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Architecture & Design Shortlist
Hotel Florio
Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni
Series description
On 5 January 1979, Raffaele Cutolo, the leader of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO) criminal organisation, gathered criminal leadership at the Hotel Florio to establish the NCO’s territorial control over Puglia, Italy. The hotel hosted the summit like an important political gathering, as new hierarchies and rules were established to govern the region outside state authority. The hotel still stands between Foggia and San Severo, but all that remains of this architectural witness is empty rooms and halls, silent corridors, a drained pool and a weed-engulfed pine forest.
The entrance hallway leading from the reception area to the guest floors. Hotel Florio was known for hosting prominent organised crime figures long before Raffaele Cutolo’s 1979 summit, its spatial layout allowing controlled access between public hospitality areas and the restricted upper floors.
© Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Architecture & Design, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards
Room 247, identified by a numbered metal door marked by dust and years of abandonment. Guest rooms provided standardised, anonymous accommodation for criminal leaders gathered to negotiate territorial control.
© Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Architecture & Design, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards
A regional map of northern Puglia and the Adriatic coast, on display in the hotel lobby. The geography corresponds to some of the areas discussed during the 1979 summit held at the hotel.
© Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Architecture & Design, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards
The hotel’s main dining hall, designed for group meals and events. Ordinary hospitality spaces supported the logistical needs of the summit, where negotiations unfolded alongside routine hotel functions.
© Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Architecture & Design, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards
A metal roller shutter pierced by multiple bullet impacts. It is not known when the damage occurred, but the bullet holes remain part of the material record of a building associated with organised crime activity.
© Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Architecture & Design, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards
Detail of the reception area, featuring decorative illustrations, including a firearm alongside leisure motifs. The imagery reflects the visual language of a leisure hotel later intersected by criminal use.
© Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Architecture & Design, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards
A hall overlooking the pine forest surrounding Hotel Florio. Rooms like this were used during the 1979 mafia summit, providing a fully serviced meeting space within the hotel’s guest and conference layout.
© Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Architecture & Design, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards
Exterior detail of Hotel Florio. The structure remains intact despite its abandonment, preserving the spatial framework of a site where parallel governance was organised outside state authority.
© Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Architecture & Design, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards