Friday, September 19, 2008

VENICE: 11th Biennale of Architecture: OUT THERE: ARCHITECTURE BEYOND BUILDING


“WOOD” # 1 - The Arsenale. Ungapatchket, project by Gehry Partners, LLP. Frank Gehry has long been interested in the exploration of buildings that appear unfinished, that gesture beyond their confines, their sites and their programs, and that are sites of experimentation. He pursues his work through endless models and explores both form and space through multiple designs. As a result, nothing is ever simple or closed in his work. This project is entitled Ungapachket, which in Yiddish means something like thrown together, with a secondary sense that it is decorated unnecessarily lavishly. It consists of a framework of sturdy timbers, up to four meters long, that rise up through the center of the Arsenale and supports undulating, clacked clay plates. It is based on a building he is designing for Moscow; Gehry means this fabrication to evoke the construction of both cathedrals and such giant sculptures as the Statue of Liberty. It gestures at an architecture that exists before, through and after buildings.