Carlo Ratti's appointment as the next Venice Architecture Biennale director raises questions about how architecture's most important event will be impacted by Italy's far-right government, writes Catherine Slessor.

Just before Christmas, somewhat overlooked in the festive haze of tinsel and eggnog, it was announced that Italian architect and engineer Carlo Ratti has been appointed to be the next director of the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Ratti will helm the 19th iteration of the international architecture exposition in 2025, a responsibility that combines intellectual prestige with a strong whiff of poisoned chalice. The challenge is considerable: to steer and make sense of an unwieldy cultural juggernaut with the potential to burnish or upend reputations. It's been over 20 years since the architecture biennale had an Italian director. Massimiliano Fuksas was the last Italian incumbent, presiding over "Less Aesthetics ? More Ethics" in 2000. Prior to that, in the biennale's very early days, it was essentially an Italian old boys' club, with Aldo Rossi, Paolo Portoghesi and Francesco dal Co all taking turns.
Ratti would seem to represent a reversion to architecture's business-as-usual
But since Fuksas, the focus has been outwards, beyond Italy to the world. From the turn of the millennium, a roster of international luminaries, including Rem Koolhaas, Alejandro Aravena and Kazuyo Sejima, the first female director in 2010, have been invited to sprinkle stardust o...