The Vatican’s presence at the Biennale is the brainchild of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, an exuberant polymath who as president of the Pontifical Council for Culture since 2009 has tried to build bridges between the church and contemporary culture, two worlds that have often clashed. — nytimes.com

Documentary of the making of the first Angolan National Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Shot over the Summer of 2012, it goes to show how one simple (and brilliant) idea may very well change the future sustainability of developing countries. And maybe the rest of the world as well. — vimeo.com

Fundamentals will be a Biennale about architecture, not architects. After several Biennales dedicated to the celebration of the contemporary, Fundamentals will focus on histories – on the inevitable elements of all architecture used by any architect, anywhere, anytime (the door, the floor, the ceiling etc.) and on the evolution of national architectures in the last 100 years. — labiennale.org

Indicating his ambitions for the next showcase in 2014, Koolhaas said he planned to ‘give a new look’ to architecture’s basic elements ‘to see if we can discover something new about architecture.’

The festival’s board, chaired by Paolo Baratta, formally appointed the star architect to the role today. — architectsjournal.co.uk

On the occasion of the quickly approaching closing weekend of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition Common Ground at La Biennale di Venezia, the online community gets the chance to talk interactively in a live chat with David Chipperfield, curator of the exhibition. — bustler.net

Two weeks left until the David Chipperfield-curated 13th International Architecture Exhibition Common Ground closes its gates in Venice. On Saturday afternoon, November 24, visitors can participate in the "Great closing meeting" featuring panel discussions to review the goals of the exhibition and the reactions to Common Ground. The last day to visit the exhibition is Sunday, November 25. — bustler.net

Three winning projects were announced in the Future Cities, Planning for the 90 per cent competition: ateliermob (Portugal), Municipal Housing Secretariat of São Paulo (Brazil), and Interazioni Urbane (Italy). The projects are part of the exhibition Future Cities: Planning for the 90 per cent in Venice during the 13th Architecture Biennale. Ten projects were selected for the exhibition from more than 100 participants from several countries. — bustler.net

Last week, Bustler presented the project Connecting Greenland: AIR+PORT, designed by BIG, TENU, Julie Hardenberg and Inuk Silas Høgh, as part of the exhibition Possible Greenland in the Danish pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, Italy. Today's featured project from Possible Greenland is Greenland Migrating, developed in a collaboration between Henning Larsen Architects, David Garcia Studio and KITAA Architects. — bustler.net

The 13th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia opened its gates today and kicked off the events with the much anticipated Awards Ceremony in the Giardini. Golden Lions were presented to Toyo Ito, as representative of the Japanese Pavilion (Best National Participation Award), and the team Urban-Think Tank/Justin McGuirk, representing the exhibition Torre David / Gran Horizonte, 2012 (Best Project Award). — bustler.net

Innovation and research are the themes that define the work of the seven teams and the seven installations that articulate SPAINLAB, the exhibition at the Spanish Venice Biennale Pavilion curated by the architects Anton Garcia-Abril and Débora Mesa of Ensamble Estudio. — bustler.net

BIG in collaboration with TENU, Julie Hardenberg and Inuk Silas Høgh present Connecting Greenland: AIR+PORT as a part of the exhibition “POSSIBLE GREENLAND” at the Danish Biennale di Venezia Pavilion, exploring the potentials and challenges that Greenland is facing as the country gains global attention. — bustler.net

That moment in modern guerilla urbanism [...], is one of the highlights of "Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good," the American Pavilion's inherently political theme at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale. There will be no headlining starchitects or grandiose buildings. Instead, this year's pavilion presents this event and others like it, not as acts of whimsy, but rather as actions that address larger social issues. — artinfo.com

The Hong Kong Institute of Architects and Hong Kong Arts Development Council will participate in the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia with an exhibition focusing on the vital urban, architectural and cultural regeneration of Kowloon East, Hong Kong SAR. The exhibition is titled “Inter Cities / Intra Cities: Ghostwriting the Future”. — bustler.net

The Australian Institute of Architects has unveiled plans and preview images of its exhibition, Formations: New Practices in Australian Architecture, which will open at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale this August. In the face of new economic, social and cultural challenges, the exhibition at the Australian Pavilion seeks to act as a catalyst for discussion and debate around the changing role of architects and the ways in which they influence the world around them. — bustler.net