Biennale showcases work by Foster, Brooks, Chipperfield, Ingels, Libeskind - and the Smithsons
Work by some of the biggest names in architecture has gone on show at the Venice Biennale.
In the main biennale, architects including Alison Brooks, 6a, BIG and David Chipperfield have all been invited to create installations based on the theme Freespace which was set by this year’s curators, curated by Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell of Ireland’s Grafton Architects.
Source: Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
Adam Caruso; Peter St John with Philip Heckhausen | The facade is the window to the soul of architecture, 2018 | Framed giclée prints in oak frames, photographic prints mounted on aluminium
Source: Italo Rondinella
Adam Caruso; Peter St John with Philip Heckhausen | The facade is the window to the soul of architecture, 2018 | Framed giclée prints in oak frames, photographic prints mounted on aluminium
Source: Italo Rondinella
David Chipperfield; Alexander Schwarz; Martin Reichert; Christoph Felger; Eva Schad; Harald Müller | Beyond Purpose, 2018 | Video / Audio / Model
Source: Italo Rondinella
David Chipperfield; Alexander Schwarz; Martin Reichert; Christoph Felger; Eva Schad; Harald Müller | Beyond Purpose, 2018 | Video / Audio / Model
Source: Italo Rondinella
Peter Zumthor | Dreams and Promises – Models of Atelier Peter Zumthor, 2018 | 20 architecture models, mixed media
Source: Italo Rondinella
Peter Zumthor | Dreams and Promises – Models of Atelier Peter Zumthor, 2018 | 20 architecture models, mixed media
Source: Italo Rondinella
Alastair Hall; Ian McKnight | Unique Instruments: Expectant Spaces, 2018 | Construction / Installation, timber
Source: Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
Alastair Hall; Ian McKnight | Unique Instruments: Expectant Spaces, 2018 | Construction / Installation, timber
John Tuomey; Sheila O'Donnell | Folding Landscape / East and West, 2018 | Timber frame construction with MDF cladding, white paint and gold leaf
Source: Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
BIG U: Humanhattan 2050 | Milled Wood, Laser Cut, Acrylic, Video | Bjarke Ingels; Sheela Maini Søgaard; Finn Nørkjær; Thomas Christoffersen; Kai-Uwe Bergmann; Andreas Klok Pedersen; David Zahle; Jakob Lange; Beat Schenk; Daniel Sundlin; Brian Yang; Jakob Sand
Source: Italo Rondinella
BIG U: Humanhattan 2050 | Milled Wood, Laser Cut, Acrylic, Video | Bjarke Ingels; Sheela Maini Søgaard; Finn Nørkjær; Thomas Christoffersen; Kai-Uwe Bergmann; Andreas Klok Pedersen; David Zahle; Jakob Lange; Beat Schenk; Daniel Sundlin; Brian Yang; Jakob Sand
Peter and Alison Smithson are also represented, with an exhibition in the V&A’s Pavilion of Applied Arts. Outside, a three-storey, eight-ton section of the original façade of Robin Hood Gardens has been reassembled on a scaffold designed by Arup, who engineered the original building, with muf architecture/art, who first proposed the V&A’s acquisition of the fragment. Visitors can stand on an original section of a “street in the sky”. Just after the Poplar housing project had been completed the Smithsons exhibited it at Venice, describing its construction as a ruin in reverse. This is now the title of the exhibition on its destruction 40 years later.
Source: The Victoria and Albert Museum
Robin Hood Gardens, completed 1972, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson
Elsewhere, on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Norman Foster has unveiled a chapel as part of the Vatican’s first foray into the biennale. Ten architects were commissioned to create chapels which are collectively the Vatican’s national pavilion.
Foster’s consists of a tensegrity structure of cables and masts – originally inspired by the shape of crosses – wrapped by a wooden latticework.
Foster said: “The project started with the selection of the site. On a visit to San Giorgio Maggiore, close to Palladio’s magnificent church and the Teatro Verde, I found a green space with two mature trees beautifully framing the view of the lagoon. It was like a small oasis in the big garden, perfect for contemplation.
“Our aim was to create a small space diffused with dappled shade and removed from the normality of passers-by, focused instead on the water and sky beyond – a sanctuary.”
Meanwhile, in the Giardini Marinaressa, Daniel Libeskind has created a tower called Facing Gaia to address issues of climate, time and space. It is part of the fourth Time Space Existence exhibition which runs parallel to the biennale and also features work by Kengo Kuma, Fumihiko Maki, Moshe Safdie, MVRDV, Peter Eisenman and Odile Decq among others.
Decq led a #MeToo flashmob protest during Friday’s vernissage preview against “pervasive prejudices and disrespectful behaviours” which she said were endemic in architecture.
The biennale opened to the public at the weekend and runs until November 25.
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