HYDRA by Norman Foster + Norman Foster Foundation
The contemporary Venetian chandelier
Suspended beneath the arches of the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco, the project reinterprets one of the most representative objects of the Venetian tradition through architecture, engineering, glassmaking and light.
The work occupies a position between object, sculpture and architectural installation. It belongs to the history of the Venetian chandelier, while its construction and language belong to the present.
The chandelier thus becomes not only a lighting object, but a work suspended between memory and innovation, conceived to engage with one of the city’s symbolic places: Piazza San Marco.
In Hydra, the conventional hierarchy is inverted: the composition is not generated by a central body, but defined by the blown-glass arms. The chandelier’s branching structure remains recognizable, while floral ornament gives way to geometry, repetition, proportion and transparency.
Â
Each glass element is made and shaped by hand in Salviati’s furnace in Murano, preserving variations in thickness, curvature and surface: differences that become an integral part of the character of the work, serving as visible evidence of the encounter between design precision and the artisan’s gesture.
Â
“Rather than reproducing a historical chandelier or its decorative vocabulary, the design seeks to understand its essential logic. The chandelier is approached as a system: a collection of individual glass elements organised around a central structure, balancing repetition and variation.
By reducing the object to those principles, it became possible to reconsider its geometry while retaining a recognisable connection to its Venetian origins.
Source: “Hydra, Venetian chandelier”, Norman Foster Foundation and Salviati, 2026.
With Venetian Chandelier, Salviati, Norman Foster and the Norman Foster Foundation team present a project in which tradition and innovation are parts of the same process. Between the gesture of the master glassmaker and the rigor of engineering, the chandelier shows how Murano’s knowledge can continue to generate new forms for the future.
“HYDRA – Venetian Chandelier” will be on view from September 13 to Novemeber 1, 2026 in the Procuratie Vecchie nearby to the historic Olivetti Showroom, one of the most evocative spots in Piazza San Marco, as part of “Murano Illumina il Mondo 2026” exhibition, dedicated to chandeliers created by twelve international artists in collaboration with twelve Murano glassmakers.
