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The Armenian pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale has won the Golden Lion for best national pavilion. The pavilion, Armenity, features a group exhibition by 18 diaspora Armenian artists and grandchildren of survivors of the Armenian genocide, who the jury praised for “forming a pavilion based on a people in diaspora, each artist engaging their specific locality as well as their heritage”. [...]
American artist Adrian Piper was awarded Golden Lion for best artist.
— calvertjournal.com
Jon Jerde, founder and chairman of the Venice, California-based Jerde Partnership, passed away today in his home in the Brentwood area in Los Angeles after a longterm illness. He was 75. Born in Alton, Illinois on January 22, 1940, Jerde grew up in the oilfields of the West where his father worked... View full entry
In 2010, the Fondazione di Venezia—a well-endowed and entrepreneurial foundation with its historic roots in Italy’s regional banking system—launched an architectural competition for a cluster of buildings in the centre of Mestre, one of the mainland urban areas of Venice. [...]
The three accompanying essays, by Marco De Michelis, Aaron Betsky and M9 architect Matthias Sauerbruch, are less granular. They provide an overview of and perspectives on the museum-building boom [...].
— theartnewspaper.com
"So we wanted to turn that conversation on its head and say, well what if we let water in? How can we make life better in Boston by bringing water in?" - Dennis Carlberg — BBC News
Joanna Jolly talked to Boston city planners and architects, who are a proposing solutions to combat sea-level rise. One big idea, is canals which would criss-cross the streets of the Back Bay. Less radical ideas include; constructed wetlands and elevating critical equipment for new development. View full entry
Sunday, October 19:The Portland Building: Architect Michael Graves fiercely defends his controversial creation against demolition: According to The Oregonian's piece, the architect does not think any of the problems are by his design, but rather its application under budgetary and civic... View full entry
Unesco, which for too long has been silent on the growing environmental threat to Venice and its evident mismanagement, as revealed by the exposure of massive corruption in the construction of its flood barriers, has at last shown its teeth. At the meeting of its World Heritage Committee in Doha this June it passed important resolutions that show that it intends to call the Italian government to account and put Venice on its World Heritage at Risk list if it is not satisfied. — theartnewspaper.com
Previously: Leading museum directors, artists and architects call on Italian government to ban giant ships from Venice View full entry
Architectural experts are to meet in Venice to discuss the restoration of Glasgow School of Art's (GSA) Mackintosh library, which was destroyed in a fire in May.
The art school will host two meetings to explore key questions around the rebuilding of the unique library, one in the Italian city in October and the second in Glasgow next spring.
— telegraph.co.uk
Previously: Glasgow School of Art fire View full entry
Architecture’s largest and most public event needs to do more than just go through the motions. The Biennale, unfortunately, seemed to be driven not by passion or a desire to communicate, but by a sense of obligation. [...] Perhaps an ornamental city is simply an ill-omened venue for an event celebrating the most functional of arts. Venice may always be trapped in the past, but the Biennale should be at the forefront of a conversation about architecture’s future. — theawl.com
If you had walked along the beach in Venice in the early 1970s, you would have come across the sagging, crumbling, partially incinerated ghost of an old amusement park on a pier. [...]
But when it opened in July 1958, more than half a century ago, Pacific Ocean Park — or P.O.P., as it came to be known — was the thing: an amusement park that married Venice Beach's kitschy seaside carnival culture with the space-age Modern architecture of the late 1950s.
— latimes.com
More than 50 leading figures from the worlds of art, film, fashion and architecture have signed a petition calling for a ban on giant cruise ships sailing through Venice. [...]
Nicholas Penny, the director of the National Gallery in London, Richard Armstrong, the director of the Guggenheim Foundation, the architect Norman Foster and his wife Elena also endorse the appeal which has been launched by the Association of the International Private Committees for the Safeguarding of Venice [...].
— theartnewspaper.com
Styled after American corporate identity throughout the 20th century, our next featured 2014 Venice Biennale pavilion is "OfficeUS" representing the U.S. of A. Organized by NYC's Storefront for Art and Architecture in collaboration with PRAXIS Journal, the two-part exhibition will showcase and critically reinterpret the global influence of American architecture in the last century...For each week of the Biennale, OfficeUS will also address 25 issues relevant to its project archive. — bustler.net
More on Bustler. View full entry
American/German architectural practice Barkow Leibinger is back at the Venice Biennale with "Kinetic Wall". Specifically designed for this year's Biennale, the prototype highlights the evolution of wall-making while also standing as an ode to the 20th century fantasy of kinetic architecture -- or architecture that can move. Kinetic Wall is currently on display in the Wall Room at the "Elements of Architecture“ exhibition in the Venice Biennale. — bustler.net
Get more details on Bustler.See it in action in the video below. View full entry
The 14th International Architecture Exhibition, "Fundamentals" -- a.k.a. the 2014 Venice Biennale -- officially opened on a festive note with the awards ceremony that took place on June 7 at the Giardini at la Biennale.Awards and Special Mentions were given to national pavilions and individuals to... View full entry
An exploded false ceiling and a lineup of lavatories become the stars as Koolhaas delves into the overlooked innards of today's buildings – and shows how architecture has become nothing more than cardboard — theguardian.com
As the 14th edition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture prepares to open, the pavilions of the Giardini might be the perfect venue for an analysis of the architectural manifestations of national identity. [...]
Architecture is a curious world in which the things we hate might look very similar, to a less-inured eye, to the things we love. It is a question of degrees, of finesse. Koolhaas exemplifies the paradox.
— ft.com
