Stephanie G. Mathis The Biennale di Venezia is held every other year and alternates with it. It aims to celebrate, summarize, and address the current state and issues of architecture. The success of the Venice Architecture Biennale inspired many spin-offs, including the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
The event’s centerpiece is an exhibition curated in Venice’s Arsenale, the former shipyard from the 13th century, which features 88 participants representing 37 countries. There are also 62 national pavilions, most of which are located in the Giardini area, as well as a variety of events and exhibitions that take place off-site. Venice becomes a cultural hub, transforming into an entire water city.
The curator of the Venice Biennale this year, Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, is not new to the event. In 2008, his “do-tank” Elements won the Biennale Silver Lion. It also received the second prize in the Promising Young Architectures category for its redesign of social housing in Quinta Monroy Housing Iquique, Chile, and its focus on community engagement.
Aravena received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2016, the most prestigious award for the architecture industry, and was appointed curator of the 2016 Venice Biennale. Aravena had a big year.
The theme of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, “Reporting from the Front,” puts social awareness in architecture at the forefront. It is a response to turbulent times when many countries suffer economic unrest, a continuing refugee crisis, and political discord.
In order to improve people’s lives and the quality of their built environment, there are many battles to be fought and frontiers to be explored.
We want people to see the 15th International Architecture Exhibition for what it is: success stories and exemplary cases that are worth sharing.
A large wall-mounted sign explains, “The introductory rooms for the Biennale Architettura 2016 were built using the 100 tons of waste material generated from the dismantling of the previous Biennale”.
The author provided the entry for Arsenale. The author is provided
A curtain of metal studs is suspended from the ceiling in the vast reception area of Arsenale. The stacked plasterboard walls create a light pattern on the surfaces beneath. Plasterboard stacked at different depths creates a surface that changes with openings.
When you arrive at the entrance to the exhibition, you wonder if the next curator is going to reuse the materials used for Aravena’s display.
The following is a wide range of dislocated, global projects that Aravena describes as part of his curatorial statement.
The scope of architecture will be expanded to include issues that are not only cultural or artistic but also political, economic, and environmental.
If architecture is not part of the 300-meter-long Arsenale, where is it? The curator has tried to give up architecture (the form of the building) to visualize social and political issues.
Signs that read “Does permanence really matter?” or “Is there a way to create a space for the public within a private commission?” reduce architecture to slogans.
Within this mix of projects, there are a number of notable examples that show how design can be socially active and have a major impact on reshaping the environment. Kunle Adeyemi’s Makoko Floating School was reconstructed in Venice and docked as a prototype of a floating community on the Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria. The project is made from local materials, such as reused plastic barrels. The Silver Lion Award was well deserved.
Rural Urban Framework develops housing prototypes in Mongolia for those who have been left out of urbanization.
Forensic Architecture by EyalWeizman, which was on display in the Giardini, breathed more life than the Arsenale exhibition. It uses images, films, and satellite footage, as well as architectural design logic, to track down wrongdoings.
The individually curated pavilions of each country, in addition to Aravena’s exhibitions at the Arsenale and Giardini, offer an insight into current architecture. It can be not easy to cope with the intensity and variety.
The pavilions at the other end of the spectrum, like the German Pavilion that has been deconstructed, have a lot of information. Four of its walls were literally taken down so it could be open all the time. The walls are covered from floor to ceiling with documents that show how the recent refugee influx has transformed cities and buildings.
The Pool, an immersive sensory experience in Australia by Michelle Tabet and Isabelle Toland, features a swimming pool surrounded by seating where guests can relax or take a swim while listening to interviews on the pool’s influence on Australia’s culture.
