ROLEX AND ARCHITECTURE
Rolex champions architectural achievement at the highest level. Architecture responds to our human and environmental challenges and profoundly influences our experience of public and private spaces. Well-designed buildings are both purposeful and visually striking with the capacity to create emotional connections between people and communities, contributing to general well-being. As in creating timeless watches, architectural masterpieces require meticulous attention to detail, from planning to execution, ensuring structural integrity and aesthetic harmony.

PARTNERSHIP WITH THE BIENNALE ARCHITETTURA
Since 2014, Rolex has served as Exclusive Partner and Official Timepiece of the Biennale Architettura. Renowned as the world’s leading forum for architectural ideas and debate, it runs from 10 May to 23 November 2025.

The curator, acclaimed Italian architect and engineer Carlo Ratti, titled the exhibition Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective and has asked for ideas on how the built environment can be adapted sustainably in the face of a warming world.

Some 60 countries mount a national pavilion in the exhibition, each of which chooses its own curator and exhibitors.

ROLEX PAVILION
Replacing the previous structure built in 2018, the Rolex Pavilion has been reimagined along principles of sustainability, using local craftspeople, traditional building methods and recycled materials. For the first time, Rolex invited a talented international architect, Mariam Issoufou, to design the pavilion with a brief to reflect the identity of the brand and its philosophy of sustainability that stems from creating watches that are made to last.

Issoufou’s architecture practice extends from Niamey to Zurich and New York. The ecological vulnerability of Venice, as well as Rolex’s commitment to craft, was her inspiration for the project. The Nigerien architect has an intersectional approach to sustainability, one that extends beyond environmental factors, ensuring that the pavilion promotes the social fabric, cultural history and economic conditions of crafters in Italy, and more specifically in Venice itself.

The pavilion features a wooden facade, crafted locally from recycled wood beams and fashioned to evoke the fluted bezel of many of Rolex’s iconic watches. Inside, the translucent coloured ceiling – made by Murano glassmakers – produces a range of shades and hues that morph throughout the day. The terrazzo flooring is made of an aggregate that includes recycled “Cottisso” crushed glass.

ROLEX PAVILION EXHIBITION
A film about the construction of the pavilion will be on display alongside models showing the evolution of its design, as well as images of work carried out by Italian craftspeople who live in or near Venice, and who supplied artisanal materials.

The exhibition also incorporates a variety of displays, including:

Reclaiming space in Beirut
French architect Anne Lacaton espouses building renewal over demolition. In 2023–2024, through Rolex, she mentored young Lebanese-Armenian architect Arine Aprahamian. In a documentary she directed Bourj Hammoud: The Value of the Existing, Aprahamian presents her two-year research project under the guidance of Lacaton. It explores how small and strategic interventions can improve daily life in Bourj Hammoud, a dense neighbourhood of Beirut where she grew up.

Commitment to craft
Rolex reveals its tradition of exquisite craftsmanship in the refurbishment of two boutiques through samples of materials and two films displayed in the pavilion.

In Milan, an extensive restoration of a Rolex boutique in the world-renowned Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, offers a new language for retail space design that is based on the enhancement for traditional Italian craftsmanship, and a selection of refined materials and custom furniture. ACPV ARCHITECTS Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel’ design was inspired by the original architectural details of the gallery, reviving its Milanese atmosphere in a contemporary key but preserving the historic value of the location. The boutique extends across three floors, and the restoration concept was designed to create a seamless continuity between the Galleria and the retail space, integrating patterns, geometry, and Venetian terrazzo flooring to maintain a strong connection with its surroundings.

In Tokyo, the new Rolex flagship store seamlessly blends tradition and modernity. Occupying four floors of the Rolex Tower, the facade and store were designed by Gwenael Nicolas of Tokyo-based design studio Curiosity, who worked with local artisans and artists. The building’s facade shimmers with a unique double bezel pattern thanks to metal mesh produced in Kyoto and embedded in the glass. In a kinetic effect, the pattern changes depending on the viewer’s angle. Delicate aesthetics are created by the subtle palette of carefully selected materials: travertine, Sen wood and frosted glass. Traditional Nishijin-ori fabric and deep green furniture with a lacquer-like texture provide a distinctly Japanese feel.

ABOUT MARIAM ISSOUFOU
An academic and architectural leader who puts intersectional sustainability at the heart of all projects, Mariam Issoufou is a Professor of Architecture Heritage and Sustainability at ETH Zurich who has previously occupied academic roles as Adjunct Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Brown University and as the 2021 Aga Khan critic at Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 2020, she was named as one of 15 Creative Women of Our Time by The New York Times. She founded Mariam Issoufou Architects in Niger, in 2014. One of her completed projects includes the Hikma Community Complex, a library and mosque complex in Niger, which won two global LafargeHolcim Awards for sustainable architecture.

ABOUT ARINE APRAHAMIAN
Lebanese-Armenian architect, designer and researcher Arine Aprahamian champions an innovative, affordable and sustainable vision of the future through architecture, drawing inspiration from science fiction and the qualities of existing sites. She founded architecture and design studio MÜLLER APRAHAMIAN with partner Adrian Müller in 2018, working on cutting-edge buildings and proposals, as well as on forward-thinking projects with notable designers, artists and institutions. They recently launched Terraforma, an in-house R&D project working with local industry to explore the traditional, ancient building material of clay and produce innovative, domestic alternatives for architectural materials. She is currently based in Rotterdam.

ABOUT ANNE LACATON
Named a Laureate of the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize along with her partner Jean-Philippe Vassal, Anne Lacaton is recognized internationally for designs that maximize the discipline’s human and environmental potential and make sustainable use of what already exists. Established in Paris in 1987, Lacaton & Vassal has since designed dozens of private and social housing projects, cultural and academic institutions, as well as public spaces, mostly throughout Europe. Lacaton has served as an Associate Professor of Architecture and Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich and has been a visiting professor at other leading universities, including the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 2025, she received the Jane Drew Prize for Architecture awarded for raising the profile of women in architecture.

ABOUT ROLEX
AN UNRIVALLED REPUTATION FOR QUALITY AND EXPERTISE
Rolex is an integrated and independent Swiss watch manufacture. Headquartered in Geneva, the brand is recognized the world over for its expertise and the quality of its products – symbols of excellence, elegance and prestige. The movements of its Oyster Perpetual and Perpetual watches are certified by COSC, then tested inhouse for their precision, performance and reliability. The Superlative Chronometer certification, symbolized by the green seal, confirms that each watch has successfully undergone tests conducted by Rolex in its own laboratories according to its own criteria. These are periodically validated by an independent external organization. The word ‘Perpetual’ is inscribed on every Rolex Oyster watch. But more than just a word on a dial, it is a philosophy that embodies the company’s vision and values. Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of the company, instilled a notion of perpetual excellence that would drive the company forward. This led Rolex to pioneer the development of the wristwatch and numerous major watchmaking innovations, such as the Oyster, the first waterproof wristwatch, launched in 1926, and the Perpetual rotor self-winding mechanism, invented in 1931. In the course of its history, Rolex has registered over 600 patents. At its four sites in Switzerland, the brand designs, develops and produces the majority of its watch components, from the casting of the gold alloys to the machining, crafting, assembly and finishing of the movement, case, dial and bracelet. Furthermore, the brand is actively involved in supporting the arts and culture, sport and exploration, as well as those who are devising solutions to preserve the planet.