Valerio Olgiati studierte Architektur an der ETH Zürich, arbeitete als Architekt in Los Angeles, seit 1996 eigenes Architekturbüro, zunächst in Zürich, seit 2008 in Flims. Er untersichtete als Gastprofessor an der ETH Zürich, an der AA London und an der Cornell University, New York. Seit 2002 ist er Professor an der Accademia die architettura in Mendrisio, von Herbst 2009 bis Frühjahr 2010 führte er in Harvard den Kenzo Tange-Chair. Im Herbst 2011 wird er Vorlesungen an der Tokio University halten.

Until very recently, the young Dutch architect Anne Holtrop had only built a few small pavilions and various installations between art and architecture. Outside of conventional architectural circuit, and more related to the art installations, these extremely poetic pavilions consisted of small-scale spatial concepts and personal research on materials. However, the work of Holtrop took a leap of scale with two projects finished in 2015: the Museum Fort Vechten in Bunnik (near Utrecht, The Netherlands) and the National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain for the Milan Universal Exhibition of 2015. The former, a museum built within the enclosure of the New Hollandic Water Line fortifications, dug into the ground to create dark concrete walled galleries opening onto a courtyard artificial. The second, the National Pavilion of Bahrain is enclosed by a tall concrete wall that contains an interior maze of galleries, corridors and gardens.