Archinect - News

Venice Biennale postponed to May 2021

2020-05-18T09:49:00-04:00

The 17th International Architecture Exhibition for the Venice Biennale has been postponed for a second time due to the Coronavirus pandemic and is now rescheduled to take place May 22nd to November 21, 2021.

The exhibition, titled How Will We Live Together? and curated by Hashim Sarkis, was originally scheduled to take place in Venice from August 29th through November 29th 2020, but has been moved to next year as an "acknowledgment that it is impossible to move forward – within the set time limits – in the realization of such a complex and worldwide exhibition, due to the persistence of a series of objective difficulties caused by the effects by the health emergency underway," according to the La Biennale organization.

Additionally, the 59th International Art Exhibition, curated by Cecilia Alemani, meant to accompany the architecture show has also been postponed for a year and will now take place in 2022.

The organization continues, "The current situation, up to now, has definitel...

Here are the designers who will exhibit at the 2020 Venice Biennale

2020-03-02T16:24:00-05:00

The list of participants for the 17th Architecture Biennale in Venice have been announced by Paolo Baratta, President of La Biennale di Venezia, and Hashim Sarkis, curator of the Biennale.

In total, the event will bring together 114 designers and architecture firms whose work will be laid out across a collection of themed blocks focusing on topics that grow from those encompassing the technological and political realities of the human body to ones that include the United Nations and global ecological regions and systems.

Describing the goal of the biennale, Sarkis explains in a statement, "We need a new spatial contract. In the context of widening political divides and growing economic inequalities, we call on architects to imagine spaces in which we can generously live together."

Chicago architects Paul Andersen and Paul Preissner were selected in 2019 as the curators for the United States Pavilion at the Biennale. The pair's exhibition, American Framing, is set to explore "the...

Venice Biennale is on track for its scheduled opening on May 23

2020-02-28T16:08:00-05:00

Following a week of speculation and concern over the mounting coronavirus outbreak, organizers for the 17th Architecture Biennale in Venice have announced that the event will proceed as planned.

In a livestreamed announcement broadcast via the Biennale's website, Paolo Baratta, President of La Biennale di Venezia, explains that one of the main goals of the vent is to bring architecture into the front and center of public discourse. "Architecture," Baratta explains, "makes us more aware individuals, it makes us citizens, not just consumers."

He adds, "The space we share, the place where a civilization has developed gives us the possibility to consider welfare in a much more complete way [...] it helps us donate to ourselves some happiness."

Previously on Archinect: "2020 Venice Biennale asks: 'How will we live together?'" Paolo Baratta, president of La Biennale di Venezia, and Hashim Sarkis, curator of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, have unveiled a guiding vision...

2020 Venice Biennale asks: "How will we live together?"

2019-07-16T13:12:00-04:00

How will we live together? That’s the question on the minds of Paolo Baratta, president of La Biennale di Venezia, and Hashim Sarkis, curator of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, as they unveil a guiding vision for the 2020 Venice Biennale.

Baratta and Sarkis announced the theme in Venice this morning, issuing an appeal for a “new spatial contract” guided by architects that can “imagine spaces in which we can generously live together.” According to the pair, architects can and should be responsible for articulating bold new visions for the changing state of human occupation of the world that draw together different professions and groups of people toward diverse and just ends.

Architects should bring people “together as human beings who, despite our increasing individuality, yearn to connect with one another and with other species across digital and real space; together as new households looking for more diverse and dignified spaces for inhabitation; together as emer...

Hashim Sarkis to curate 2020 Venice Biennale Architecture Exhibition

2018-12-19T13:19:00-05:00

Architect and educator Hashim Sarkis has been appointed as Director of La Biennale di Venezia's Architecture Sector, tasking him to curate the 7th International Architecture Exhibition in 2020.

Sarkis started his firm Hashim Sarkis Studios, with offices in Cambridge and Beirut, in 1998 and has served as Dean of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning since January 2015. He was a member of the international jury of the Biennale Architettura 2016.

"The world is putting new challenges in front of architecture," said Sarkis, who has an expertise in design in the Middle East and Muslim societies. "I look forward to working with participating architects from around the world to imagine together how we are going to rise to these challenges."

Listen to our 2015 podcast interview with Hashim Sarkis, almost one year into his Deanship at MIT.

The list of recent Venice Biennale Architecture Directors includes Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects (2018),...

Hashim Sarkis & Amale Andraos among DesignIntelligence's Top 25 Most Admired Educators

2015-12-11T11:26:00-05:00

Each year, DesignIntelligence honors excellence in education and education administration by naming 25 exemplary professionals in these fields. The 2016 class of education role models was selected by DesignIntelligence staff with extensive input from thousands of design professionals, academic department heads, and students.

Listen to Archinect Sessions One-to-One's in-depth interview with Hashim Sarkis here, and check out our coverage of Amale Andraos here.

Meanwhile, here's the full list of the Top 25 most admired educators for 2016, with Design Intelligence's commentary as to why they were chosen (and with links to relevant Archinect coverage appearing in blue):

AMALE ANDRAOS | Columbia University

A talented designer with an active firm and the first female dean of the school, Amale Andraos integrates real world problems into the curriculum with a bold vision and strong leadership.

ALAN DEFREES | University of Notre Dame

Constantly pursuing knowledge in the field of building technology, Alan DeFrees is known as a passionate professor who is truly dedicated to teaching the technical aspects of architecture.

DAWN FINLEY | Rice University

Balancing heading her own Houston-based design office with teaching, Dawn Finley is admired for her focus on both the conceptual and built sides of architecture and for bein...

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Hashim Sarkis, Dean of MIT's School of Architecture + Planning, on Archinect Sessions One-to-One #5

2015-12-07T18:08:00-05:00

Before coming to MIT to serve as dean of the School of Architecture + Planning in January 2015, Hashim Sarkis taught at Harvard's GSD as the Aga Khan professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim Societies. He founded his own practice, Hashim Sarkis Studios, in Cambridge in 1998, and continues to lead the firm.

Sarkis’s experience working in two of the most highly-regarded architectural education institutions worldwide, while also managing his own firm, puts him in a unique position to approach theoretical questions of architecture from within the two, often discordant spheres of academia and practice. Our interview revolves around the same questions we ask in our Deans List series – how architecture education and practice are changing, how to address student needs, MIT’s particular take on how to cultivate exceptional architects, and the culture of the school in a global urban context.

Listen to our One-to-One #5 with Hashim Sarkis:

iTunes: Click here to listen and sub...

Schools shuffle and museums move forward: Weekly News Round-Up for October 27, 2014

2014-11-03T20:29:00-05:00

Friday, October 31:

New Plan for Architecture School at Wright Foundation: Facing the loss of its accreditation in 2017, the school is considering independent incorporation in order to continue operating.

Thursday, October 30:

Archinect's Lexicon: "Anthropocene": Recognizing that "Architecture notoriously appropriates and invents new language – sometimes to make appeals, sometimes to fill conceptual gaps, sometimes nonsensically", Archinect's new series will create a lexicon of (mostly new) discursive architectural terms.

Wednesday, October 29:

Relocation or Adaptation: São Paulo Nears Collapse as Drought Continues: Partially due to climate change and deforestation, major reservoirs are dangerously low and cities in São Paulo are beginning to go dry.
Snøhetta to take over SF development project near Civic Center: The condo design originally was given to Richard Meier, and may involve relocating the adjacent subway stop at Civic Center in downtown San Francisco.
The Broad Kinda Sorta Has an...

Hashim Sarkis named dean of the School of Architecture and Planning

2014-10-27T13:10:00-04:00

Hashim Sarkis — a prominent scholar of architecture and urbanism, a practicing architect whose works have been built in the United States and the Middle East, and a leading expert on design in the Middle East — has been named the new dean of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P), effective in January.