Author: Marco Voltolina
"Decolonisation" and "decarbonisation" are the two key concepts of the 2023 edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale, titled "The Laboratory of the Future" and curated by Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic and novelist Lesley Lokko (b. 1964). As always, the countries that participate to the exhibition have produced a great variety of reflections, interpretations and answers to the main themes proposed by the curator, and as always some were more successful than others in providing valuable insights and ideas. In this article, we will look at some of the most interesting national pavilions of this Biennale, as well as some fascinating collateral events and exhibitions scattered around Venice and its lagoon.
Austria: Partecipazione / Beteiligung
Austrian Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale
Vienna-based architecture collective AKT and architect Hermann Czech (b. 1936) proposed a bold and ambitious project: opening up half of the Austrian Pavilion to the residents of the Sant'Elena neighbourhood that lies right outside of the Giardini. According to the curators, "the project has been conceived as the Biennale’s turning to the surrounding city: not in the form of further expansion like over the past decades, but in the form of giving up space". The idea was to build an actual bridge that would climb over the wall that separates the Giardini from the rest of the city, contrasting the growing estrangement of the Biennale from the social, environmental and political needs of the local community. However, in the end the competent authorities did not allow the opening of the pavilion. The exhibition therefore showcases the history of this "failed" project, together with a series of reflections about the role of the Biennale, its relationship with the city and the importance of participation. In the pavilion's courtyard, sits a half-built bridge: a powerful monument that reminds us of the weaknesses and limitations of the institution of the Biennale - and, too often, of Architecture as a discipline.
Figure 1. The proposed project for the Austrian Pavilion, that was not authorized by the competent authorities. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Bahrain: Sweating Assets
Artiglierie, Arsenale
The Bahrain Pavilion, curated by architects Maryam Aljomairi (b. 1995) and Latifa Alkhayat (b. 1996), takes a very practical approach: it recognizes how cooling systems are a necessity due to the country's hot and humid climate and uncovers "the possibilities (rather than solutions) made through their necessary consumption". The intention of the curators is to work "with existing systems to their best capacities rather than starting anew". The proposal is to take condensate, an unintended byproduct of cooling, and redirect it towards wetlands and agricultural regions in need of replenishment. The installation, located in the Arsenale, puts together a cold condensing volume and an evocative landscape that reminds us of those found in Bahrain, highlighting the dichotomy of industrial and ecological systems, but also their potential synergies.
Belgium: In Vivo
Belgian Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale
Architecture collective Bento and philosopher Vinciane Despret (b. 1959), the curators of the Belgian pavilion, recognise that architecture can no longer keep supporting the extractivist paradigm that defines the construction industry - and contemporary society in general. As an alternative, they propose an "alliance with mushroom, which can constitute a highly available, sustainable, renewable material". Their installation explores an architecture made with living materials, such as raw earth and mycelium, the fibrous root of fungi. As they claimed, "its strength will be defined above all by concrete and inventive proposals for an enviable future of living".
Brazil: Terra [Earth]
Brazilian Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale
The Brazilian Pavilion, curated by architects Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares (b. 1980), celebrates Indigenous and African Brazilian cultures and focuses on terra ("earth"): "earth as soil, fertilizer, floor and territory", but also "in its global and cosmic sense, as a planet and common home of all life, human and non-human", "as memory, and also as the future, looking at the past and heritage to expand the field of architecture in the face of the most pressing contemporary urban, territorial and environmental issues". The exhibition is divided in two parts. In the first section, the heroic narrative of the foundation of Brasilia, the new capital of the country, designed by architects Lúcio Costa (1902-1998) and Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012), is challenged and subverted, highlighting the displacement of the Indigenous and African Brazilian people that used to live in that area. The second part, on the other hand, gathers five projects and socio-spatial practices of Indigenous and African Brazilian knowledge about land and territory, demonstrating how these cultures used to live in harmony with their natural environment and perfectly showing how "decolonisation" and "decarbonisation" are really two faces of the same coin. The Brazilian Pavilion perfectly captures the spirit of the "Laboratory of the Future", perhaps even better than the main exhibition curated by Leslie Lokko, and was righfully awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation.
Figure 2. Images from the first part of the exhibition in the Brazilian Pavilion, challenging the dominand narrative on the foundation of Brasilia. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Canada: Not for Sale!!
Canadian Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale
Tha Canadian Pavilion, curated by the AAHA collective (Architects Agains Housing Alienation), tackles one of the main problems affecting the country: the housing crisis, which includes widespread unaffordability, under-housing, precarious housing, and homelessness. The exhibition relies too much on written texts, but has the merit of proposing a list of concrete solutions to address the problem, including a gentrification tax, reparative architecture, and collective ownership.
Figure 3. The Canadian Pavilion. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Czech Republic: The Office for a Non-Precarious Future
Artiglierie, Arsenale
In the Czech Pavilion, architects Eliška Havla Pomyjová and David Neuhäusl and motion designer Jan Netušil set up an exhibition that highlights with pungent irony the serious problems of working conditions and exploitation of young architects. This pavilion has the merit of bringing these issues for the first time at the Biennale - which was very much needed - and hopefully it will stimulate the debate on the future of young professionals.
Figure 4. A meme about unpaid internships, part of the exhibition of the Czech Pavilion. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Denmark: Coastal Imaginaries
Danish Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale
The Danish Pavilion, curated by Josephine Michau, who is also founder and CEO of the Copenhagen Architecture Festival, focuses on nature-based solutions for rising sea levels and storm floods. The exhibition showcases a series of principles, strategies and case studies from all over the world that show how we can work together with Nature to protect coastlines and adapt to climate change. Then, these concepts are applied in a "Copenhagen Islands", a large-scale model of a urban project, designed by Schønherr Landscape Architects, that could completely transform the Danish capital, ensuring climate change adaptation and harmony with the natural environment. Finally, the exhibition ends with an artistic, sensory experience that brings to life a vision of Copenhagen's coastal landscape seen from the eyes of the iconic "Little Mermaid". The Danish Pavilion proposes one of the most complete and coherent experiences of this year's Biennale.
Figure 5. Model of the "Copenhagen Islands" project at the Danish Pavilion. Picture of Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Finland: Huussi - Imagining the Future History of Sanitation
Finnish Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale
The Finnish Pavilion, curated by artist Arja Renell (b. 1975) and the "Dry Collective", presents one simple but brilliant invention: huussi, a contemporary dry toilet. The exhibition questions the current water-based sanitation system and aims to find alternative, more sustainable solutions that reduce the amount of wastewater, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Figure 6. Huussi, the dry toilet at the Finnish Pavilion. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Japan: Architecture, a place to be loved — when architecture is seen as a living creature
Japanese Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale
"Even after the pandemic, when the importance of coexistence is reconsidered, faceless developments continue to overtake the city. In such a world, do we have grounds to believe that architecture is loved today?
Architecture, a place to be loved, is possible when architecture encompasses its engraved memories and stories and embodies the backdrop and the activities that took place, giving the architecture a broader meaning. It is also possible to perceive architecture as a living creature, rather than an entity separate from nature."
With these words, architect Onishi Maki introduces her beautiful exhibition about the architecture of the Japanese pavilion itself. Maquettes, historical drawings and blueprints, construction logs, pictures of the Venetian lagoon, inspirational quotes and art installations combine together to create one of the best emotional journeys of this Biennale.
Figure 7. The Japanese Pavilion. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Holy See: Social Friendship - meeting in the garden
Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore
One of the most unexpected but pleasant surprises of this Biennale was the Pavilion of the Holy See, curated by Italian architect Roberto Cremascoli (b. 1968). Inspired by Pope Francis's (b. 1936) ecologist encyclicals and specifically by the words "taking care of the planet as we do of ourselves and to celebrate the culture of encounter”, the exhibition takes place in the gallery and the garden of the Benedictine Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore, on a beautiful island in front of Saint Mark's Square. Upon entering in the convent, we find the poetic installation "O Encontro" ("The Encounter"), with wooden sculptures designed by Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza (b. 1933), and then we continue to the garden, where we are met with an explosion of plants, vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs, and some simple wooden structures (pergolas, a chicken coop, castles and kiosks) made with wood from a decommissioned construction site and designed by Milan-based Studio Albori. What the Holy See Pavilion has created here is not a temporary installation that will be dismantled at the end of the Biennale, but rather a lasting intervention that will leave a positive mark on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, just like it did during its previous participation at the 2018 Biennale. The statement that the Holy See Pavilion makes about circular construction and the social responsibility of architecture ends up being much more powerful than the one made by the German Pavilion, that has reused leftover material from the past Biennale to create a much less welcoming environment (and that will still be dismantled at the end of this Biennale).
Figure 8. The garden of the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore, designed by Studio Albori for the Holy See Pavilion. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Nordic Countries: Girjegumpi - The Sámi Architecture Library
Nordic Countries Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale
The Nordic Countries Pavilion focuses on the Sámi, the only recognised Indigenous people in the European Union. The exhibition, designed by Sámi architect and artist Joar Nango (b. 1979), consists of an itinerant collective library with books and materials about Sámi architecture, traditional wisdom, activism, and decoloniality. The pavilion is transformed into a warm and welcoming space for meeting, reading and learning, and is furnished with elements inspired by Sámi craftmanship and traditional building knowledge.
Figure 9. The Nordic Countries Pavilion. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Panama: Stories from beneath the water
Tana Art Space, Fondamenta de la Tana, Castello
The Panamaian Pavilion, located in a private gallery not far from the Arsenale, proposes a simple but powerful presentation about the history of the Panama Canal. The exhibition, curated by architect Aimée Lam Tunon, starts with a collection of historical pictures that show the huge social and environmental impacts of the construction of the canal. Then the visitor walks into a courtyard with an installation titled "The Magical Pathway Beneath the Surface", a composition of wood logs placed on a reflecting surface that evokes collective memories from the past that were lost with the construction of the Panama canal. Finally, the third part of the exhibition focuses on the Barro Colorado Island, a former hill that turned into an island after the construction of the canal and that became the most studied tropical island in the world thanks to its biodiversity.
Philippines: Tripa de Gallina - Guts of Estuary
Artiglierie, Arsenale
The Filipino Pavilion, curated by architects Choie Y. Funk and Sam Domingo, explores the condition of the Tripa de Gallina estuary in Manila, which has become congested and polluted, with deep social and environmental implications for the local community. As a possible solution, the exhibition proposes interventions of modular urban acupuncture: bamboo structures, designed by Choie Y. Funk and The Architecture Collective (TAC), that are meant for gathering, social connection, and investigation.
Figure 10. A bamboo structure at the Filipino Pavilion. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
14 - Slovenia: +/- 1 °C - In Search of Well-Tempered Architecture
Artiglierie, Arsenale
The Slovenian Pavilion, curated by architects Jure Grohar, Eva Gusel, Maša Mertelj, Anja Vidic and Matic Vrabič, offers a masterful lesson on how to set up a clear and interesting exhibition that can be fascinating and at the same time comprehensible for both architects and non-architects. Combining pictures, texts and an installation that turns a piece of the Artiglierie into the room of a house, the pavilion explores five energy principles inspired by European vernacular architecture that could be adapted to contemporary design, making buildings more energy efficient in a completely ecological way.
Uzbekistan: Unbuild Together
Tese del Cinquecento, Arsenale
For the Uzbek Pavilion, curators from Studio KO have chosen to focus on the rich historical and architectural heritage of the country, a powerful tool for inspiring sustainable approaches for the future. The exhibition results from the interaction between students, craftspeople, and artists, and has given life to a beautiful and poetic space: a stone labyrith built inside the 16th century architecture of the Arsenale.
A Fragile Correspondence - Scotland + Venice
Docks Cantieri Cucchini, San Pietro di Castello
Scotland + Venice is an international project that promotes contemporary Scottish art and architecture on the global stage of the Venice Biennale. This year's exhibition, hosted in a former shipyard on the island of San Pietro di Castello, is titled "A Fragile Correspondance", and explores the relationship between language, architecture and natural environment. Writers, artists and architects investigate the specific issues of three Scottish landscapes, looking for new approaches for dealing with the climate crisis.
Figure 11. The "A Fragile Correspondance" exhibition by Scotland + Venice. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Catalonia in Venice_Following the Fish
Docks Cantieri Cucchini, San Pietro di Castello
"Catalonia in Venice_Following the Fish", located in a former shipyard right next to the Scotland + Venice exhibition, has been commissioned by Institut Ramon Llull, an organization managed by the Catalan government with the purpose of disseminating Catalan culture and language around the world. At this year's Biennale, audiovisual producers Leve Productora have teamed up with Top Manta, a cooperative founded by African street vendors in Barcelona, to explore the perspective of migrant communities. Despite presenting an exaggerated amount of texts, the exhibition showcases some extremely interesting architecture proposals for communal spaces for Barcelona's migrant community.
Kengo Kuma: Onomatopoeia Architecture
Palazzo Franchetti, Campiello San Vidal, San Marco
While not strictly part of the Biennale, the exhibition "Kengo Kuma: Onomatopoeia Architecture" is certainly one of the main highlights of Venice's 2023 architecture-related events. Organized by ACP - Art Capital Partners at Palazzo Franchetti, a beautiful 15th century palace on the Grand Canal, this retrospective on the famous Japanese architect (b. 1954) showcases beautiful wooden models and pictures of his most interesting works, and also includes two site-specific installations. The exhibition takes an original approach, matching architectural projects with onomatopoeias, showing how Kengo Kuma gives form to physical sensations, reconnecting people and physical things.
"Onomatopoeia does not treat architecture as the subject of operations by higher-ranking actors (architects) but treats architecture and humans on the same level. Architects are not at the head of architecture but walk around the architecture with users. Onomatopoeia is a kind of animal-like voice that is emitted at a physical and experiential level."
Figure 12. Wooden model and picture of Kengo Kuma's project for the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, displayed at the exhibition "Kengo Kuma: Onomatopoeia Architecture". Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Figure 13. Wooden model of Kengo Kuma's project for the the Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum, displayed at the exhibition "Kengo Kuma: Onomatopoeia Architecture". Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Time Space Existence
Palazzo Mora, Strada Nova, Cannaregio
Palazzo Bembo, Riva del Carbon, San Marco
Giardini della Marinaressa, Riva dei Sette Martiri, Castello
Since 2011, the European Cultural Centre organizes every year its own art and architecture exhibitions, a sort of parallel event to the Biennale. They include projects and ideas from academia, foundations and professionals from the private sector, often presenting interesting concepts. Some highlights from this year's exhibition include "Classe Rouge", an innovative classroom in Niger made with a parabolic brick structure, designed by ACTA Architects, and the "Addis Ababa Living Project", a collaboration between the Delft University of Technology and the Ethiopian Institute for Architecture Building Construction and City Development aimed at creating sustainable and affordable housing in Addis Ababa. Other interesting ideas come from the University of Stuttgart, that is developing innovative biomaterials for architecture and interior design, including 3D-printed natural fibres and lightweight profiles and components made with renewable raw materials. One of the main highlights of the exhibition, however, was an emergency housing prototype designed by the Norman Foster Foundation and built by Holcim, a Swiss multinational company that manufactures building materials. This project aims at providing rapidly assembled sustainable housing for people displaced by natural and manmade disasters. Its structure consists of a catenary arch-shaped formwork over which a canvas impregnated with low-carbon cement is draped. According to British architect Norman Foster (b. 1935), this is meant to be something that is "closer to a home than a shelter".
Figure 14. Maquette of a sustainable housing concept for the "Addis Ababa Living Project" by the Delft University of Technology and the Ethiopian Institute for Architecture Building Construction and City Development, showcased at the "Time Space Existence" exhibition at Palazzo Mora. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Figure 15. Examples of furniture and decorative objects made with 3D-printed natural fibres by the University of Stuttgart, showcased at the "Time Space Existence" exhibition at Palazzo Mora. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Figure 16. Maquette of the emergency housing prototype designed by the Norman Foster Foundation, showcased at the "Time Space Existence" exhibition at Palazzo Mora. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
Figure 17. Emergency housing prototype designed by the Norman Foster Foundation and built by Holcim at the Giardini della Marinaressa. Picture by Marco Voltolina - CC BY-NC 2.5
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