Alvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura
As long-time collaborators Alvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura each have a piece that accompany and compliment the other. The work of Moura creates a gateway; it opens up to create a grand scale while looking outward across the water. The work of Siza however, evokes the intimate bodily scale of the streets of Venice, framing a new setting for the land.
One piece is introverted while the other extroverted, here the notion common ground is through friendship, commonalities, differences, context and site.
Atelier Peter Zumthor, Wim Wenders – Notes from a day in the life of an Architect
Created by Atelier Peter Zumthor and Wim Wenders, notes from a day in the life of an architect captures the uncompromising approach to Zumthor’s work. The exhibition is an intimate and very personal portrayal of Zumthor at work in his small studio in the village of Haldenstein, Switzerland.
The documentary speaks of the poetry, practicality and radicalism behind Zumthor’s work. The video conveys his passion and sensitivity in architecture that is genuinely compelling and inspiring.
Bernard Tschumi Architects – Advertisements for Architecture 2012
Created by Bernard Tschumi Architects, Advertisements for Architecture 2012 builds upon the iconic series of posters created by Tschumi in 1976-1977. The posters were manifestos for understanding architecture and incorporated tactics of advertising to emphasise the difference between architecture theory and architecture in reality.
The exhibition is a series of 4 prints that re-conceptualise the original series to raise new questions about public space, truth, function, conditioning and planning.
Case Studio Vogt – Un Common Venice
Created by Case Studio Vogt, Un Common Venice documents and explores the public space in Venice. The exhibition is the result of an extensive research project, involving interviews and public opinions including the topic of tourism, water usage and ownership of space.
The research is printed as a newspaper that forms part of the exhibition content. The newspaper also contains unique maps of the city based on tourist and local experiences. The newspaper can be obtained from within the Arsenale and also throughout Venice. Postcards from the exhibition allow the spectator to conduct their own surveys on the street and to contribute to the greater dialogue. The continual presence of the exhibition throughout Venice makes Un common Venice a unique, engaging and highly effective project.
Cino Zucchi Architetti – Copycat empathy and envy as form-makers
Created by Cino Zucchi Architetti, Copycat empathy and envy as form-makers explores the notion that we are all in part products of copying. The installation investigates culture and objects that are propagated by processes of imitation and reproductive progress.
The installation shows a collection of look-alike objects and images that express the idea of common ground through similarity rather than originality. The work explores the idea that resemblance permits dialogues and gives form and classification to our urban environment.
DK-CM – Folk in a Box Venezia
Created by David Knight & Cristina Monteiro, Folk in a Box a mobile performance centre, travelling throughout Venice during the Vernissage and then located in the Arsenale. The vessel allows a single performer and a single audience member for the duration of a single song to sit within a compelling space.
By removing the element of vision, the exhibition intends to provide a highly intimate and sensorial experience. Darkness amplifies the sense of hearing and allows one to not only hear but to listen. The exhibition romanticises the ambiguous and through darkness everything or nothing can be understood as common.
FAT – Museum of Copying
Created by FAT, the Museum of Copying explores the concept of architecture progress and influence derived not from originally but imitation. The installation reveals copying as a rich terrain for ideas and succession. The centrepiece of the room is a large-scale cast of Palladio’s Villa Rotunda, possibly the most copied building in history. Through five installations the Museum of Copying recognises that copying threatens the mythology of architecture production.
Sam Jacobs of FAT describes the copy as both opportunity to perfect and evolve and also as the enemy of progress,representing an inauthentic dead end. Shown below is Ines Weizman’s installation Repeat Yourself: Loos, law and the Culture of the Copy which explores the function of copyright in architecture investigated through the ownership disputes of Adolf Loos. Also below is the Book of copies, a publishing project by San Rocco, spectators contribute to a new library through the photocopy of existing books.
Gigon/Guyer – Inflection of Common Ground in Several Cases
Created by Annette Gigon and Mike Gyer, Inflection of Common Ground in Several Cases explores common ground through the movement that occurs within and around architecture. Seven rooms contain mediums of sound and film to capture the rain, animals, people, cars and objects that animate the quotidian life of a building.
Each room is suggestive of events that have taken place within architecture. The 1st room shown below is titled taking care and shows the working space of an engineer, artist, architect or craftsman. The second image is titled Walking on an Ancient Battlefield and shows the archaeological findings from the Teutoburg Forest Battle between the Roman and German tribes.
Herzog & de Meuron – Elbphilharmonie
Created by Herzog & de Meuron, Elbphilharmonie is a concert hall designed by Herzog & de Meuron, located in Hamburg the project came to a halt in 2011 due to political, budgetary and ideological complications. The exhibition exposes the common battleground and invisible forces that surround architecture and development.
Uncensored newspaper extracts cover the perimeter walls and chronologically chart the debate and negative public opinion surrounding the project. Physical models and video content document the design of the concert hall. The exhibition brings to light the often-complex history of development.
Mark Randel and Thomas Kupke – Tempelhof Airport
Created by Mark Randel and Thomas Kupke, Tempelhof Airport in Berlin is a palimpsest for the issues and histories that saturate the public ground of the 21st century city. Through video, drawings and photographs the exhibition exposes the process of the airport design, construction, disuse, dereliction and future for one of Berlins most famous and contested building sites.
The site represents major opportunity for development in Berlin and is a case study for a currently contested common ground. The exhibition allows the spectator to question the future benefits of the site.
Norman Foster – Gateway
Created by Norman Foster, Gateway is a projection, video and sound exhibition examining the history of architecture and public space. The result is a collage depicting architecture culture and verging on the encyclopaedic.
The film highlights the diversity of space; the historic, canonical spaces of the western world, the unstable new cities of Asia and South America and the huge interiors of modern museums, stadiums and airports. The exhibition refers to the body of knowledge passed on through generations of architects, designers and critics and also refers to the use of space for important communal and social orders and disorders.
O’Donnell + Tuomey – Vessel
Created by Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey, Vessel explores the notion that architecture practice is inseparable from art and literature. The centerpiece of the exhibit is in the form of a timber ‘Vessel’ providing a place for contemplation and directing portal views toward tables with contributions from poets, artists and architects.
The ‘Vessel’ mimics the geometric form of the ubiquitous brick walls of the Arsenale. The theme of common ground is reflected in the relationship between the architect’s physical and intellectual manifestations.
Robert Burghardt – Denkmal Fur Die Moderne
Created by Robert Burghardt, Denkmal Fur Die Moderne (monument for modernism) presents a hybrid building for a real site in Berlin. The model contains references to 24 modern buildings (including Le Corbusier, Mies var der Rohe and Oskar Hansen), but here they are chopped up and stuck back together, creating a hybrid building, far from an ideal modern form.
The exhibition brings together work, big and small, east and south. The model is a satirical piece about the obsession and instability of modernism, raising questions about how architecture can build upon modernism and postmodernism to produce something new. His work is a reflection upon what a building of our time might be.
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects – Wunderkammer
Curated by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, Wunderkammer is an exhibition about the unlikely and sometimes mundane objects that inspire architects. 35 Boxes were sent to 35 architects from around the world (including Peter Zumthor, Glenn Murcutt and Toyo Ito) who then filled them with a selection of inspirational artifacts.
The collection explores the differences and similarities between architects and their inspiration. The exhibition provides an insight about the collection of items that architects chose to keep and be surrounded by.
Urban-Think Tank, Justin McGuirk – Torre David Gran Horizonte
Created by Urban-Think Tank and Justin McGuirk, Torre David Gran Horizonte documents the Torre David vertical slum in Caracas. The Torre David is a 45-storey uncompleted office tower now inhabited by over 2,500 people who would otherwise live in the slums of Caracas.
The exhibition is a series of photographs that capture the culture and living condition of Caracas. A Venezuelan restaurant weaves through the exhibition space transporting the diversity and taste of public life in Caracas. The notion of meal sharing and informality provides the common ground for discussion.
Valerio Olgiati – Pictographs – Statements of Contemporary Architects
Curated by Valerio Olgiati, Photographs – Statements of Contemporary Architects explores the complex and ambiguous common ground of imagination and inspiration in architecture. 41 influential architects from around the globe display their own personal inspiration through a selection of images.
323 images in total refer to something important about their work, history or influences. Some speak of analysis and explanation while others of memory and atmosphere. Each however represent the common middle space of imagination that is by nature unique and highly personal.
Other exhibits within the Arsenale Central Pavilion include projects by Thomas Struth, Luigi Snozzi, Ruta del Peregrino, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Peter Marlki and Steve Roth, Robbrecht en Daem architecten, M Jose Van Hee architecten, Noero Architects, Hans Kollhoff, Farshid Moussavi Architecture, Sergison Bates, Kenneth Frampton, Seung H-Sang, Gort Scott, Robert McKillop, Renzo Piano Building workshop, Zaha Hadid Architects, Anupama Kundoo, Alberto Campo Baeza, Eric Parry Architects, Haworth Tompkins, Lynch Architects, San Rocco, 13178 Moran Street, Luis Fernandez-Galiano, Team Chicago: City Works, Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA, Jose Rafael Moneo, Mario Nanni, Piet Oudolf and Aires Mateus.
Thank you for reading my five part series. Please feel free to contact me on [email protected] if you would like further information or photographs on any of the exhibits. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
]]>Argentinian Pavilion – Identity in Diversity
Curated by Clorindo Testa, Identity in Diversity presents the works and projects of Argentinian designers and architects who have won major international competitions. The purpose is to show the historical construction of Argentina alongside and contrasting to the present.
Each winning competition reflects upon the positive interactions between architecture, territory and society throughout the history of Argentina. The proposals are curated in order to construct a story of diversity, integration, memory and territory that together form the modern identity of Argentina.
Chilean Pavilion – Cancha
Curated by Maria Pilar Pinchart Saavedra and Bernardo Valdes Echenique, Cancha is derived from the word Quechaun, indicating a void that enables a connection to the ground. The exhibition explores common ground via the Andes mountain range as a resource for producing heritage and landscape. Common ground is hereby not territorial.
7 Architects present 7 points of view on the interpretation of this definition. 7 lanterns throughout the room present 7 ideas of natural resource production as a critical moment in social change. The floor of the pavilion is covered in salt to connect the natural resource of salt with intellectual and emotional space.
Chinese Pavilion – Originaire
Curated by Fang Zhenning, Originaire is a word representative of memory and mental image in the original world. Five architect and designers show their work on the interpretation of this meaning.
The work of TAO Na, Palace in the Sky is the layering of 3 views, the forbidden palace, the land-form of Mars and the unbounded galaxy. 4000 blocks create a layering of these views and spectators are asked to take a block home, therefore transforming the picture into something else, leaving a new composition of architecture and human civilisation. The work of SHAO Weiping, Sequence is composed of 96 Sections. It transforms the original concept of the Mobius strip, proposing that architecture is endless can be endlessly reinterpreted.
Croatian Pavilion – Unmediated Democracy Demands Unmediated Space
Curated by Tomislav Pavelic, Unmediated Democracy Demands Unmediated Space proposes a post-capitalist manifesto for listening and creating new ways of operating. The exhibition highlights the civic struggles of the region and student protesting a “Forum for Space”. The content conveys the fight and struggle for collective space, capable of containing conditions of political, social, economic and ecological fulfillment.
Through the mediums of context, map and device, Common ground is explored by representing a collective conflict and the subsequent collective hope for mediation. Strong use of sound and the distortion of imagery creates an engaging and evocative exhibition. One of my favorite!
Cypriot Pavilion – Revisit, Customising Tourism
Curated by Charis Christodoulou and Spyros Th. Spyrou, Revist, Customising Tourism explores the implications of the frequent travel activity. The exhibition represents tourism as a monopoly of rules whereby the character of the resort, theme park, hotel and city icon alienate the traveler from local.
Another of my favorite, Revist explores the customisation of the tourism industry and reconsiders the common ground between the traveler and local. Multiple projects form a think tank of ideas create a framework for discussion and propose the improvement of our built environments. The design of the pavilion re-enacts the tourist beach scene, littered with lounge chairs. Integrated media boxes conceal the projects for reshaping the tourism industry.
Estonian Pavilion – How Long is the Life of a Building?
Curated by Tuune-Kristin Vaikla, How Long is the life of a Building? explores the relationship between time and space and considers the use of architecture once a building becomes uninhibited. The theme is investigated via the modern legacy of the Linnahall Concert Hall in Tallinn.
The exhibition contains of two films that unfold to tell the larger story of reuse, redevelopment and hope for a greener future. The exhibition speaks of the need for future generations to consider building reuse and adaption and to reveal the possibilities they offer.
Hong Kong Pavilion – inter cities/intra cities: ghostwriting the future
Curated by Oval Partnership, inter cities/intra cities investigates the theme of sustainable urban development in Hong Kong and other global cities. 12 teams of architects and designers propose both real and speculative projects for the two districts in Hong Kong. The focus of the content is to support new commercial success alongside the enablement of diverse and sustainable modes of living.
The room is full of contrasting ideas that conjure debates and dialogues about the development of future cities. Scattered projects throughout the room recreate complex, partial and fragmented experiences, parallel to that of the city, with opposing voices and spaces.
Irish Pavilion – Shifting Ground
Curated by John Mclaughlin, Shifting Ground investigates architectures relationship to network flows of products, data and knowledge. The exhibition questions how global architecture can be grounded culturally, philosophically and spatially within such a context.
The pavilion charts languages of projective geometry that is embodied along the perimeter and benches of the pavilion. Diagrams present precise measurements and extraction of data relating to building, consumption and nature.
Italian Pavilion – Architecture Made in Italy
Curated by Luca Zevi, Made in Italy explores the work of Italian architects and designer and highlight their contribution to the development, well-being and cultural characteristics of modern Italy. The Pavilion showcases the work of various individuals and teams.
Created by Bosco Italia, one enters into a garden representing the infancy of the Italian landscape and from here grows the Italian forest. The growth of the forest (Italy) is a multimedia narrative of fours seasons and includes work from Olivetti to the Green Economy.
Kingdom of Bahrain Pavilion – Background
Curated by Noura Al-Sayeh, Background is the installation of real and imagined images. 5 screens duplicating the location and shape of the entrances represent video portals to Bahrain. Here background images become foreground and the individual becomes collective.
The video portals illustrate landscapes; lakes, squares and roads that largely appear empty or frozen in time. Through the stillness, one imagines the feeling within space; the breeze, tides or temperatures. The exhibition room is filled with chairs to encourage the spectator to simply sit down and soak up the atmosphere of the world outside the room.
Kosovan Pavilion – The Filigree Maker
Curated by Perparim Rama, The Filigree Maker is the collection of Kosovan architecture, past and present alongside architecture from around the world, submitted by spectators. Named after the traditional metal making technique, Filigree ties together architecture and emotion via a system of wires and colour coded lighting.
Data wrapping the exhibition is a collection of messages, emails and tweets, creating data of common ground from distant locations. In addition to this spectators are encouraged to upload photographs of where they live, therefore creating an ever expanding library of architecture divided also into colour coded emotions of: happiness, sadness, entrapment, excitement, freedom and anger. The exhibition explores the need for people to reflect and reconsider how they think about their surroundings.
Kuwait Pavilion – Kethra
Curated by Zahra Ali Baba, Kethra is the realisation of an almost empty room whereby spectators walk over faded and defunct master-plans. Cushions surround the perimeter of the room while hanging speaker’s eco voices from above.
The defunct master-plans represent the archive of out-dated and failed planning proposals for the development of Kuwait. The cushions represent the settlements outside the city walls, while the hanging speakers recreate the noises of various places. Through investigating the past, the content of the exhibition focuses on reflection, future propagation and growth of quality.
Macedonian Pavilion – Architecture in a Mirror: Everyday and Sublime
Curated by Sasa Tasic and Aleksandar Radevski, Architecture in a Mirror highlights the fragmented work of 25 architecture components. Specific configurations of the components have been separated from their original frame and therefore take on new meaning and interpretation. The models are situated on a reflective base and are no longer of their original and casual context. The mirror provides a new and particular imagery, reflected in time.
The architecture fragments are no longer of the everyday and gaze into magical images similar but entirely different to the perfect imagery of international architecture. The fragmentation investigates the separation of architecture from place.
Malaysian Pavilion – Voices
Curated by Lim Teng Ngiom, Voices explores the unique conditions of each architect, including environment, circumstance, experience and language. The exhibition is the abstract interpretation of architecture in the context of environment. Common ground is explored through a common platform for unique expression and voice; an architecture narrative in three-dimension.
The pavilion contains 21 models, created by architects representing the voice of their architecture work pre-occupation. Each model is situated within an armature, a statement about the collective cultural landscape of Malaysia.
Peruvian Pavilion – Yucun inhabit the desert
Curated by Enrique Bonilla Di Tolla, Yucan inhabit the desert is a collection of 20 architecture projects. The exhibition responds to the recently completed tunnel that carries water from the Amazon to the arid desert on the Peruvian Coast.
Given the recent access to water, each architecture firm presents their idea for the potential habitation of the arid desert. Each idea is conceptually manifested via a clay model and supported with drawings and documentation. Common ground is in the form of an entirely new infrastructure and city capable of supporting new homes and opportunities.
Thailand Pavilion – Common Collage
Curated by a team of architects, academics, and designers, Common Collage brings together 100 ideas that collectively portray diversity in Thai architecture and culture. The work is presented through 40 models of equal size, volume and weight. Each box intends to speak of its own language, representative of individual ideas.
Neither a representation of the past or future, individual concepts are presented without synthesis; instead the spectator is required to construct this into a picture about the positive and common ground we could share.
Ukrainian Pavilion – Mirage Architect Project
Curated by Alexander Ponomarev and Olilga Milentiy, Mirage Architect Project is the investigation for habitation in the Arctic. Via videos, models and drawings, the investigation is manifested in two conceptual projects, a floating personal museum and a transformable museum of contemporary art.
The mirage is drawn from the optical phenomena of icebergs and Arctic coastlines being transformed into different structures before disappearing. Common ground is explored in the geographical reality of a new Arctic nation.
Thank you for reading and be sure to check out the last article which will cover my favourite projects from the Arsenale Central Pavilion exhibits. Please feel free to contact me on [email protected] if you would like further information or photographs on any of the exhibits. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
]]>Unique to the Biennale, the central pavilion represents a meeting point for the fascinating encounter of concepts between influential architects, designers and critics. Below are my favourite Giardini Central Pavilion exhibits. The article is the third of five instalments which cover my time at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012. Check out the first and second instalment here and here.
Atelier d’Architecture Autogeree – R-Urban Commons
Created by AAA, R-Urban Commons identifies human consumption beyond the point sustainable processes. The focus of their exhibition is upon regenerating and reconsidering the human consumption of water, energy and resources. Through posters and statements of new urban rules and principles, AAA advocate for a bottom-up approach to architecture and city development.
The exhibition presents multiple opportunities for new modes and interpretations of diversity, society, occupation, urban tactics, collectives and mobility. The project reconsiders the role (and focus) of architecture as one that needs to enable and facilitate the participation and energy of community citizens.
Crimson Architectural Historians – The Banality of Good
Created by Crimson Architectural Historians, The Banality of Good exhibits the unique spatial, demographic and economic formulas for six cities built in-between 1935 and present day. Through a timeline of painted canvases, the exhibition is a critique on the progress of urban planning and illustrates the negative developing principles of city design.
The exhibition illustrates the movement away from optimistic social considerations of equity and progress to current considerations of profit, efficiency and expediency. The exhibition calls for architects and city planners to re-evaluate the motivations and implications of their work.
Eisenman Architects, Pier Vittorio Aureli and Jeff Kipnis – The Piranesi Variations
Created by a team working in-between academia and practice, the Piranesi Variations explore common ground through the interpretation of a famous but speculative Roman drawing: The Piranesi’s Campo Marzio created in 1762.
Through models and drawings, four teams create new speculations for Campo Marzo. The exploration of each team generates a unique political, social and philosophical ides, demonstrating the inexhaustible opportunities and potential for creation and reinterpretation in architecture.
Herreros Arquitectos – Dialogue Architecture
Created by Herreros Arquitectos, Dialogue Architecture contains a selection of projects including the Munch Museum in Oslo, the AGORA project in Bogota, the competition design for an Intermodal Railway Station in Santiago de Compostela, and Casa Garoza. In the centre of the room is a large table where visitors can listen to the recorded dialogues about each project and to initiate new dialogues of their own.
Common ground is explored by bringing to light the breadth of skill involved in the process of design and construction. Herreros describes the installation about “spreading technical knowledge and culture as a tool for dialogue and anchoring for ideas.” Source. The recorded dialogues and diagrams that surround the room suggest a future for the architect, not as head consultant but as mediator of the dialogues between consultants, experts and citizens.
Jasper Morrison – The Good Life
Created by Jasper Morrison, The Good Life brings to light the creativity and beauty of vernacular and everyday objects. Six photographs of objects born from necessity including a chair, light, bus stop and pot plant make up the exhibition.
The object in focus is responsive to issues of climate, function and/or material. The outcome looks and feels different to the typical response of the architect if given the same necessities. The exhibition shows how ordinary people with unique and accumulated practical knowledge can create a specific and beautifully simple object. The photographs (and their subsequent descriptions) therefore question the appropriateness and usefulness of the architect.
Kuehn Malvezzi – Komuna Fundamento
Created by Kuehm Malvezzi, Komuna Fundamento unites two spaces at the Giardini Central Pavilion. The first intervention is directly outside the pavilion in the form of a bench. The bench disrupts the axis of the entry into the pavilion. The second intervention creates a narrow corridor to delay the spectator’s entry into other exhibitions. Each piece is created using the single material of grey slate.
Both pieces create two unique thresholds and encourage people to linger and meet or to sit down and watch. The installations investigate architecture as part of a curatorial action in space, neither the foreground nor background, but a medium of the in-between ground; common ground.
MVRDV and The Why Factory – Freeland
Created by MVRDV and the Why Factory, Freeland explores common ground in the neighbourhood and answers the age-old question of why we need our neighbours. The exhibition is in the form of a video and proposes a radically free, almost libertarian model for city planning.
The video shows the creating, working and benefit of a city made completely from ‘do-it-yourself’ and bottom-up approaches and without the rules of urban planning. The content is successful through its presentation: a stimulating storyline where we start over, forming a new utopian vision for the future. The exhibition demonstrates common ground born from necessity, here architects respond to need rather than vision.
Olafur Eliasson – Knowing Feeling Acting
Created by Olafur Eliasson, Knowing, Feeling, Acting is delivered in three locations throughout the Biennale. A short film titled Solar Syokoy forms one part of his initiative; the film depicts a mysterious creature of ‘little suns’ emerging from the forest into the urban city. The video depicts the strange and indescribable sensations of experience.
Another work includes a fan with the same ‘little suns’ attached. When the fan is turned on the individual lights blend into one continuous ring. Each work talks of being disconnected yet connected, being committed yet indifferent and of doing rather than thinking. It is within these philosophies we can find our common ground.
OMA – Public Works: Architecture by Civil Servants
Created by OMA, Architecture by Civil Servants exhibits the work of 15 post-war buildings created by anonymous bureaucrats and employed by guiding public sectors, councils or departments. The exhibition shows public architecture with coherent and optimistic social visions. The buildings represent a mode of practice that focuses on civic service rather than the market economy.
Each building focuses on shared motivations and not private ideologies. The exhibition therefore questions the morals of current architecture and serves as a reminder that left-leaning governments and architects have created significant and influential modern buildings capable of movement and change.
Peter Fischli and David Weiss – Airport Photographs
Created by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Airport Photographs is a simple yet effective video documentary about the airport. The documentary depicts the airport as a ubiquitous and relentlessly similar space throughout the world.
The airport is explored as a place of temporary and autonomous civilisation with its own spatial system and order. The airport (irrespective of location) depicts the theme of common ground through the negation of cultural and geographical differences; here there is everyone yet no one.
Toshiko Mori Architect – Dialogue In Details
Created by Toshiko Mori Architect, Dialogue in Details exhibits ten 1:1 models. Details of building components by Frank Lloyd wright, Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, Marcel Breuer, and Paul Rudolph are displayed alongside details of building components by Mori.
Common Ground is explored through the dialogues of the building details, investigating the convergence of idea, material, tectonic and construction. The installation demonstrates how ideas can be re-embodied and re-interpreted through time.
Other exhibits within the Giardini Central Pavilion include projects by Alison Crawshaw, Grafton Architects and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Wolfgang Wolters and Mario Piana, 40,000 Hours, Norman Foster, O&O Baukunst, Thomas Demand, Caruso St John, Elke Krasny, Muf architecture/art, Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Habiter Autrement, Alejandro Aravena/Elemental, Fulvio Irace, Diener and Diener and Steve Parnell.
Thank you for reading and be sure to check out the next article which will cover the Arsenale National Pavilions. Please feel free to contact me on [email protected] if you would like further information or photographs on any of the exhibits. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
]]>Hungarian Pavilion – Space Maker
Curated by Balint Bachmann, Space Maker investigates the subject of the architecture model as a symbol of complexity and content. The exhibition explores the importance of the architecture model in the education and realisation of architecture projects.
Over 500 models from architecture students are on display. Each of the models are white to represent cleansing and the space is unlit to remove elements of artificiality. Silence throughout the pavilion eliminates distraction and intends to allow the spectator to imagine the possibilities constructed or embedded in each individual model.
Israelian Pavilion – aircraftcarrier
Curated by Erez Ella, Milana Gitzin-Adiram and Dan Handel, aircraftcarrier documents historical periods of uncertainty. The pavilion represents moments of social, economic, political and territorial struggles that have radically transformed and defined Israeli’s current position in architecture. The moments are categorised in the form of signals, emporiums, allies and flotillas.
The exhibition creates a ‘concept store’, selling custom made objects that relate to each historical moment in time and focus specifically on their relationship between the United States and Israel. The retail experience encourages live interaction with the theme and allows one to deconstruct the work of the pavilion which then goes on to travel the world as spectators take objects home for further reflection, examination and reinterpretation.
Japanese Pavilion – Architecture. Possible Here? Home-for-All.
Curated by Toyo Ito, Home-for-All exhibits the process of 3 emerging architects – Kumiko Inui, Sou Fujimoto and Akihisa Hirata. Home-for-All documents their process as they work together creating a shelter for the 400,000+ people who lost their homes in the tsunami of 2011. The exhibition tells a cohesive story of process through interviews, drawings, working models and video documentation.
The exhibition conveys the sense of the devastation that occurred to the area and the following collaboration processes that have taken place to rebuild. “We made this house without any barrier between “professional” and “amateur”, no distinction between “builder” and “resident”. Every step of the process was done together with local people: builders became residents, residents became builders.” Toyo Ito. Home-for-All ultimately speaks of the human spirit, energy and binds together a sense of community and through the process of devastation allows one to reconsider the meaning of architecture.
Korean Pavilion – Walk in Architecture
Coordinated by Hee Jun and Eun Leong, Walk in Architecture is divided into 2 themes; conflicted and assembled ground vs abstracted and rehearsed ground. The pavilion explores the themes in the form of five walks. Together they represent the future, beyond modernism, the past, the position and the sense.
The pavilion seeks to use the walk as a primordial means to engage, and also as a paradox to a “Walk in Venice” which positions architecture as the subject. The design intends to allow allow one to walk and think, meditate, observe, dream or wander.
Nordic Pavilion – Light Houses
Sponsored by The Museum of Finnish Architecture, Light Houses celebrates the jubilee of the Nordic Pavilion designed by Sverre Fehn. 32 architects display models representing the conceptual idea of the house. The models also reflect their personal philosophy on architecture.
The models explore themes of light, material, structure, space, nature and atmosphere. The exhibition intends to create a chorus of contemporary architecture in polyphonic dialogue with Fehn’s iconic pavilion. The images below show the models of Tyin Tegnestue Architects and Lassila Hirvilammi Architects.
Polish Pavilion – Making the Walls Quake
Curated by Michal Libera and Katarzyna Krakowiak, Making the Walls Quake is the exploration of architecture built through the complexities of sound. The theme explores the idea that sound goes on to create a map of our social lives.
The bare and physically empty pavilion amplifies the sounds that have always existed within the space (creeks, ventilation, heating etc) and through volume allows the sound to move to the foreground of the spectator’s conciseness. The volume of sound and high coefficient of reverberation makes human conversation difficult and therefore our words within the space become blurred into the amplified sound of the building.
Romanian Pavilion – Play Mincu
Curated by Mil Ivanescu, Irina Bogdan, Ana Costantinescu, Laura Iosub and Paul Popescu, Play Mincu encourages one to engage with architecture ideas and to focus on its political, bureaucratic and creative connotations. Play Mincu is both playful and thought provoking.
Upon entering the pavilion spectators are asked to produce a traditional stamp. One goes on to enter a dark room with a piece of paper. Well-lit pedestals contain stamps of various quotes relating to ideas of architecture and again the user stamps their paper. The stamp is not only representative of history and art but also the bureaucratic hurdles of architecture. One leaves the pavilion with something similar to a manifesto.
Russian Pavilion – i-city skolkovo
Curated by Sergei Tchoban and Sergey Kuznetsov, i-city skolkovo covers every surface of the Russian Pavilion in QR codes. Spectators use the codes to view various proposals for a new city of science located near Moscow, in Russia. The city will include important new scientific centres, universities, homes and over 500 jobs. The city intends to allow diverse organisations from different parts of the world to interact with one another as a network, constructing not only a new city but also a new community for the development of science.
The QR codes explore the connection and intersection between the real and virtual. The pavilion speaks of light and atmosphere. Proposals for the new city include projects by David Chipperfield, SANAA, OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, Stefano Boeri, SPEECH, Valode & Pistre architects.
Serbian Pavilion – 100
Commissioned by Dr Igor Maric, 100 exhibits a large table and though its monumental scale creates a series of metaphors and opportunities. The table represents being alone alongside everyone as opposed to being alone against everyone.
The exhibition space contains a large table, leaving only a narrow hallway for walking, standing and sitting, the interior becomes the exterior, and emptiness becomes fullness. By denying and introverting the scale of the table, the object is brought to extreme meaning; universal, indivisible, sculptural and banal.
Spanish Pavilion – SpainLab
Curated by Debora Mesa and Anton Garcia-Abril, SpainLab poses the challenging questing: “What is the Innovation in Architecture?” The exhibition brings together the work of 7 architects and designers who together represent innovation in architecture, with particular focus on community.
The exhibition displays a balance between the proposition of questioning, ideas and realisation. Each of the works are carefully curated to display not only the authors intention but also their personal emotion and motivation which is often lacking in the communication of architecture. My favourite work is titled ‘Dream your City’ by Ecosistema Urbano. (Belinda Tato, José Luis Vallejo) Their project focuses on public space as a platform for interaction and experimentation; developing a new means for understanding and transforming urban life.
Swedish Pavilion – And Now the Ensemble!!!
Curated by Miroslav Sik in Collaboration with Axel Fickert, Kaschka Knapkiewicx, Paola Maranta and Quintus Miller, And Now the Ensemble!!! represents an appeal to architects, builders and authorities to look at urban design and architecture as a dialogue-based, evolving and collective work of art. The main hall showcases the work of three architects and propagates a hypothetical, interpretive and at times chaotic ensemble.
The exhibition intents to explore architecture beyond style and star architecture and through a series of tables and chairs encourage reflection and dialogue.
U.S. Pavilion – SpontaneousInterventions: Design Actions for the Common Good
Curated by Cathy Lang Ho, along with David Van Der Leer and Ned Cramer, SpontaneousInterventions presents the work of 124 socially motivated urban interventions that have provided immediate benefit and improvement to the public realm. Each of the interventions are displayed as a kinetic system of weights and pulleys and requires spectator participation to learn more about each of the interventions. The projects range in scale from guerrilla intervention to large structures.
One side of the display documents project images and information while the other is in the form of a barcode categorising each project relating to information (dark blue), accessibility (orange), community (pink), economy (light green), sustainability (dark green) and pleasure (light blue). Black counter weights on the adjacent wall reveal a solution to the problem when their corresponding project banners are pulled down. The pavilion is playful, interactive and informative. Another of my favourite exhibits with enough content to make for a great book!
Uruguayan Pavilion – Panavision
Curated by Pedro Livni Aldabalde, Panavision features the work of six diverse and emergent Uruguayan practices. Each practice has produced a model representing their organisation as a means to develop discussion on contemporary Uruguayan architectural agendas. Common ground is representing by imagining a common future.
Selected firms included G+, 11:54 p.m, Bednarik + Mirabal, MBAD, Fábrica de Paisajes, and MAAM. Each model was developed within specific rules of spatial, programmatic and scale conditions.
Venezuelan Pavilion – Ciudad Socializante vs Ciudad Alienate
Showcasing the work of Domenico Silvestro and Andres Agusti, Ciudad Socializante vs Ciudad Alienate. Domenico Silvestro’s work in the form of art explores the notion of the home as a hideout and family nucleus for dream, memory and hope.
Andres Agusti’s work is an audiovisual testimony to the evidence of people power, when out of necessity and disaster they devote themselves to the transformation of their environment and home. This project again questions the role of the architect and how our work better needs to address the issues of populations living in poverty.
Venetian Pavilion – Nicholas Hawksmoor: Methodical Imaginings
Curated by Mohsen Mostafavi, Methodical Imaginings focuses on a series of important London churches designed by architect Nicholas Hawksmoor during the eighteenth century. The exhibition celebrates the structures of the city by conceiving the interior of the pavilion as an analogical site of London.
Black and white photographs of the churches are on display alongside resin models that hang in space in a similar relationship to that of their actual locations around the city of London.
Thank you for reading and be sure to check out the next article which will cover the Central Giardini Pavilion. Please feel free to contact me on [email protected] if you would like further information or photographs on any of the exhibits. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
]]>The International Architecture Biennale is the world’s largest celebration of architecture, providing a venue to collectively exchange ideas and reach out to the community.
David Chipperfield, director of this years Biennale describes the theme of Common Ground as one that explores the “concern of continuity, context and memory, toward shared influences and expectations, and to address the apparent lack of understanding that exists between the profession and society.” Source.
Common Ground intends to allow participants to focus not on individual and isolated motivations but rather explore, through individual and personal experience, the shared commonalities that will shape and define the direction of architecture culture.
Importantly, this year’s theme addresses social sustainability and the need to re-engage with the users of architecture. Hopefully less about architects and more about architecture and the audience we intend to cater for. The name Common Ground implies inclusivity and anti-elitism and the Biennale gives opportunity for up-comers like Aberrant and Justin McGuirk to create discourse and present their ideas alongside the likes of Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster.
Over the next couple of weeks I am based in Venice, if you happen to be visiting the Biennale during this time be sure to come say hi at the Aussie Padiglione! I’d love to show you around and direct you towards my favourite exhibitors.
I will post a number of following articles highlighting my favourite moments from the Biennale. Below are the most memorable projects from the Giardini National Pavilions.
Australian Pavilion – Formations, New Practices in Australian Architecture.
Curated by Anthony Burke, Gerard Reinmuth and Toko Concept Design, Formations explores the current fascination with the reconstruction of the architect. The pavilion highlights the work (and unique formation) of 6 different organisations including Richard Goodwin, archrival, healthabitat, supermanoeuvre, 2112 AI and 3RRR as they respond to the various forces reshaping the profession. The pavilion explores the possibly of architecture to develop into broader realms of research, collaboration, urban design, medicine, art and media.
The most engaging work is that of archirival who create a public and engaging arena in the form of outdoor foosball tables. The exhibit creates a positive venue and explores the theme of rivalry and its transformation into a forum for play, productive interaction and discussion.
Austrian Pavilion – Hands have no tears to flow
Created by Wolfgang Tschapeller, Rens Veltman and Martin Perktold, hands have no tears to flow is an interdisciplinary study of thought, action, architecture and art. The exhibition is associated with the human body and investigates the socio-political function of architecture as a mirror of society. Interestingly one questions, is the construction of site no longer the building, but the body?
The pavilion is animated with digital figures projected onto walls that react and mimic the movement of spectators. The human figures become an eerie being (like ourselves), familiar and yet so foreign. The installation is less about architecture and more about the people who exist within the work of architects.
Belgian Pavilion – The Ambition of the Territory
Curated by AWJGGRAUaDVVTAT, The Ambition of the Territory outlines a conceptual framework to reimage the future development of Europe given its current financial, ecological and political crisis. The focus is on reinventing and redistributing dynamics, power and wealth between the traditional west and emerging markets. The goal of the project is to determine welfare systems as redundant and foster a growth in prosperity.
Various architects, urban planners and designers present their work through a series of drawings, documentation of research and design studies. The exhibition seeks to question contemporary society by making the spectator aware of their own imperfections. Maps and images re-consider the definition of territory via inventive, efficient and productive means as opposed to the traditional zoning principles.
Brazilian Pavilion – Conviviality
Curated by Lauro Cavalcanti, Conviviality steps away from the traditional exhibition design of displaying photographs, plans, perspectives or memorials. The motivation of such is to eliminate exclusivity and autonomy and to instead focus on spatial and physical emotion.
Once of my absolute favourite, the exhibition displays the beautifully emotive work of two important architects. ‘Riposatevi’ by Lucio Costa and ‘Peephole’ by Marcio Kogan. ‘Riposatevi’ allows the spectator to rest on hammocks among guitars with can be played. “The same people who rest in hammocks can, whenever necessary build a new capital in three years’ time.” Lucio Costa. ‘Peephole’ encourages the spectator to look through fragments of life. It focuses on the unique sensation of space that can only be provoked through experience. The installation recognises the infeasibility to depict architecture and a suggestion that it can only be described through memory.
British Pavilion – Venice Takeaway.
Curated by Vicky Richardson and Vanessa Norwood, Venice Takeaway highlights the work of 10 firms from across the globe. The projects focus on the research of international issues from Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Thialand and the USA. The research includes the provision of housing, design of schools, urban planning and design, and the competition system.
Another of my favourite exhibits, Venice Takeaway is a reminder that research, observation and asking questions is just as important to the industry as building. Albert Einstein said, “If we knew what we were doing, it would not be research, would it?” Several participants explore the role of the architect and the profession’s relationship and perception to the public. The work of Open Charter titled the image of the architect examines how the perception of the architect varies around the world. It allows architects to reflect upon why and how this will affect the future of our profession.
Canadian Pavilion – Migrating Landscapes
Curated by 5468796 Architecture and Jae Sung Chan, Migrating Landscapes looks at the global concerns of migration. The exhibition questions the socio-political border, idea and attitude surrounding migration. Throughout the pavilion 18 personal experiences of im/migration are expressed via architectural models and short videos.
The videos and models are displayed among a wooden, malleable infrastructure representing the abstraction of the physical, economic and political conditions that shape individual identity. It portrays subjective stories that are tied together in a collective unsettlement.
Czech and Slovak Pavilion – Asking Architecture.
Curated by Jan Pernecky, Asking Architecture presents the work 18 artists and creative groups rather than the work of architects. The pavilion explores the potential for themes of architecture to be explored and addressed by those outside the industry and questions how this unconventional shift might infiltrate the industry to better respond to the shifting motivations and forces affecting architecture.
The installation relies on the virtual and augmented reality and only reveals the work after the spectator approaches the collateral communication presented on the wall.
Danish Pavilion – Possible Greenland
Curated by Minik Rosing, Possible Greenland explores the need for the artic region to undergo dramatic changes in response globalization, internal demographic forces and climate change. Various installations within the pavilion investigate opportunities to create new connections and interactions between Greenland and the rest of the world.
The installations tend to focus on forming new infrastructures, cultivating new resources, new ways of habitations and new social, cultural and political opportunities. The below images show one project in the form of an airport.
Dutch Pavilion – Re-Set: New wings for Architecture
Curated by Ole Bouman, Re-Set is the sequel to the Vacant NL exhibition of 2010 that explored the quantity of empty buildings available for reuse. Re-Set develops possibilities for transforming (renovating and conserving) existing or under-used space.
Full height fabric throughout the pavilion frequently moves and changes to evoke new spatial qualities and use. Every hour a new situation occurs, allowing the installation to provide a new outlook on existing foundations.
Egyptian Pavilion – Egypt, Motion Rotation and Ascent
Curated by Tariq Al Murri, Egypt, Motion Rotation and Ascent explores brick as a common element in the civilization of mankind. The exhibition recognises the first mud brick as created by an early Egyptian. This moment is symbolic of the beginning of architecture consciousness.
The pavilion contains brick structures representing the first domes and arches as important moments in building development. Singular bricks exist throughout the pavilion and allow the spectator to create their own structures.
Finnish Pavilion – New Forms in Wood
Curated by Juulia Kauste, New Forms in Wood highlights the importance of wood as Finland’s preferred building material. The exhibition highlights nature and the forest as an enduring source for inspiration in art and architecture.
The pavilion highlights the work of 5 young Finish architects as they reimage the use of wood and explore its future potential. Beautify constructed timber models communicate various possibilities.
French Pavilion – Grands & Ensembles
Curated by Yves Lion, Grands & Ensembles explores the issue of working-class districts in France. Through a series of intense and personal videos of the inhabitants of these territories, one can visualise their struggle to viably function within an area of development exclusion and misunderstanding.
The pavilion conveys human spirit and energy as the facilitators and operators of change. Grands & Ensembles portrays a town with a population of 300,000 – 400,000: European, French, and part of the Paris region, but not found on any administrative map. A hypothetical project supported by a new housing and transport model, transforms the excluded territories to constitute a new backbone to the dense urban network. The pavilion explores the hope for developing such areas into future viable social and economic destinations.
German Pavilion – Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
Curated by a team of Architects and designers Reduce/Reuse/Recycle explores architecture as an inadequate resource for the ageing and declining population of Germany. The exhibition space highlights a number of projects with explore new design and development opportunities with reduce, reuse and recycle as paramount.
The pavilion seeks to provide a global appreciation towards resources and highlights the need for architects to create buildings that use less energy and new methods of processes.
Greek Pavilion – Made in Athens
Organised by the Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Made in Athens focuses on the strong contradictions of contemporary Athens. The exhibition seeks to expand the opportunity for talented young architects during a time of economic crisis. Two themes exist within the pavilion; one concerns the local urban tradition with a particular focus on housing and the other is the current fragmentation of public space.
Created by local architects and creative groups, the exhibition contains 8 narratives and strategies for the city of Athens. The common ground is a common goal to reshape Athens in crisis.
Thank you for reading and be sure to check out the next article which will cover the remaining Giardini National Pavilions. Please feel free to contact me on [email protected] if you would like further information or photographs on any of the exhibits. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
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