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The Venice Biennale closes on Sunday. What stood out this year?

2016-11-23T11:34:00-05:00

Planning your last-minute trip to Venice for the final days of the Architecture Biennale? Or would you prefer a redux, virtual version of the mega-event's best parts? Here's your CliffsNotes version of Alejandro Aravena's Biennale, from the comfort of your own screen:

First off, Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena (also the winner of the 2016 Pritzker) was selected to direct the Biennale in 2015, with hopes to exhibit “success stories worth to be told and exemplary cases worth to be shared where architecture did, is and will make a difference in those battles and frontiers". He later fleshed out the theme a bit under the title "Reporting from the Front", which many participants latched on to by addressing the Syrian refugee crisis, housing shortages, post-industrial cities, climate change and displacement.

Opening room at the Corderie dell'Arsenale. Photo by Andrea Avezzù, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia ↑

Before installation was even complete, we spoke with a selection of national ...

Paulo Mendes da Rocha named as 2016 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement winner

2016-05-06T14:17:00-04:00

2006 Pritzker laureate Paulo Mendes da Rocha will be honored with the 2016 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during opening day of the 2016 Venice Biennale on May 28. Upon the recommendation of Biennale Curator Alejandro Aravena, the Board of Directors decided on Mendes da Rocha's selection as the 2016 winner.

Noted by The Board of Directors as “a nonconformist challenger and passionate realist”, Mendes da Rocha was also cited for the “Timelessness” of his architecture. “Many decades after being built, each of his projects have resisted the test of time, both stylistically and physically...The role model he played for many generations of architects in Brazil, Latin America and everywhere is that of a person able to join shared and collective efforts.”

Not long after graduating from the Mackenzie Architecture School in 1954, Mendes da Rocha first gained public recognition when he won the 1957 national competition to design the Clube Atlético Paulistano gymnasium. As the winner of n...

Canada's 2016 Venice Biennale theme digs into the country's influence in resource extraction

2015-12-09T20:26:00-05:00

Canada's national theme for the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale will be a multimedia investigation of the country's resource extraction industry, as announced earlier this week by the Canada Council for the Arts. Titled "Extraction", the project profiles and "radically rethinks" Canada's rise as a "global resource empire" by delving into the histories, architectures, and political economies of the industry. The theme was selected as the winner of a national competition. In 2014, the well-regarded "Arctic Adaptions: Nunavut at 15" exhibition represented Canada.

Considering that the Great White North is home to 75% of Earth's prospecting and mining companies, resource extraction runs deep in the country's roots. "Extraction" will include an installation, a film, and a book featuring various perspectives drawn from history, business, art, activism, and more. Catherine Crowston of the Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) was appointed as the project's Official Commissioner while landscape urba...

Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena named architecture director of 2016 Venice Biennale

2015-07-20T16:03:00-04:00

Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has been named architecture director of the 2016 Venice Biennale, in a decision made by Biennale's Board on July 18. Known for award-winning architectural work under his own Santiao-based firm, Alejandro Aravena Architects, Aravena also serves as the executive director for ELEMENTAL, an “Urban Do Tank” focused on social housing, which he founded in collaboration with his architecture alma mater, Universidad Católica de Chile, and the Chilean Oil Company (COPEC). His work has previously been featured both in the 2008 and 2012 Venice Biennales, winning the Silver Lion in 2008. He was a visiting professor at Harvard University (2000 - 2005), and has served on the Pritzker Prize Jury since 2009.

Regarding the theme of the 2016 Biennale, Aravena has proposed a focus on inspiring, vanguard work in architecture, and to exhibit “success stories worth to be told and exemplary cases worth to be shared where architecture did, is and will make a difference in ...

Monica Ponce de Leon and Cynthia Davidson will curate US Pavilion at 2016 Venice Biennale

2015-06-18T15:26:00-04:00

The U.S. pavilion's exhibition, "The Architectural Imagination", will focus on Detroit as a case study for architectural interventions worldwide, with keen interest in "creativity and resourcefulness", according to a press release issued from the University of Michigan. Co-curators Cynthia Davidson, editor of Log journal, and Monica Ponce de Leon, dean of Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, will select architectural projects that address the pressing issues of 21st century cities, and engage with specific sites in Detroit.

Taubman was selected to organize the U.S. pavilion by the Department of State, and "The Architectural Imagination" theme was the result of an open competition led by The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, official managers of the U.S.'s role at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

By the time the Biennale actually takes place, Ponce de Leon will no longer be at Taubman – effective January 1, 2016, she will serve as dean at Princeton's arch...