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. 

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 Still the Eye” by visual artist Vlatka Horvat explores “the notion of horizon as a physical manifestation of distance and as a metaphor for the future”. Finally, “Ephemeral Garden” by Maja Kuzmanović is an audio installation where murmurs of conversation are complemented by the sounds of animate matter, “producing a space where human and non-human voices intermingle”.

“I wanted the pavilion to push the boundaries of the aesthetics, spatial and tectonic consequences of emerging paradigms of augmented intelligence at the cross-over between architecture, art, and engineering by presenting a full-scale pergola structure made using 3D robotic fabrication and automated design protocols. The Cloud Pergola was envisioned as a paradigm for what architecture should stand for in the 21st century,” Juričić said in a statement.

Find more project photos in the gallery below.