Architecture nominee

The Stadtcasino Basel dates to 1824, when it first opened, but its current facilities come from later: the 1876 Musiksaal, the Hans Huber Hall from 1905 and the Casino completed in 1939.
In 2012 the famous archistars duo Herzog & de Meuron were commissioned to restore and extend the two pieces in the same neo-Baroque architectural tradition of the 19th-century original designed by Johann Jakob Stehlin.
The new Musiksaal, home to the Basel Symphony Orchestra and a Swiss landmark, reopened in 2020 but it was closed due to the Covid pandemic immediately after. From that moment, it has become one of the artistic icon closed off to the public delight because of the Covid.
The restored building and the concerts have come back to a regular activities in the Summer 2021 basically still unknown in its beauty by the public.

A Philosophy graduate, Francesca Pompei is specialised in Art and Architecture Photography and her professional collaborations include projects for AD-Italia, the Vatican City State, Emre Arolat Architecture, Jaca Book, Living Corriere della Sera, Artribune, Venaria Reale, the Cultural Heritage Ministry, the Italian Embassy in Qatar, TheTimes, The Guardian and The Washington Post. Artist selected to celebrate Italy’s Republic Day 2020 and 2021, she is winner of prestigious competitions such as Architecture MasterPrize 2022 and The Art of Building. She is included among the Exceptional Women In Architecture Photography and in the Annuario d'Arte Italiana 2022 promoted by Quadriennale di Roma and published by Treccani .
Her projects have been published on an international level and exhibited as part of solo and group exhibitions. She is a member of Sign Press and PhotoVogue, in addition to her role as a Professor of Photography in the Image and Storytelling Studio course of the Design, Multimedia and Visual Communication Department of the Faculty of Architecture in Sapienza University, in Rome. Since 2023 she has been appointed Photography Subject Expert at the faculty of Architecture of Sapienza University in Rome. Since 2025 she has been member of the Freelancers Network of The Washington Post.