2024-11-05T03:25:00-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/102190685/archinect-rounds-up-critical-reactions-to-koolhaas-biennale Amelia Taylor-Hochberg 2014-06-19T11:42:00-04:00 >2024-01-23T19:16:08-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/9v/9vgex3jicofo8lwt.jpeg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>This year's Venice Biennale of Architecture, curated by Rem Koolhaas, officially opened on June 7, under the theme "Fundamentals". The deluge of criticism and reporting coming out of the Biennale will surely continue until it closes November 23, but so far reactions from the architectural journalism community seem pretty consistent. Critics seem at once relieved that the biennale is not given away to preening and doting upon architectural personalities, but instead focused on "<a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/66227111/rem-koolhaas-announces-fundamentals-to-be-2014-s-venice-biennale-theme" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">architecture, not architects</a>", as per Koolhaas' design. The flip-side of this could be seen as replacing objects of starchitectural value with a too-safe generalism, imbued with the self-importance of Koolhaas' cult of personality. Responses seem largely concerned with interpreting the man at the same time as his Biennale, rather than investigating the interplay of national pavilions' personalities under a unifying theme. But we've got many months to go, and this is only the beginning.</p><p>But with the sheer mass o...</p>