"How do we bring a city not back to what it was, but what it needs to be in the future?" A new documentary at the Venice Architecture Biennale explores this question, showcasing how students of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning are learning from and rebuilding the Rust Belt city around them. 

Once a thriving American city, since the latter 20th century, Buffalo has seen a sharp population loss and growing inequality stemming from its industrial decline. As Buffalo rebounds, students and faculty of the University are becoming an integral part of this process. Whether it's working with local refugee entrepreneurs or revitalizing local fabrication and industry, students are using the city itself as a laboratory, deeply embedding themselves in the community and the challenges it faces.

Their work is currently being showcased at the Time Space Existence exhibition in Venice, through a new film and an accompanying catalog highlighting sites of faculty and student engagement throughout Buffalo. Telling the story of how an architecture and urban planning school can be directly involved in the future of the city it calls home, the work will be on display at Palazzo Bembo in Venice, through November 25th.

Interviews with key protagonists from the school, alongside documentation of the exhibition, have been captured in a short video below.