Dispatch from the Venice Biennale: IKEA meets Super Realism, Nostalgia and Nationalism, British Pavilion and Russian Pavilion

2016-06-04T16:39:00-04:00

The 2016 Venice Biennale challenged, through its theme, architects to engage with the pressing concerns of the world, issues that affect the majority of the world population, whether it is safety and security, the quality and quantity of housing or the cost and scarcity of materials. It raises the question of what is architecture and what impact can it have and what is the role of the architect, the news on the British and Russian Pavilions is that they have very different takes on that position.

The British Pavilion is slick and sophisticated, with finely crafted elements and objects. One enters a strange world of Super-Realist IKEA. It is a serious work, no Monty Python humour here, which was enjoyable with the 2014 installation. It takes the future question of housing and living through five time frames, with installations by different designers, from minutes to years, looking at shared living, ‘shell’ housing, and re-functioning. A projection of future living, asking some fundame...

Curatorial team announced for the British Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale

2015-10-23T04:19:00-04:00

The British Council announced today the winning proposal for the British Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennial of Architecture: Home Economics, a project authored by the architecture writers Shumi Bose and Jack Self alongside the architect and planner Finn Williams.

According to the curatorial team, Home Economics will address "the frontline of British architecture: the family home." The team plans to divide the British Pavilion into a series of 1:1 immersive domestic spaces, designed by a "multidisciplinary team of architects, artist, designers and developers."

In their proposal, the team writes, "The exhibition will ask urgent questions about the future of housing. Social and technological changes are collapsing the patterns of domestic life - but the design of the home hasn't caught up. Can the house ever escape its economic status as an asset? Should our homes still be considered private spaces? How do new types of families and households produce new spatial needs? What are the m...

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Dispatch from the Venice Biennale: IKEA meets Super Realism, Nostalgia and Nationalism, British Pavilion and Russian Pavilion

Curatorial team announced for the British Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale