Venice –
Giardini – Central Pavilion. The 15th International Architecture
Biennale Exhibition, titled
Reporting From the Front, until November 27, is curated by Alejandro
Aravena and organized by La Biennale di Venezia chaired
by Paolo Baratta. The exhibition is at the Giardini and
at the Arsenale.
Photograph
by Giorgio Zucchiatti – courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
Curator
- Alejandro Aravena. “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.”
Reporting From the
Front – Maria Reiche’s Room
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 15th International Architecture Exhibition
to offer a new point of view like the one Maria Reiche has on the
ladder”.
Curator
- Alejandro Aravena
Reporting From the Front
Manuel Hertz and The National Union of Sahrawi Women
Reporting From the Front
Manuel Hertz and The National Union of Sahrawi Women
Western
Sahara – redefining the architecture of a refugee camp as the identity of a
nation (yet to be).
Reporting From the Front
Golden Lion –
Best Participant - Reporting From the
Front
Architect Solano Benítez - Gabinete de Arquitectura
Asuncion - Paraguay
Reporting From the Front
Solano
Benítez - Gabinete de Arquitectura
Asuncion - Paraguay
Working
with two of the most easily available materials – bricks and unqualified labor-
as a way to transform scarcity into abundance.
Reporting From the Front
Simon Velez’s battles and
strategies to be able to use bamboo
Matter
is more sustainable than materials (less embedded energy).
Reporting From the Front
The
Work of Liu Jiakun in China
If
cities are good news, then we may consider densifying the open spaces and the
services and not just the residences and the buildings.
Reporting From the Front
Eyal Weizman – Forensic Architecture
Reporting From the Front
The
work of Eyal Weizman in war zones
Forensic
architecture – tracing wrongdoings back through architectural design logic.
Reporting From the Front
The
Work of Michael Braungart
Sustainability
beyond good intentions. Sustainable constructions shouldn’t be those that are
less harmful but those that are the most beneficial to the environment.
Michael Braungart
Reporting From the Front
The
work of Anna Heringer in Bangladesh
Exhibition
in collaboration with Martin Rauch and Andres Lipik
Facing
scarcity by using mud, one of the most readily available resources on earth.
Anna
Heringer – Meti School - Bangladesh
Martin
Rauch - House Rauch - Austria
Reporting From the Front
The
work of Kashef Chowdhury/Urbana in
Bangladesh
The
nobility of open spaces, the discipline that is needed to work in a poor
country as a clue to delivering quality even under difficult circumstances.
Kashef Chowdhury/Urbana
Raised Settlements - Northern
Bangladesh
The
work of Swiss architect Christian Kerez in
Brazil
Learning
from the favelas (without poeticizing them).
Reporting From the Front
The
work of Renzo Piano as a lifetime
senator of the Italian Republic and G124
Working Group
Taking
care of the peripheries built in the last few decades.