ArchDaily · Creativity & design

Hidden Forces Exhibition Explores Architecture's Invisible Influences

The Hidden Forces project, hosted at Bologna's Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau, investigates the unseen factors that shape architectural design and construction. An exhibition and public program aim to uncover the complex interplay of forces beyond the built form.

The project highlights how economic, political, environmental, regulatory, cultural, and social dynamics influence what can be designed and built. Curated by Atelier Atollo and Politi Perugini, it examines how architecture is shaped by contemporary transformations.

The exhibition features Federico Perugini's Relics series, which uses concrete and steel to represent infinitesimal sections of structural columns from six existing buildings by architects like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. These works explore the history of the reinforced-concrete frame and the invisible forces within them.

Organized around four themes—Tools, Relationships, Regulations, and Intentions—the Relics series pairs works to reveal affinities and contrasts between different authors, periods, and geographies.

Authored columns, conceived as spatial and interpretative devices, further explore the capacity of columns to produce architecture. These include works by Archizoom Associati, Duccio Maria Gambi, architecten jan de vylder inge vinck, and a piece by Le Corbusier.

These diverse works amplify themes embedded in the exhibited pieces, connecting them to broader economic, political, environmental, social, and cultural conditions that impact architectural practice today.

The exhibition aims to reconstruct a map of these usually imperceptible forces and tensions that shape architecture.

The exhibition runs from September 21 to October 15, 2026, at the Esprit Nouveau Pavilion in Bologna.

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