Architecture Biennale

Thursday we went to Venice to check out the Architecture Biennale, which is a mixture of offerings by countries and invited individuals. The countries choose to do one of three things: mount an exhibit showing what great buildings are being built there now, do an homage to a famous local architect (Brazil had a large Niemeyer display), or have theoretical work showing what the great minds of the country are up to (the US's choice). For the individual's displays, they either show a major project under way (like Toyo Ito's opera house- a cool idea, but I wonder how it will really feel with no windows...), or, especially the younger firms, they do a theoretical project showing what their firm thinks about. I was really hoping I would be inspired by great work, and there were some really interesting and innovative projects, but I'll admit that a lot of it felt just like studio for adults.

My favorite project was one by a Korean sculptor, Do ho Suh, who decided to take a building facade and make it a ceiling. This is something that I think most architects have thought about at one time, how the 3-dimensionality of an elevation would translate into other planes. He did it really well, though, with a translucent blue fabric which allowed the light from a skylight above to come through, creating an extra layer of interest and magic to the experience of being sideways in the world.

I also liked this very simple dome created by a system of sticks. The structural idea was similar to that of closing the bottom of a box when you don't have tape so you overlap each layer. It allowed for the creation of a beautiful shape with almost no material. At first I assumed it was created by some computer program that analyzed which structural members were needed, allowing you to remove anything that wasn't. However, in reading the description provided by the firm, Amateur Architecture Studio, it became clear that they just found a geometric system and worked with it.

But really the best thing of all was a video provided by the Japanese firm SANAA of the construction workers on a job site doing exercises all together before starting work. It was such a great image of Japanese culture, and it was really amusing to hear the reactions of the Italians to the idea of doing this exercise before starting work!