2024-04-27T04:44:44-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/149947957/dispatch-from-the-venice-biennale-uruguay-s-underground-germany-s-construction-site-britain-s-housekeeping-and-more-from-the-national-pavilions Andrea Dietz 2016-05-27T13:40:00-04:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/jx/jx3g8yat642esuxo.JPG?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p><em>May 26, 2016</em></p><p>Aravena&rsquo;s Biennale for architecture to give a damn might imply a specific kind of project, but, after one day on the ground, it is clear that there is no one way for it to respond. For one thing, there is a truly incomprehensible quantity of material to cover. The volume alone speaks to the complex of energy and passion coming worldwide from the discipline. After an incomplete first pass around the Giardini and a tactical visit to the Arsenale, Venice&rsquo;s two main Biennale sites, I am struck by the inconsistency and individuality across and within these many contributions. Noteworthy trends may, at some point, emerge from the crowd, but, for now, I can list a few, non-representative soundbites only:</p><p>The <a href="http://archinect.com/features/article/149945782/previewing-the-2016-venice-biennale-the-united-states-architectural-imagination" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">US Pavilion, &ldquo;The Architectural Imagination,&rdquo;</a> gives us architecture as we have come to expect it. Through twelve proposals for four Detroit sites, it posits the speculative as the instrument of societal uplift, offering up wild thinking as the means of igniting change. It do...</p>