This publication is an integral part of the exhibition at the The Uzbekistan National Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Responding to the Biennale’s overarching theme, Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., the pavilion of Uzbekistan titled A Matter of Radiance investigates the scientific and cultural relevance of a modernist scientific structure, the Heliocomplex “Sun”, built in 1987 near Tashkent. The complex is one of only two structures worldwide equipped with a large solar furnace to study material behaviour at extreme temperatures. Capable of reaching temperatures close to 3,000 degrees Celsius very fast, the furnace was initially conceived for space and military research, but is now being considered for its potential as a hub for material innovation and sustainability, contributing to Uzbekistan’s broader commitment to a sustainable future.

This catalogue looks beyond the architectural elements to the least documented aspects of the furnace: the reasons behind its conception and the process of development, the key figures, and its actual, rather paradoxical existence. As well as attempting to document important historical, technological, and architectural decisions, this publication assembles a series of narratives—factual, personal, analytical, fictional—that build a blurred image of what this place could actually signify.

The catalogue contributors include the writer Suhbat Aflatuni, the sociologist Steven Woolgar, the artist Armin Linke, as well as, the emerging Tashkent artists Azamat Abbasov, Ester Sheynfeld, and Mukhiddin Riskiyev. The interviews with Tashkent physicists Odilkhuja Parpiev, Ilkhom Pirmatov, Sultan Suleymanov, and with Rustam Azimov, the son of Sadyk Azimov, unveil untold stories about the conception and history of this modernist infrastructure and highlight the legacy of Sadyk Azimov, the Uzbek physicist and academician who dedicated his career to the construction and launch of the Institute.