"Sometimes it is important to find out what the city is - instead of what it was, or what it should be." - Rem Koolhaas

Theme: Cities. Architecture & Society
The Biennale grounds are divided into the Giardini, sprinkled with some 40 national pavilions, and the Corderie dell'Arsenale, a series of converted naval warehouses, with Burdett's "Cities: Architecture and Society" theme intended to operate pervasively. However, very few participating countries in the Giardini demonstrate that they are up to the challenge to quantify and qualify the city and society within their borders, instead preferring tongue-in-cheek installations, stage set interiors, or unfocused curation. But herein lay Burdett's own challenge, the Venice Biennale has always tended toward themes of architectural styles and trends over the social or the contextual. Past themes suggest the subtext of the biennale as a visionary event, able to forecast the winds of trend in architecture, such as "Next" in 2002 or "Sensing the Future" in 1996. This year, thankfully, has no such stylistic ambitions. In addition, what is significant about Burdett's theme is its scale, the scale of a city or a region instead of the scale of a building. And with astounding growth and rapid development worldwide in urban areas, the subject is both timely and, not surprisingly, complex.

Giardini
In the Giardini, the best way to navigate the 40 pavilions is in a distracted state of mind allowing you to interpret the Cities thematic loosely. There are a few standout efforts that warrant further inspection. Here are my picks:

Best in Show
Denmark: Co-evolution







Runner-up (tie)
USA: After the Flood





Runner-up (tie)
Korea: Perma n stant









Mention Berlage Institute: Projecting the City






Nice Try
France: Metavilla





Main Exhibit: Corderie dell'Arsenale
The Arsenale contains the primary exhibit, and most accurately represents Burdett's vision for the Biennale. Here, sixteen cities are selected for statistical scrutiny. While some of these selections illuminate unique and emerging complex urban DNA - such as Shanghai, Mumbai, Bogotá, Caracas, and Cairo - others seem to default toward more traditional notions of the city - such as New York, London, Barcelona, and Berlin. Although one could argue that these are here as measuring sticks against the new urbanizing territories, more representation of how these cities operate as organisms might have substantiated that comparison.

Of course London and Barcelona are essential benchmarks in city development, socially and formally, but the selections miss an opportunity to further emphasize the diversity of city form. What about the politicized city (Jerusalem), the bombed city (Iraq), the dispersed city (Atlanta), the vacant city (Detroit), or the cold city (Moscow)? What about Seoul? What about Singapore? Or what about modes of the city, such as the wireless city or the airport city? Burdett's selections seem to suggest only two types of cities: the grid city driven by the automobile or the haphazard city driven by economic disparity. In either case, the exhibit remains focused more on the morphology and snapshot statistics of the city instead of the forces that have shaped them - the architecture of city.













Other Biennale Standouts


























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Cities. Architecture and Society runs from September 10 until November 19 2006 in Venice, Italy.

10th International Architecture Exhibition
Richard Burdett, Director

Mason White