VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE 2016: ARSENALE & GIARDINI ENTRY’S
DESIGN BY ALEJANDRO ARAVENA
DESIGN BY ALEJANDRO ARAVENA
May 28, 2016 - November 27, 2016
VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE 2016: ARSENALE & GIARDINI ENTRY’S
DESIGN BY ALEJANDRO ARAVENA
May 28, 2016 - November 27, 2016
Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has used over 90 tonnes of waste generated by
the Venice Art Biennale 2015 to create two introductory rooms for
this year's architecture event.
The Elemental founder, who curated the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016, created installations in the first rooms
of both the Arsenale and Central Pavilion venues using seven miles of
scrap metal and 10,000-square-metres of plasterboard leftover from
last year's Art Biennale.
"The opening halls of Biennale Architettura 2016
were built with 100 tons of waste material generated by the previous
Biennale," said a statement from Aravena.
Lengths of crumpled metal channelling are
suspended vertically from the ceiling like fringing in the first room of the
Arsenale – a 300-metre-long building on the eastern side of Venice that once
operated as the rope works of a shipyard, but is now used as one of the
Biennale's two primary venues.
Similarly, the walls are covered by stacks
of multi-tonal plasterboard that incorporate display shelves.
A similar installation is also hosted in the
foyer of the Central Pavilion, which is located in the Giardini.
Venice's Art and Architecture Biennales take
place on alternate years in the Arsenale and the Giardini.
Aravena's title for the Venice Architecture Biennale
2016 is Reporting From The Front – a theme intended to encourage
architects to address some of the most important global issues. His star-studded list of contributors include Tadao Ando, Peter Zumthor, David
Chipperfield and SANAA.
Wide-ranging interpretation of the theme has resulted
in installations and exhibits dealing with economic crisis, housing,
waste, migration and robotic construction.
I had taken
all the photographs from Dezeen and World Architecture’ web page.
THE VENICE BIENNALE ARCHITECTURE 2016
THE VENICE BIENNALE ARCHITECTURE 2016
Open to the public from Saturday May 28th to
Sunday November
27th 2016 at the Giardini and the Arsenale,
the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, titled REPORTING FROM THE FRONT, will be
directed by Alejandro Aravena and
organized by La Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo
Baratta. The preview will take place on May 26th and 27th,
the awards ceremony and inauguration will be held on Saturday May 28th
2016.
The Exhibition will also include 63 National
Participations in the
historic Pavilions at the Giardini, at the Arsenale and in the historic city
centre of Venice. Four countries will be participating for the first time:
Philippines, Nigeria, Seychelles and Yemen.
The Italian Pavilion at the Tese delle
Vergini in the Arsenale, sponsored and promoted by the Ministero dei Beni
e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo, Direzione Generale Arte e
Architettura Contemporanee e Periferie Urbane, has been assigned to the
curatorial team TAM associati: Massimo Lepore, Raul Pantaleo, and Simone
Sfriso.
The International Exhibition
The Exhibition REPORTING FROM THE FRONT will be laid
out in a unitary exhibition sequence from the Central Pavilion (Giardini) to
the Arsenale, and will include 88 participants from 37
different countries. 50 of them will be participating for the
first time, and 33 architects are under the age of 40.
“The lady on the ladder who, climbing up onto the
highest steps can gaze over a far broader horizon, and by doing so conquers an
“expanded eye”, announces the Biennale Architettura 2016 curated by Alejandro
Aravena. We immediately loved this picture – stated President Paolo
Baratta - because in a way it represents la Biennale as a whole, with our
attitudes and our goals.
“It is also in part a counterpoint to the image chosen
for the most recent Biennale Arte. The symbol selected last year by Okwui
Enwezor – Baratta noted - was Paul Klee’s famous “Angelus
Novus” as interpreted by Walter Benjamin; the winged angel looking backwards in
shock, seeing only the past and in the past, debris and tragedy, but also
insights that could be useful some day, in a future towards which the hidden
forces of providence are driving him, like a wind blowing on his wings.”
“What does the lady see? I think -
commented Baratta -mainly desolated land comprising immense
swathes of human habitation which no human could be proud of; great
disappointments representing a sad, infinite number of missed opportunities for
humanity’s ability to act intelligently. Much of this is tragic, much is banal,
and it seems to mark the end of architecture. But she also sees signs of
creativity and hope, and she sees them in the here-and-now, not in some
uncertain aspirational, ideological future.”
“Is this a sign of optimism? We have often deplored,
in previous Biennale Exhibitions – the President recalled – that our
present time seems to be characterised by increasing disconnection between
architecture and civil society. Previous Exhibitions have addressed this in
different ways. This time, we wish to investigate more explicitly whether and
where there are any trends going in the other direction, towards renewal; we
are seeking out encouraging messages.”
“And we are not just interested in exhibiting concrete
results for critical appraisal. We also want to see into the phenomenology of
how these positive examples came about. In other words: what drives the demand
for architecture; how are needs and desires identified and expressed; which
logical, institutional, legal, political and administrative processes lead to
demand for architecture and how they allow architecture to come up with
solutions which go beyond the banal and self-harming.”
“Because this is clearly a serious impasse; not as
much in architecture as a discipline, but in human organisation, in our ability
to harness it, be saved by it and enter into dialogue with it.”
“We feel the need to highlight how positive outcomes
have been achieved through the evolution of decision-making chains which link
need - awareness - opportunity - choice - execution in a way that leads to a
result where “architecture makes the difference”, as Aravena puts it.”
“We are not interested in architecture as the
manifestation of a formal style, but rather as an instrument
of self-government, of humanist civilisation, and as a demonstration of
the ability of humans to become masters of their own destinies.”
“Architecture in action as an instrument of social and
political life, challenges us to assess the public consequences of private
actions at a more fundamental level.”
“Presenting architecture in action is also one of the
answers to the permanent question raised by La Biennale. What is an
architecture exhibition? – asked Baratta. And what should an
architecture biennale be? In the Biennale Arte, which is the parent of the
Biennale Architettura, the works are there in front of the visitors; with an
architecture exhibition, the works are elsewhere. What should there be here?
And indeed, the search goes on. We must avoid turning into a magazine, a
convention, a critical essay, or a place for specialists alone: an exhibition
just for architects. We also need to avoid condescension and falling into the
trap whereby architects are tempted to present themselves as artists.”
“We need to engage with the public and with all
possible stakeholders in the decisions and actions whereby our living spaces
are created, both as individuals and as communities. As Architecture is the
most political of all the arts - concluded the President - "the
Biennale Architettura must recognise this.”
“In his trip to South America – related Alejandro
Aravena - Bruce Chatwin encountered an old lady walking the desert
carrying an aluminium ladder on her shoulder. It was German archaeologist Maria
Reiche studying the Nazca lines. Standing on the ground, the stones did not
make any sense; they were just random gravel. But from the height of the stair
those stones became a bird, a jaguar, a tree or a flower. “
Aravena thus expressed his hope that the
Biennale Architettura 2016 might “offer a new point of view like the one Maria
Reiche has on the ladder. Given the complexity and variety of challenges that
architecture has to respond to, REPORTING FROM THE FRONT will be about
listening to those that were able to gain some perspective and consequently are
in the position to share some knowledge and experiences with those of us
standing on the ground.”
“We believe - explained Aravena -
that the advancement of architecture is not a goal in itself but a way to
improve people’s quality of life. Given that life ranges from very basic
physical needs to the most intangible dimensions of the human condition,
consequently, improving the quality of the built environment is an endeavour that
has to tackle many fronts: from guaranteeing very concrete, down-to-earth
living standards to interpreting and fulfilling human desires, from respecting
the single individual to taking care of the common good, from efficiently
hosting daily activities to expanding the frontiers of civilization.“
The curator’s proposal is therefore
twofold: “on the one hand we would like to widen the range of issues to which
architecture is expected to respond, adding explicitly to the cultural and
artistic dimensions that already belong to our scope, those that are on the
social, political, economical and environmental end of the spectrum. On the
other hand, we would like to highlight the fact that architecture is called to
respond to more than one dimension at a time, integrating a variety of fields
instead of choosing one or another.”
“REPORTING FROM THE FRONT will be about sharing with a
broader audience, the work of people who are scrutinizing the horizon looking
for new fields of action, facing issues like segregation, inequalities, peripheries, access
to sanitation, natural disasters, housing
shortage, migration, informality, crime, traffic, waste, pollution and
the participation of communities.
And simultaneously it will be about presenting examples where different
dimensions are synthesized, integrating the pragmatic with the existential,
pertinence and boldness, creativity and common sense. “
“It is not easy – concluded Aravena – to
achieve such a level of expansion and synthesis; they are battles that need to
be fought. The always menacing scarcity of means, the ruthless constraints, the
lack of time and urgencies of all kinds are a constant threat that explain why
we so often fall short in delivering quality. The forces that shape the built
environment are not necessarily amicable either: the greed and impatience of
capital or the single mindedness and conservatism of the bureaucracy tend to
produce banal, mediocre and dull built environments. These are the frontlines
from which we would like different practitioners to report, sharing success
stories and exemplary cases where architecture did, is and will make a
difference.”
http://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/exhibition/15/
THE VENICE BIENNALE ARCHITECTURE 2016
VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE 2016
CURATED BY ALEJANDRO ARAVENA
In his trip to South America Bruce Chatwin encountered an old lady walking the desert carrying an aluminum ladder on her shoulder. It was German archeologist Maria Reiche studying the Nazca lines. Standing on the ground, the stones did not make any sense; they were just random gravel. But from the height of the stair those stones became a bird, a jaguar, a tree or a flower.
In his trip to South America Bruce Chatwin encountered an old lady walking the desert carrying an aluminum ladder on her shoulder. It was German archeologist Maria Reiche studying the Nazca lines. Standing on the ground, the stones did not make any sense; they were just random gravel. But from the height of the stair those stones became a bird, a jaguar, a tree or a flower.
We would like the Biennale Architettura 2016 to offer
a new point of view like the one Maria Reiche has on the ladder. Given the
complexity and variety of challenges that architecture has to respond to,
REPORTING FROM THE FRONT will be about listening to those that were able to
gain some perspective and consequently are in the position to share some
knowledge and experiences with those of us standing on the ground.
We believe that the advancement of architecture is not
a goal in itself but a way to improve people’s quality of life. Given life
ranges from very basic physical needs to the most intangible dimensions of the
human condition, consequently, improving the quality of the built environment
is an endeavor that has to tackle many fronts: from guaranteeing very concrete,
down-to-earth living standards to interpreting and fulfilling human desires,
from respecting the single individual to taking care of the common good, from
efficiently hosting daily activities to expanding the frontiers of civilization.
Our curatorial proposal is twofold: on the one hand we
would like to widen the range of issues to which architecture is expected to
respond, adding explicitly to the cultural and artistic dimensions that already
belong to our scope, those that are on the social, political, economical and
environmental end of the spectrum. On the other hand, we would like to
highlight the fact that architecture is called to respond to more than one
dimension at the time, integrating a variety of fields instead of choosing one
or another.
REPORTING FROM THE FRONT will be about sharing with a
broader audience, the work of people that are scrutinizing the horizon looking
for new fields of action, facing issues like segregation, inequalities,
peripheries, access to sanitation, natural disasters, housing shortage,
migration, informality, crime, traffic, waste, pollution and participation of
communities. And simultaneously will be about presenting examples where
different dimensions are synthesized, integrating the pragmatic with the
existential, pertinence and boldness, creativity and common sense.
Such expansion and synthesis are not easy to achieve;
they are battles that need to be fought. The always menacing scarcity of means,
the ruthless constraints, the lack of time and urgencies of all kinds are a
constant threat that explain why we so often fall short in delivering quality.
The forces that shape the built environment are not necessarily amicable
either: the greed and impatience of capital or the single mindedness and conservatism
of the bureaucracy tend to produce banal, mediocre and dull built environments.
These are the frontlines from which we would like different practitioners to
report from, sharing success stories and exemplary cases where architecture
did, is and will make a difference.
Alejandro
Aravena
http://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/exhibition/aravena/
CURATOR ALEJANDRO ARAVENA & DIRECTOR PAOLO BARATTA
DIRECTOR PAOLO BARATTA & CURATOR ALEJANDRO ARAVENA
ELEMENTAL
(Alejandro Aravena, Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda,
Victor Oddó, Diego Torres) is a Do Tank founded in 2001, focusing on projects
of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space,
infrastructure and transportation. A hallmark of the firm is a participatory
design process in which the architects work closely with the public and end
users. ELEMENTAL has built work in Chile, The United States, Mexico, China and
Switzerland. After the 2010 earthquake and tsunami that hit Chile, ELEMENTAL
was called to work on the reconstruction of the city of Constitución, where
we had to integrate all the previous experiences. The approach
we developed proved to be useful for other cases where city design was
used to solve social and political conflicts. At the moment, we keep on
expanding into new fields of action.
ALEJANDRO ARAVENA
Alejandro Aravena was born on June 22, 1967, in
Santiago, Chile. He graduated as an architect from the Universidad Católica de
Chile in 1992. In 1994, he established his own practice, Alejandro Aravena
Architects. Since 2001 he has been leading ELEMENTAL, a “Do Tank” focusing on
projects of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space,
infrastructure, and transportation.
ELEMENTAL has built work in Chile, The United States,
Mexico, China and Switzerland. After the 2010 earthquake and tsunami that hit
Chile, ELEMENTAL was called to work on the reconstruction of the city of
Constitucion, Chile. Aravena's partners in ELEMENTAL are Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan
Cerda, Victor Oddó and Diego Torres.
Alejandro Aravena is the Director of the Venice Architecture
Biennale 2016. He was a speaker at TED Global in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in
2014. He was a member of the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury from 2009 to 2015.
In 2010 he was named International Fellow of the Royal
Institute of British Architects and identified as one of the 20 new heroes of
the world by Monocle magazine. He is a Board Member of the Cities Program of
the London School of Economics since 2011; Regional Advisory Board Member of
the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; Board Member of the
Swiss Holcim Foundation since 2013; Foundational Member of the Chilean Public
Policies Society; and Leader of the Helsinki Design Lab for SITRA, the Finnish
Government Innovation Fund. He was one of the 100 personalities contributing to
the Rio +20 Global Summit in 2012.
Aravena was a Professor at the Harvard Graduate School
of Design (2000 and 2005); and also taught at Istituto Universitario di
Architettura di Venezia (2005), Architectural Association in London (1999), and
London School of Economics. He has held the ELEMENTAL Copec Chair at
Universidad Católica de Chile since 2006.
Author of Los Hechos de la
Arquitectura ( Architectural Facts, 1999 ), El Lugar de la Arquitectura ( The Place in/of Architecture, 2002 ) and Material de Arquitectura ( Architecture Matters, 2003 ). His work has been published
in more than 50 countries, Electa published the monograph Alejandro Aravena; progettare e costruire ( Milan, 2007 ) and Toto published Alejandro Aravena; the Forces in Architecture ( Tokyo, 2011 ). Hatje-Cantz published
the first monograph dedicated to the social housing projects of ELEMENTAL: Incremental Housing and Participatory Design Manual ( Berlin, 2012 ) launched at the 12th
International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia.
