Archinect - News

Ole Bouman reviews Biennales, in general, via the Venice Biennale

2018-11-15T15:13:00-05:00

..And that’s why every two years the global professional community gathers again to not just see the show, but meet each other against the backdrop of the ultimate protagonist: Venice itself.

Director of Design Society Ole Bouman reviews Biennales in general via the Venice Biennale.

"Social respect and admiration for architecture are often derived from this magnetism, and are manifested by the intensity of experiencing it. Respect for the discipline is eventually not founded on intention or on an agenda. This simple insight invokes the awkwardness of so many architectural exhibitions and publications, which cannot but represent an intention or interpretation over the real thing. And it explains why more or less all architectural exhibitions fail to prove their point to anyone outside the discourse of architecture, or to a large group of people who would rather love or hate architecture than make a lengthy effort to understand it."

BIG's 'Humanhattan 2050' promotes resilient design for NYC waterfront at the Venice Architecture Biennale

2018-06-20T14:40:00-04:00

Lower Manhattan could be the first to test out an innovative system that is being proposed as a way to protect cities from rising sea levels and future storms. Called “Humanhattan 2050,” a visionary idea from Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) that’s on view in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, the project not only proposes new infrastructure to safeguard the waterfront for the next hundred years, it will also make these spaces more accessible and enjoyable.

Image via @BIGstertweets/Twitter.

Avid Archinect readers will remember the "Humanhattan 2050" scheme from its initial iteration, BIG's 2014 Rebuild by Design competition-winning proposal "The BIG U" in response to the most devastating storm ever to hit New York, Hurricane Sandy, and the need for resilient, disaster-prepared city planning.

Image via @BIGstertweets/Twitter.

"The 'Humanhattan 2050' exhibit for the Venice Architecture Biennale is a vision that expands upon BIG’s winning idea by enlarging the boundaries of Lower Manhattan with a building development created on an extension of land it cleverly calls MOMA, which is short for MOre MAnhattan," writes Paul Laster for the Observer.

Curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara discuss the 2018 Venice Biennale's theme, Freespace

2018-06-12T13:23:00-04:00

The 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale is well underway, having opened its doors officially to the public on May 26th. Curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects under the title of Freespace, this year's biennale has put a slew of projects on display that are generous and open, asking visitors to enjoy the temporary environments they find themselves in.

In the following video, PLANE—SITE speaks with the Irish architects about the choice for this edition’s theme. The duo has stated their mission is to move beyond architecture as an object, instead imagining Freespace as an invitation to think about architecture as a space of opportunities. Literally and metaphorically, Freespace presents environments of freedom and celebrates the rich civic experience that they create.

Croatia designs immersive, robot-built “Cloud Pergola” Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Biennale

2018-06-07T16:06:00-04:00

For the 2018 Venice Biennale, Croatia's “Cloud Pergola / The Architecture of Hospitality” Pavilion reflects on spaces of hospitality, the environment, automated design, and architecture's role in the 21st century. Designed by a team curated by Croatian architect Bruno Juričić, Cloud Pergola is said to be one of the world's largest and most complex 3D-fabricated structures.

Architect Bruno Juričić at Cloud Pergola. Photo: Jan Stojkovic.

Photo: Jan Stojkovic.

Based on the traditional pergola, the pavilion comprises of three interplaying interventions. The main installation is “Cloud Drawing” by architect Alisa Andrašek in collaboration with Bruno Juričić. Working with Arup and manufacturer Ai-Build, the “mathematized cloud” structure was made from about 661 pounds of 3D-printed biodegradable plastic, and was largely fabricated by robots. The structure “integrates site-specific environmental data into a synthesis of form, figure, posture, tectonics, porosity, and light effect”.

“To Stil...

Together and Apart - The 2018 Latvian Pavilion

2018-06-02T17:38:00-04:00

The Latvian Pavilion during the 16th International Architecture Exhibition Biennale Architettura 2018, titled Together and Apart, looks at apartment buildings in relation to architecture’s role in organizing society. It examines how this architectural typology generates ways of living together and apart although the individual apartment provides the possibility to separate one from the outside, it is always a part of a common structure.

...how this architectural typology generates ways of living together and apart although the individual apartment provides the possibility to separate one from the outside...

Together and Apart. Photo: Ansis-Starks

Together and Apart is curated by a multidisciplinary team consisting of architect and urbanist Evelīna Ozola, architect Matīss Groskaufmanis, scenographer Anda Skrējāne and Director of the New Theatre Institute of Latvia Gundega Laiviņa. This exhibition aims to explore the question of living together in...

“Architectural Ethnography”: Japan's 2018 Venice Biennale Pavilion depicts city life in architectural drawings from the last 20 years

2018-05-31T14:50:00-04:00

Atelier Bow-Wow co-founder Momoyo Kaijima teamed up with Laurent Stalder (ETH Zurich Professor of Theory of Architecture, Director of the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture) and Yu Iseki (Curator at Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito) to curate the Japan Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Biennale, now open at The Giardini. Titled “Architectural Ethnography”, the exhibition is derived from an ongoing project that Kaijima started working on in the late '90s.

The exhibition takes the form of a “guidebook” that features 42 architectural drawings from the last 20 years — created by university design studios, architecture firms, and contemporary art practices across the globe — that depict the realities of everyday city-living.

Installation view of “Architectural Ethnography” in the Japan Pavilion, 2018.

Installation vi...

Revisiting the Berlin Wall era, Germany's 2018 Venice Biennale Pavilion “Unbuilding Walls” examines the lasting effects of division

2018-05-29T14:40:00-04:00

During a time of heated debates on national borders, “Unbuilding Walls” — the German Pavilion now open at the 2018 Venice Biennale — revisits the era of the Berlin Wall, 28 years after it was dismantled. “Since February 5, 2018, the Wall that divided Germany for 28 years has been gone for longer than it was there. This symmetrical moment in history presents an opportunity to reflect on developments in the former border space since the fall of the Wall,” pavilion curators GRAFT and Marianne Birthler write in their introduction of the exhibition.

German Pavilion, Biennale Architettura 2018. Photo © Jan Bitter.

Designed as if it were an impenetrable wall, the exhibition showcases a variety of architectural projects along the site of the former Berlin Wall, presenting a broad analysis of the lasting effects of division, protectionism, nationalism, and “the pro...

A brutalist fragment displayed at the Venice Biennale speaks to our current housing crisis

2018-05-15T18:41:00-04:00

While some were delighted that at least a small part of the architectural heritage of Robin Hood Gardens was being preserved for posterity, others were furious that the V&A – a so-called ‘arms-length’ body, governed by a Board of Trustees appointed by the Prime Minister – considered the estate valuable enough to collect, but not valuable enough to help save from demolition in the first instance.

The story behind London's brutalist Robin Hood Gardens reveals issues pertinent to our current housing crisis. Crystal Bennes unpacks the V&A's decision to preserve and display a section of demolished housing in this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, revealing condemnation of the building before it was even completed.

“Weak Monument”: Estonia's 2018 Venice Biennale Pavilion examines the implicit politics of everyday architectural forms

2018-05-10T15:35:00-04:00

For the 2018 Venice Biennale, Estonia's pavilion, “Weak Monument”, explores the explicit representation of the monument and the implicit politics of everyday architectural forms.

Curated by Laura Linsi, Roland Reemaa and Tadeáš Říha, the exhibition takes over the former Santa Maria Ausiliatrice church in Venice with pavement and a monument-like concrete wall that divides the exhibition space in two. As visitors cross through the wall, they'll find a collection of photos, drawings, and models of Estonian and European examples of “weak monuments”. They will then encounter a “wall altar”.

Wall altar. Image © Weak Monument.

Weak Monument Section. © Weak Monument 2018.

“Monuments reside on the margin of the architectural discipline while directly embodying some of its most central qualities, such as relation to the site, delimitation of public space and capacity for representation,” the curatorial team explains.

“In Estonia, the notion of monument appears as a foreign intruder. Its pre...

How to engage the past in architectural dialogue according to Toshiko Mori, featured in new Time-Space-Existence video

2018-05-10T15:28:00-04:00

Acclaimed Japanese-American architect and former chair of architecture at Harvard University GSD, Toshiko Mori has built a career on technical research, experimental design, and pedagogical practice. In the ninth video from the Time-Space-Existence series, produced by PLANE—SITE, Mori discusses the topics of time, space, and existence as they relate to her work.

Thread Arists' Residency. Photo by Iwan Baan.

Born in Japan in 1951, Mori emigrated to the United States as a teenager and went on to graduate from the Cooper Union School of Architecture in 1976, where she became a protégé of the school's dean John Hejduk. Afterwards, Mori began her career working with modernist architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, designer of the IBM Building at 57th Street and Madison Avenue.

Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. Photo by Iwan Baan.

Toshiko Mori's portfolio includes an impressive roster of projects such as a visitor center adjacent to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin Martin House in Buffalo ...

“No More Free Space?”: Singapore's 2018 Venice Biennale Pavilion explores designing welcoming public spaces in a dense cityscape

2018-05-07T15:56:00-04:00

Despite limited physical space in Singapore's dense urban landscape — with a population of 5.6 million squeezed into about 278 square-miles of land, the country's architects and urban planners are coming up with unique solutions to create delightful spaces that help enhance everyday life. So is there truly “No More Free Space?”; the Singapore Pavilion exhibition team for the 2018 Venice Biennale explores this very question.

Marking Singapore's sixth showcase at the Biennale, the Pavilion highlights 12 Singapore-based projects that draw inspiration from nature and “turn constraints into possibilities”. With these projects, the Singapore Pavilion team wants to share their country's design approaches with other cities that are dealing with similar challenges.

“No More Free Space?”, © Singapore Pavilion, 16th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition.

Side elevation, “No More Free Space?”, © Singapore Pavilion, 16th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition.

The c...

Young Talent Architecture Award student projects to be exhibited at 2018 Venice Biennale

2018-05-02T15:54:00-04:00

As one of the collateral events to the 2018 Venice Biennale, the Young Talent Architecture Award exhibition will feature the graduation projects of the competition's four winners (who will be announced in June) and 12 finalists. Organized by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe with the support of Creative Europe, the YTAA distinguishes top-notch graduation projects from European architecture, urban planning and landscape schools.

For its second edition, the competition reeled in 334 nominated projects from 451 students representing 118 schools in 32 European countries — with China and South Korea participating as guest countries.

“A Ruin Re-storied” by Alice Hiley. Year of realization: 2016. Photographer: Alice Hiley, Courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

“Borrowed Scenery” by Shenpei Ha. Year of realization: 2016. Courtesy of Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

Open during the Venice Biennale from May 26 through November 25, the exhibition will display images, drawings, and videos of the proje...

"Things should be for their own time" says American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner

2018-05-02T12:55:00-04:00

American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner is known for his language-based sculpture and work exploring the relationship between art, artist, and viewer. Born in the Bronx in 1942, he is considered one of the foremost conceptual artists of the 60s.

Rose F. Kennedy Greenway Mural, Boston 2015. Photo by Geoff Hargadon.

Kunsthaus Bregenz. Photo by Udo Mittelberger.

Recognized by its striking typography outlined in black, Weiner's work applied art-as-language to the built environment, from walls to the ground underfoot. In this new short film from the Time-Space-Existence series, Weiner discusses making art accessible to the public, the relationship between people and material objects, and language as a gesture. Beyond, Weiner goes on to talk about why he doesn’t believe in art transcending time, and why creative work should spill beyond the confines of the gallery space.

Produced by PLANE—SITE, the video has been commissioned by the GAA Foundation and funded by the ECC in the run-up to...

Rowan Moore on Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara's Venice Biennale curatorship

2018-05-01T14:57:00-04:00

Farrell and McNamara’s theme is “Freespace”, which they say describes “a generosity of spirit and a sense of humanity at the core of architecture’s agenda”. It can also mean the “free and additional spatial gifts” that architecture can offer and “its ability to address the unspoken wishes of strangers”. They have invited a selection of like-minded architects to demonstrate these qualities with three-dimensional installations of “scale and quality”.

Rowan Moore, architecture critic of the Observer, finds admiring words in his Guardian piece for Grafton Architects principals Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, who are wearing the curator hats this year at architecture's biggest biennial spectacle: "McNamara and Farrell are neither celebrities nor notable theorists. They are well-respected architects who, determinedly, consistently and over a long period of time, do their stuff. [...] But what stuff."

Israeli Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale will explore the negotiation of holy spaces

2018-04-25T17:20:00-04:00

The Israeli Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale will explore the established mechanisms by which the country facilitates the co-existence of Holy places. As a location with special sacred status as the cradle of three Abrahamic religions, the region encompasses a variety of holy sites that are both contested and shared. Curated by Ifat Finkelman, Deborah Pinto Fdeda, Oren Sagiv and Tania CoenUzzielli, the exhibition In Statu Quo: Structures of Negotiation will, through the lens of architecture, look at the status quo regulations within these mutually sacred places.

"In the geopolitcal context of the Holy Land, the combination of historical events, myths, and traditions has created a multiplicity of places, sacred to competing groups of religions, communities and affiliations" the curatorial team argue. "These in turn, have led to the formation of an extraordinary concentration of intricate spaces, fragmented and stratified both historically and physically." Through "a ...

2018 Korean Pavilion for Venice Biennale explores hidden narrative between modern Korean architecture and the state

2018-04-23T14:24:00-04:00

In response to the 2018 Venice Biennale's “Freespace” theme, the Korean Pavilion exhibition, “Spectres of the State Avant-garde”, sheds light on a hidden narrative of Korea's paradoxical pursuit of a utopian society through oppressive government policy.

Choon Choi, Paradise Lost 100 Days of Ennui, Desire, and Privation, 2018 © Choon Choi.

Curated by Seongtae Park, founding director of the Junglim Foundation in Seoul, the exhibition is an imagined archive that focuses on the contradictions embedded in the projects designed by the Korea Engineering Consultants Corp (KECC) — a technical consultancy for architecture and civil engineering that the government created in 1963. The KECC dominated Korea's architecture and construction industry, sometimes imitating architectural experiments from the West but mostly following the state's developmental agenda.

Four KECC projects from the late ’60s, which all served as nation-building propaganda, will be highlighted: the Expo Pavilion for the ...

Kenneth Frampton wins 2018 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

2018-04-18T14:59:00-04:00

English architectural writer, critic, and educator Kenneth Frampton will receive the honorable Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award during the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale next month. Frampton was selected by the Board of the Venice Biennale, upon recommendation of 2018 Biennale curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara.

Trained as an architect at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, Frampton is the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Columbia University GSAPP, where he has taught at since 1972. Over the years, he has also taught at the Royal College of Art in London, ETH Zurich, the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam, EPFL in Lausanne, and the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio.

He has written numerous essays and books on modern and contemporary architecture, including influential titles like the “Modern Architecture: A Critical History”, “Towards a Critical Regionalism”, “Studies on Tectonic Culture”, and “A Genealogy of Modern Architecture: Compa...

Irish Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale will explore important role of markets for rural communities

2018-04-13T13:48:00-04:00

The Irish Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, opening May 26th, will explore the importance of the rural marketplace. Once the economic and social hubs of the countryside, many of these marketplaces have seen their roles diminished as rural regions experience accelerating change. Focusing on small towns with a population less that 5,000 people, the exhibition "aims to reassert the declining rural market square as a public place of social, political and cultural exchange, central to community cohesion."

Irish Pavilion © Mark Wickham

Curated by a team of six young Irish architects and designers, Free Market will "act as a real market square, offering an engaging place to meet, to pause, to interact with the exhibits and openly exchange ideas. Evoking the character of the market space through the use of texture, proportion, color and sound, the pavilion will also include architectural models and drawings describing both the historic and contemporary conditions of these t...

Daniel Libeskind tower to be unveiled during Venice Architecture Biennale

2018-04-10T14:21:00-04:00

As part of ECC's Time-Space-Existence exhibition during the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, Daniel Libeskind will be unveiling a new architectural sculpture that explores the connections between climate, time, space and existence. Facing Gaia, as it is called, is inspired by ancient forms and will feature a convex mirrored center, bound to its steel structure with pioneering GRIP Metal™ technology.

Facing Gaia. Sketch by Daniel Libeskind.

“The Biennale is an important opportunity to explore meaning and metaphor in architectural space and form,” said the seminal architect. “This moment in time, the very idea of human existence is in question. What is the future of technology? Nature? Humanity? Facing Gaia focuses on the tension of these relationships while inviting open-ended questions and interaction,” he added.

Jewish Museum Berlin © Hufton+Crow

Military History Museum, Dresden © Hufton+Crow

Born in Lód’z, Poland, in 1946, Libeskind immigrated to the United States as a teenager. St...

"Unbuilding Walls" German Pavilion in Architecture Biennale 2018 addresses division

2018-04-06T19:00:00-04:00

Last April GRAFT was announced as Curators of the German Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale 2018. The exhibition, "Unbuilding Walls", focuses on the parallel of the Berlin Wall's lifespan and Germany's unity both being 28 years.

The exhibition responds to current debates on nations, protectionism and division. In the German Pavilion, GRAFT and Marianne Birthler will take the parallel as an opportunity to explore the effects of division and the process of healing as a dynamic spatial phenomenon. With reference to “Freespace,” the central theme of the Architecture Biennale proposed by Grafton Architects, special focus will be given to outstanding examples of urban and architectural design that address aspects of division and integration.

Axel-Springer-High-rise. Image: Axel Springer SE.

An example project is the Axel-Springer-Campus. This former death strip between Kreuzburg and Mitte is the site of the new campus building for Axel Springer designed by OMA. The design by Rem Koolha...

Foster + Partners unveils chapel design for Vatican City's 2018 Venice Biennale pavilion

2018-03-28T14:34:00-04:00

Foster + Partners unveiled their design concept for one of the 10 temporary chapels of the first ever Vatican City pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale.

Collaborating with Tecno, Foster + Partners will build their chapel in a forest area at one end of the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Located between two mature trees with a view of a lagoon, the chapel comprises of three symbolic crosses and a timber deck, which will be “draped” over with a tent-like, wooden latticework structure.

Image via Foster + Partners.

“It was like a small oasis in the big garden, perfect for contemplation. Our aim is to create a small sanctuary space diffused with dappled shade and removed from the normality of passers-by, focussed instead on the water and sky beyond,” Norman Foster describes.

Vatican Chapels to be placed in the woods at Venice Biennale 2018

2018-03-23T15:44:00-04:00

After announcing participation in this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, the Vatican has recently released more details on their Holy See pavilion. The project is officially titled Vatican Chapels, featuring ten chapels commissioned from architects in ten different countries. Each structure will be realized in a forest on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, located opposite of St. Mark's Square. This wooded location serves as a space for silence and meditation as visitors journey through each structure.

The Vatican stated these ten chapels are meant to reference the ten commandments. Apart from this connection and each structure containing a pulpit and altar, the chapels will be completely unique and up to the participant's interpretation of the project. However, as a guide the Church has encouraged each architect to respond to themes explored in the preliminary Asplund Pavilion.

Asplund Pavilion rendering by MAP Studio. Image: ALPI.

Asplund Pavilion, designed by MAP Studio, wil...

First glimpse: The seven “Dimensions of Citizenship” installations of the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale

2018-03-13T19:09:00-04:00

Tackling the ever-complex question of what it means to be a citizen, the U.S. Pavilion exhibition “Dimensions of Citizenship” for the 2018 Venice Biennale will comprise of seven architectural installations that explore this loaded topic at seven different spatial scales. Today, the U.S. Pavilion team announced more details about the projects.

Last August, U.S. Pavilion curators Niall Atkinson, Ann Lui, and Mimi Zeiger commissioned the seven architecture practices, including Studio Gang, SCAPE, Keller Easterling, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Ranging from the citizen to the cosmos, each installation explores how citizenship “may be defined, constructed, enacted, contested, or expressed in the built environment” at these different scales, and poses questions about issues related to belonging, sovereignty, and ecology.

Here's a preview of each installation:

Scale: Citizen / Amanda Williams + Andres L. Hernandez, in collaboration with Shani Crowe

“Braid study” (2017), Shani Crowe. From...

More Venice Biennale 2018 “Freespace” exhibition details are revealed

2018-03-02T15:11:00-05:00

With the 2018 Venice Biennale only two months away, curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara and Biennale president Paolo Baratta revealed the latest details about the exhibition during a press conference today. The 2018 theme “Freespace” presents “a generosity of spirit and a sense of humanity at the core of architecture's agenda, focusing on the quality of space itself.”

“We see architecture as the translation of need in its widest sense into meaningful space. In the effort to translate Freespace into the many wonderful languages of the world, we hope that it prises open the ‘gift’ which architectural invention has the potential to contribute with each project,” Farrell and McNamara said. “Translation allows us all to map and rename intellectual as well as actual territory. It is our hope that the word Freespace allows us to burrow into the aspirations, ambitions and generosity of architecture.”

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. Photo: Grafton Architects, courtesy Alice Cla...

The Vatican picks Norman Foster, Eduardo Souto de Moura + others to present chapels at the 2018 Venice Biennale

2018-01-16T18:59:00-05:00

The Vatican has announced that it will be participating in this year's Venice Architecture Biennale. They have previously had a presence at the International Exhibition of Art of the Biennale di Venezia, but it will be the first time ever the city-sized country has had a pavilion at architecture's version of the event

Overseen by the Italian curator and architecture historian Francesco Dal Co, the pavilion will involve 10 chapels, each one designed by an architect from a different country. In the spirit of Catholic generosity, the chapels are also to be relocated to places in need of spaces of worship after the biennale is over.

The ten architects building chapels are as follows:

Smiljan Radic, Chile
Carla Juaçaba, Brazil
Javier Corvalán, Paraguay
Sean Godsell, Australia
Eva Prats & Ricardo Flores, Spain
Eduardo Souto de Moura, Portugal
Francesco Cellini, Italy
Norman Foster, United Kingdom
Andrew Berman, USA
Terunobu Fujimori, Japan

The films and videos that have been selected for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

2017-12-18T15:42:00-05:00

Back in August, Niall Atkinson, Ann Lui, and Mimi Zeiger, were announced as the curators of the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Commissioned by the School of Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago and titled "Dimensions of Citizenship," the show will tackle the controversial question of what it means to be a citizen.

For the exhibit, the team has commissioned installations by seven participants: Amanda Williams & Andres L. Hernandez, Design Earth, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, Keller Easterling, SCAPE, and Studio Gang. Alongside these, a series of film and video works will also be displayed that explore multiple perspectives and reflections on the spatial conditions of citizenship.

Entitled “Transit Screening Lounge,” the collection features recent single-channel works and "will offer more ambiguous readings of contemporary citizenship, involving blurred boundaries, gray areas, and alternative histories. The sele...

Caruso St John to design Brexit-themed British Pavilion at 2018 Venice Biennale

2017-09-29T14:29:00-04:00

Plans for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale are well under way, with curators for the U.S., Australian, and German Pavilions already announced. This morning, the winning team for the British Pavilion was revealed to be the Adam Caruso, Peter St. John—the founding partners of the acclaimed practice Caruso St. John—and artist Marcus Taylor. Responding to the theme of Freespace set by curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, the British team has settled on the concept Island and have promised the proposal will engage with current political themes.

Peter St. John spoke of the news remarking that "it is an honor for us to have been selected to curate the British Pavilion. In the year before Brexit, we plan to transform the building into a generous public space that can be a popular meeting point within the gardens of the Biennale."

Sarah Mann, Director of Architecture, Design, and Fashion at the British Council responsible for the Pavilion spoke of the news...

DS+R, Studio Gang, Keller Easterling among exhibitors selected for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

2017-09-12T21:03:00-04:00

The U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, titled Dimensions of Citizenship, is further taking shape: the curatorial team — announced just two weeks ago and comprised of Mimi Zeiger, Niall Atkinson, and Ann Lui — today revealed a line-up of the seven pavilion exhibitors:

Amanda Williams & Andres L. Hernandez
Chicago, IL

PXSTL: Williams and Hernandez won the 2016 design-build competition. Image courtesy of Michael B. Thomas / Pulitzer Arts Foundation.

Design Earth
Cambridge, MA

Pacific Aquarium. Oslo Architecture Triennale, After Belonging, 2016. Project Team: El Hadi Jazairy + Rania Ghosn. Reid Fellenbaum, Ya Suo, Jia Weng, Shuya Xu, Saswati Das, with initial contributions from Rixt Woudstra. Image courtesy of DESIGN EARTH

Diller Scofidio + Renfro
New York, NY

The Shed, View from 30th Street looking northwest, Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group. Image courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group

Estudio Teddy Cruz...

Dimensions of Citizenship: Curators of the US Pavilion for 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale announced

2017-08-30T21:33:00-04:00

Months later than usual, the US State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs has finally announced that the exhibit for the 2018 Venice Biennial will be put together by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago. Titled “Dimensions of Citizenship”, and organized by UC's Niall Atkinson, SAIC's Ann Lui and the Los Angeles-based independent critic Mimi Zeiger, the show will tackle the controversial question of what it means to be a citizen.

The pavilion will present both—newly commissioned projects created in response to the subject and already existing work, featuring entries from theorists, historians, and artists in addition to architects and designers. Commenting on the choice of the theme, Lui noted, “We thought that citizenship was a very urgent topic right now, both within national and global conversations. We noticed that architecture was often squarely in the center of these conversations, whether it was the border wall, or about mor...

Repair of natural environment: Australia's creative team for 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale announced

2017-08-23T13:19:00-04:00

Australia's creative team for the 16th International Venice Architecture Biennale has been announced at events in Sydney and Melbourne. Baracco+Wright Architects will collaborate with artist Linda Tegg to cultivate and nurture thousands of temperate grassland species within the pavilion alongside large-scale architectural projections. Visitors will enter a physical dialogue between architecture and endangered plant community. Reminding us what is at stake when we occupy land.

Explicitly addressing the theme of Freespace, 'repair' responds by encouraging new ways of thinking and seeing the world, ‘of inventing solutions where architecture provides for the well-being and dignity of each citizen on this fragile planet’. 'Repair' will frame and reveal an architectural culture in Australia that is evolving through processes that integrate built and natural systems to effect repair of the environment, and in so doing, repair of other conditions such as social, economic and cultural ones.

...