A mesmerising edition of The Dalmore Luminary Series is unveiled in Venice

How can you make an object greater than the sum of its parts? How can you make something that will resonate, that will sing to an audience? These are just some of the questions posed by Ben Dobbin, senior partner at Foster + Partners, when conceiving his latest project – the third edition of The Dalmore’s Luminary Series, unveiled on the eve of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025.

In an appealing triumvirate of architecture, whisky, and sculpture, co-curated with V&A Dundee and following collaborations with Kengo Kuma in 2022 and Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) in 2024, this edition sees Dobbin explore the tension between creative precision and fluid artistry, both in liquid and in form.

Meet the Dalmore Luminary Series sculpture No.3

The result is two highly collectable whisky releases: The Rare – an exceptionally rare 52-year-old Single Malt; and The Collectable, a remarkable 17-year-old Single Malt Whisky inspired by The Rare and available in a limited edition of just 20,000 bottles. The former is housed in a sculptural bronze structure by Dobbin. Bold, asymmetrical, and improbably but beautifully suspended through a technique known as tensegrity, it’s a piece that pays homage to both natural forces and structural finesse.

'There’s something magical about creating a form that seems to defy gravity,' says Dobbin, who, as head of the firm’s San Francisco office, counts Apple Park in Cupertino and the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco among his completed works.

As with every architectural project, translating The Dalmore’s illustrious history, narrative and artistry into a sculptural artwork began with a full immersion into the revered whisky maker’s world. Working alongside Master Distiller Richard Paterson OBE and Master Whisky Maker Gregg Glass, Dobbin was immediately drawn to what he describes as a 'choreography' of taste. 'They design flavour the way we design buildings,' he says. 'There is an understanding of flow, layers and deliberate tension.' They quickly found a shared language. 'We spoke about high notes, low notes, rhythm and composition – in whisky, in music, in painting. It’s all connected.'

Composed of smooth curves and intersecting bronze rods, the housing for The Rare echoes both the flowing topography of the Scottish Highlands and the layered complexity of the whisky itself. 'Whisky making is so deeply tied to place. The river, the loch, the Highlands feed the distillery, and the distillery creates the whisky. That entire cycle shaped my concept and the sculpture became a kind of landscape in itself – a curvilinear expression of the cradling of the centrepiece whisky, just as the Highlands cradle the loch.'

Time was of the essence, though not in terms of deadlines. Both whisky making and architecture share a need to create outcomes that will at once evolve from history and endure for many years to come. Every sense must be considered, something that also led Dobbin to consider musical instruments. 'The harp is something that has been refined and perfected over time,' he explains. 'It’s beautiful to hear and a feat of engineering, but no one can say who designed it. It’s evolved. That’s true of great design – it endures beyond its authorship. The violin is another example: a humble object that fills a space many times its size. It’s greater than the sum of its parts.'

Dobbins has always been fascinated by how one discipline can influence another. 'Like a helicopter blade made of laminated timber informing the design of a dining chair, there’s beauty in that cross-pollination. At Foster + Partners, there’s an obsession with the refinement of engineering – economy, lightness, and precision. That thinking is very much in my DNA.'

The whisky itself, The Rare, was finished in an array of casks, from Vintage 1980 Calvados and 1940 Colheita Port to 40-year-old Pedro Ximénez Sherry and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. 'The dialogue with Ben inspired us to revisit casks we’d set aside years ago, including Calvados barrels we had the foresight to lay down before they were even officially approved for Scotch finishing,' says Gregg Glass, The Dalmore’s master whisky maker. 'It was a creative process of tension and release.'

The Dalmore Luminary 2025 Edition – The Rare is available via Sotheby’s Hong Kong until 16 May, with all proceeds benefiting V&A Dundee. Leonie Bell, the museum’s director, sees the Luminary Series as a natural extension of design’s power to move across disciplines. 'The beauty of this project lies in its synthesis,' she notes. 'Whisky, architecture, sculpture – each element elevates the others.' Dobbin would agree: 'The Dalmore makers have spent decades refining their art. I’ve spent decades refining mine. But when you step outside your discipline and create something new together – something that neither one of you could have made alone – that’s when things get interesting.'

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