail and solve any problems,” says Albini. “We didn’t know exactly how the steel would behave in the sun, or when the outside temperature was high.”

The perforated steel was rolled and cut to obtain perfect smoothness. Even the way the sheets were moved from the rollers to the polishing machine had to be tested – the smallest dent caused by imprecise handling would have been highly visible on the facades.

The Rolex building’s artigianato razionalizzato is also evident in its computer- controlled technical and environmental systems. Heating and cooling are mediated by a ground-source heat pump connected to three 60 m deep boreholes under the building ; every room has a light sensor ; there is a mixture of natural and mechanical ventilation ; and there is a big array of photovoltaic energy panels on the roof of the conference hall.

For the Milanese, the new Rolex building has become a literally shining example of refined modern architecture – and a new kind of visual presence befitting the brand : “We wanted the architecture to show the metal material and the light reflecting from it, and the changes in the quality of the light through the day,” says Albini.

Rolex building, Milan Site area : 2,000 m² Floor area : 6,000 m²

Images and sketches: courtesy of Studio Albini Architects of the future

Rolex has the privilege of inspiring the next generation of brilliant young architects through its philanthropic programme, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, which brings some of the world’s greatest artists in seven disciplines together with highly promising young talents in a one-to-one mentoring relationship. The disciplines include dance, film, theatre, music, visual arts and literature. Architecture became a distinct discipline in 2012.

Mentors are asked to spend a minimum of six weeks during the year with their protégé, shaping their ideas and sharing experiences, even collaborating on a work. The results are often profound for both mentor and protégé. So far, Álvaro Siza (Portugal), Kazuyo Sejima (Japan) and Peter Zumthor (Switzerland) have each mentored a gifted young architect through the programme.

Of his experience mentoring Jordanian architect Sahel Al-Hiyari in 2002–2003, Álvaro Siza said : “For one who loves architecture, it means a great deal to share his experiences and to come into contact with the enthusiasm of a younger generation that fights for a new and better world.”

The experience was a salutary one for Al-Hiyari. “The year of mentoring occurred at a critical stage of my life,” he says. “Working with an architect of Álvaro Siza’s calibre and passion convinced me that, despite the difficulties I had been encountering in Jordan, I had to continue to practise architecture there. This is what I am meant to be doing.” In 2012–2013, In 2012–2013, Kazuyo Sejima mentored young Chinese architect, Yang Zhao. Sejima Kazuyo Sejima asked Zhao to design a Home-for-All, a communal gathering place that was part mentored Yang Zhao, of a project created by leading Japanese architects in response to the devastation a seminal experience caused by the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Yang Zhao, who has his own practice in Dali, for the young Chinese architect. China, says of working with Sejima : “She senses the world around her, observes and examines these senses and transforms them into her architecture.” Now, he says, he sees the world with “different eyes”.

Of his experience mentoring Jordanian architect Sahel Al-Hiyari in 2002–2003, Álvaro Siza said : “For one who loves architecture, it means a great deal to share his experiences.” The Rolex Learning The Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Center was opened in Switzerland, by Ryue 2010, the same year Nishizawa and Kazuyo that Ryue Nishizawa Sejima of SANAA, is and Kazuyo Sejima widely considered to be an won the Pritzker icon of modern design. Architecture Prize. Switzerland, Paraguay and South Korea were the settings for Peter Zumthor and A sketch by Peter Gloria Cabral’s mentoring year in 2014–2015. Cabral accompanied Zumthor to Seoul Zumthor for the to meet a Catholic priest who wanted to commission the design and construction tea chapel, which is destined for a Catholic of a tea chapel and found herself assigned to the project. She spent several months park in Seoul. working with her mentor and his team in Haldenstein, Switzerland, and immersing Courtesy of Atelier Peter Zumthor & Partner herself in Zumthor’s architectural principles, which favour a deeply human response over an intellectual one.

Switzerland, Paraguay and South Korea were the settings for Peter Zumthor and Gloria Cabral’s mentoring year in 2014–2015.

Zumthor, who also visited Cabral’s home town, Asunción, was impressed by Cabral’s aesthetic touch. “Our intuition knows much more than our conscious brain knows,” says Zumthor. “She has an inner strength and that inner certainty. She trusts her intuitions. I would never have to tell Gloria, ‘Gloria, be brave ! Gloria, work more ! Trust your intuitions !’ She has all of this.”

After visiting South Korea with Zumthor, Cabral was asked to manage the design of a tea chapel. Tranquillity pervades the atmosphere at Peter Zumthor’s atelier in Haldenstein, Switzerland, where he and his team of architects collaborate closely. Architecture mentor 2O16–2O17

British architect Sir David Chipperfield is the architecture mentor in the Rolex Arts Initiative in 2016–2017. Sir David is motivated to be a mentor because, he says : “Without such encouragement, perhaps I would not have challenged myself, or had the confidence to imagine or dream.”

Sir David is renowned for a portfolio that spans civic and cultural buildings, houses, hotels and offices, as well as shop interiors, furniture, lighting and tableware. Today, he employs more than 250 people in his London, , Milan and Shanghai offices. Among his notable buildings are numerous museums, such as the reconstructed in Berlin, where he is currently designing a new entry building to the city’s , and the Museo Júmex in . In 2011, the year he was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for Architecture, he completed two UK galleries, Turner Contemporary in Margate, which was recently chosen as one of the 21 landmarks that define Britain in the 21st century, and The Hepworth in Yorkshire. Ongoing projects include the Nobel Center in , an expansion of the Kunsthaus Zürich in Switzerland, and the restoration of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

Sir David was recently selected to redesign the modern and contemporary art wing and adjacent areas of New York’s Metropolitan Museum and to reconfigure and renovate the in London. In 2012, he curated the Venice Architecture Biennale, the first British architect to serve as curator. Knighted in 2010 for his services to architecture in the UK and Germany, he received the prize in 2013 in recognition of a lifetime’s work.

Rolex is grateful to other major architects who have assisted as advisors to the Arts Initiative : Frank Gehry, Lord Norman Foster, Daniel Libeskind, and Ryue Nishizawa.

rolexmentorprotege.com

©Ingrid von Kruse ©Ingrid von From top left : Frank Gehry, Lord Norman Sir David Chipperfield Foster, Daniel Libeskind and Ryue Nishizawa have all assisted the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative as advisors. A culture

of excellencE

Rolex’s continuing sponsorship of the International Architecture Biennale reflects the company’s wider interest in all forms of design excellence. A commitment to the highest quality across the entire company is an essential part of Rolex’s corporate philosophy. It permeates all aspects of the brand, from aesthetics to technology, from marketing to logistics, from the revolutionary idea to the smallest adjustment, and to all the buildings where its watches are made. It is the Rolex Way.

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