Venice Biennale 2012: SPAINLab / Spain Pavilion


During the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale opening, we had the chance to interview Débora Mesa, curator of the Spain Pavilion together with Antón García-Abril, partners at Ensamble Studio.

SPAINLab, the name of the exhibit, looks to expose the research process behind the works of contemporary Spanish Architects:

© Nico Saieh

More photos about the pavilion and description from Anton and Débora after the break:

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AD Interviews: 5468796 Architecture & Jae-Sung Chon, Migrating Landscapes

We interviewed Winnipeg- based 5468796 Architecture (Johanna Hurme + Sasa Radulovic) and Jae-Sung Chon (Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba), the team that curated the “Migrating Landscapes” exhibit at the Canadian Pavilion for the 13th Venice Biennale. The Migrating Landscapes Oganizer (MLO) invited, through a national competition, young Canadian architects and designers from a wide range of cultural and educational backgrounds to create scale models of ‘dwellings’ and accompanying videos that draw on cultural memories.

More about the pavilion in our previous article.

AD Interviews: Reiser + Umemoto

Since it’s founding in 1986, Reiser + Umemoto, RUR Architecture P.C. has become a widely published, internationally recognized practice with a diverse collection of projects ranging in scale. On multiple occasions, the firm has been awarded for their contributions to architectural practice and theory – the most recent being The Cooper Union’s 2008 Presidential Citation and the 2011 John Hejduk Award – as they treat “each project as the continuation of an ongoing inquiry, delving into relationships among architecture, territory and systems of distribution.”

The City-based practice is led by it’s founders, architect Jesse Reiser and designer Nanako Umemoto. Both partners have taught and lectured at a number of academic institutions throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Reiser is currently a Professor of Architecture and director of graduate studies for the M.Arch program at Princeton University’s School of Architecture.

More about ’s work:

AD Interviews: Renzo Piano – Part III

Part I – Part II – Part III

We continue with the last part of our exclusive interview with .

Since first achieving international fame in 1978 with the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, Renzo Piano has become known as a prolific, Italian architect capable of achieving a masterful balance between art, architecture and engineering. His intellectual curiosity and problem-solving techniques have led him to develop a wide-ranging portfolio that successfully merges high technology with humane and comfortable environments.

Sophisticated, refined and elegant, the presence of ’s work is internationally celebrated. Originally born into a family of Italian builders, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect now leads a staff of 150 at his practice, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, from three locations – Genoa, Paris and New York.

Part III to be aired on Tuesday Sept 18th.

AD Interviews: Renzo Piano – Part II

Part I – Part II – Part III

We continue with the second part of our exclusive interview with .

Since first achieving international fame in 1978 with the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, Renzo Piano has become known as a prolific, Italian architect capable of achieving a masterful balance between art, architecture and engineering. His intellectual curiosity and problem-solving techniques have led him to develop a wide-ranging portfolio that successfully merges high technology with humane and comfortable environments.

Sophisticated, refined and elegant, the presence of Renzo Piano’s work is internationally celebrated. Originally born into a family of Italian builders, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect now leads a staff of 150 at his practice, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, from three locations – Genoa, Paris and New York.

Watch Part III.

AD Interviews: Renzo Piano – Part I

Part I – Part II – Part III

Since first achieving international fame in 1978 with the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, Renzo Piano has become known as a prolific, Italian architect capable of achieving a masterful balance between art, architecture and engineering. His intellectual curiosity and problem-solving techniques have led him to develop a wide-ranging portfolio that successfully merges high technology with humane and comfortable environments. Sophisticated, refined and elegant, the presence of Renzo Piano’s work is internationally celebrated. Originally born into a family of Italian builders, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect now leads a staff of 150 at his practice, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, from three locations – Genoa, Paris and . Architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff of The Times described Piano’s work the best when he stated: “The serenity of his best buildings can almost make you believe that we live in a civilized world.” The next part of the interview will air on Monday Sept, 17th. Renzo Piano completed works featured on ArchDaily:

In Progress:

You can also read our editorials Piano’s Progress and The Shard: A Skyscraper for our Post 9/11 World?.

AD Interviews: Sergei Tchoban & Sergey Kuznetsov (SPEECH) i-city at the Venice Biennale

During the opening of the 13th Venice Biennale, we had the chance to talk with Sergei Tchoban and Sergey Kuznetsov, partners at  SPEECH and curators of i-City, the Russian pavilion, awarded with a Special Mention at the Biennale.

i-City presents us the Strolkovo Innovation Center, a new development that aims to concentrate intellectual capital around five clusters (IT, Biomed, Energy, Space, Nuclear Tech), with projects by David Chipperfield, SANAA, OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, Stefano Boeri, SPEECH, Valode & Pistre architectes and Mohsen Mostafavi among others (more details about the project itself in a future article).

An interesting project, presented in detail with a big amount of information that remains invisible inside the space of the pavilion. A series of QR Codes wrap the inside of the pavilion spaces,  and all you can sense at first is light and space. At the entrance you are provided with a tablet, and you walk around the pavilion scanning these codes to obtain the information about Strolkovo.

On the lower level, a dark interior is perforated with peep holes that show images of former Soviet Scientific Towns, a legacy from the past that serves as background of the Strolkovo project.

AD Interviews: The Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale / Toyo Ito, Akihisa Hirata, Sou Fujimoto

During the opening of the Venice Biennale, we had the chance to sit down and talk with the curator and participants of the Japan Pavilion, awarded with the Gold Lion.

In the following videos you can see Toyo Ito, curator of “Architecture. Possible Here? Home-for-all”, along with collaborators Akihisa Hirata and Sou Fujimoto, discussing what Architecture means to them, the role of architects in our society, and how they approached the Biennale’s theme “Common Ground” on this particular exhibition, which reunites Japanese architects and an architectural photographer collaborating on the design of houses for those affected by the 2011 tsunami.

We thank the Japan Foundation for this interview.

and Sou Fujimoto videos after the break:

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Venice Biennale 2012: Meeting Lines / Ateliers Jean Nouvel + Habiter Autrement (Mia Hägg)

© Nico Saieh

Jean Nouvel and Mia Hägg presented “Meetings Lines” at the Venice Biennale. For ‘Common Ground’ they decided to show their finalist project for the Slussen Masterplan competition, an ambitious urban design project that seeks to replace much of the degenerated water and transportation infrastructure in the heart of Stockholm. The project proposes three different public spaces, designed as living links for the city, inspired by infrastructure such as the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

More about the exhibit after the break.

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Venice Biennale 2012: Public Works, Architecture by Civil Servants / OMA

© Nico Saieh

“Forty years ago the public cause proved a powerful source of inspiration.  Given the numbers of architects that chose to serve it, one might even speak of a common ground. In the age of the ‘starchitect’, the idea of suspending the pursuit of a private practice in favor of a shared ideology seems remote and untenable. In the context of the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, this exhibition hopes to provide a small contribution towards finding that common ground once more…” – OMA Partner Reinier de Graaf, August 2012

Throughout Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s, large public works departments employed architects to design a multitude of public buildings in an effort to serve the public cause. Reinier de Graaf describes this “heyday of public architecture” as “a short-lived, fragile period of naïve optimism – before the brutal rule of the market economy became the common denominator.”

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AD Interviews: Alejandro Aravena / ELEMENTAL, Venice Biennale

Alejandro Aravena, Executive Director of ELEMENTAL, tells us more about The Magnet and The Bomb, their exhibit at the Venice Biennale. You can learn more about the projects presented at this installation: PRES Constitución and Calama PLUS.

For more photos, check our previous article.

AD Round Up: Interviews Part VI

For today’s AD Round Up we’ve compiled a few previously featured ArchDaily Interviews. It’s never too late to watch these interviews, which offer various points of view from these outstanding architects. You must watch the interview of Pritzker Prize winner, Richard Meier. Don’t miss the Thomas Phifer interview, a closer look at one of the winners of the 2010 ArchDaily building of the year. You can also watch an interview with Mark Sexton from Krueck & Sexton firm or an interview with Stephan Jaklitsch and Mark Gardner from Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects, who have made a name for themselves by designing buildings that engage their users and respond to their culture. Last but not least in today’s AD Round Up, you can see the double interview of Eugene Kohn and William Pedersen from Kohn Pendersen Fox.

AD Interviews: Kevin Alter, Alter Studio Architects

Here is our interview with Kevin Alter, founder of Austin-based firm Alter Studio architects. Not only is the Harvard graduate an internationally recognized architect, but he has also been a visiting critic, reviewer, lecturer and visiting professor for a number of institutions worldwide.

In addition to running his award winning practice, Alter is the Academic Director of Architecture Programs, Associate Dean for Graduated Programs, Sid. W. Richardson Centennial Professor of Architecture, Director of the Summer Academy in Architecture, and Associate Director of the Center for American Architecture and Design at The University of Texas in Austin, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in design, construction and theory.

Projects from at ArchDaily:

ArchDaily Interviews: The role of the Architect at the Audi Urban Future Initiative

Last week we went to Ingolstadt, Germany, to attend the launch of the Audi Urban Future Initiative. The program, now in its second version, invited a group of six architecture offices from different regions of the world, all with big urban populations, to think about the future of mobility. During this stage, the architects presented their initial research and diagnosis of their respective regions. In October, the architects will present their projects and an overall winner will be announced.

During the event, we had the chance to talk with the architects and ask them about the role of the Architect in our contemporary society.

The first edition of this program took place in 2010, and included Alison Brooks Architects, BIG, Cloud 9, J. MAYER H. and standardarchitecture. You can see J. Mayer’s winning entry previously featured at ArchDaily. More info about the program after the break:

AD Interviews: Bijoy Jain, Studio Mumbai

During the launch of the META Project in Chile, we had the chance to interview Bijoy Jain, founder of Studio Mumbai.

Studio Mumbai is a “human infrastructure of skilled craftsmen and architects who design and build the work directly.” Together, the colleagues immerse themselves within an ever-changing environment formed by an “iterative process” where they experiment and explore their ideas through the production of large-scale mock-ups, models, materials studies, sketches and drawings.

carefully develops projects through a process that draws from traditional skills, local building techniques, materials and an ingenuity that arises from limited resources. The essence of their work lies in the relationship between land and architecture. describes themselves as being “inspired by real life conditions” as they understand complex relationships through the power of observation.

“The endeavor is to show the genuine possibility in creating buildings that emerge through a process of collective dialog, a face-to-face sharing of knowledge through imagination, intimacy, and modesty.”

Projects from Studio Mumbai in ArchDaily:

AD Interviews: Santiago Calatrava

2012 Commencement. Photo by René Perez.

Earlier this week, Pratt Institute extended an invitation to the ArchDaily team to attend their 123rd commencement, celebrating the achievements of  1300 bachelor’s and master’s degree candidates at Radio City Music Hall.   The event also marked a special day of recognition for four honorary degree recipients:  artist/curator/critic Ai Weiwei, architect, engineer and artist Santiago Calatrava, patron on the arts and education Kathryn Chenault, and the Metropoitan Museum of Art’s longest-serving director Philippe de Montebello.

We were privileged to have an opportunity to congratulate Mr. Calatrava on his doctor of architecture degree, and pose ArchDaily’s traditional interview questions.   Mr. Calatrava’s contributions to the professions of architecture and engineering can be found scattered across the world, and bring a sense of dynamism that result from the merge between art and technology, expression and functionality.

Calatrava’s charm and good humor made for a friendly conversation that we hope you enjoy.

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AD Interviews: Márcio Kogan / Studio MK27

São Paulo native Márcio Kogan has become an internationally recognized Brazilian architect known for his minimal designs that are often contrasted by intricate materiality. His work has been highly praised by our readers, and he is in the top 5 of individual architects searches at our site. His houses and institutional projects respect the modern principles of Brazilian architecture, with a special care on the design of interior spaces and their details, resulting in a mix of tradition and contemporary design. My favorite? Paraty House (and its section!)

Kogan founded StudioMK27 in the early 1980s, shortly after his graduation from the Architecture and Urbanism Faculty of the Machenzie Presbyterian University (1977). Much of ’s work is influenced by Kogan’s admiration for Brazilian modernism that started in the 1930s, led by starchitects like Lucio Costa, Lina Bo Bardi, Oscar Niemeyer, Rino Levi and Affonso Reidy.

Today, Kogan is involved with the teaching corps of the City School in São Paulo, Brazil. His works have earned several international awards, including the recent Wallpaper Design Awards, Record House, D&AD “Yellow Pencil” LEAF Awards, Dedalo Minosse, Barbara Cappochin International Biennial of Padova and was twice a finalist for the World Architecture Festival (WAF). Marcio has also been appointed as an Honorary Fellow of the AIA in 2011.

Works from at ArchDaily:

AD Interviews: Steven Ehrlich

Recently awarded the prestigious Maybeck Award by the AIA California Council (AIACC), Steven Ehrlich (FAIA, RIBA) has earned international recognition for his distinctive architecture and philosophy that has greatly influenced the architectural community. As the Design Principle of , the Los Angeles-based architect is dedicated to the philosophy of Multicultural Modernism – a unique approach to architecture and planning that is centered on architectural anthropology; an idea that strives to identify and celebrate the uniqueness of each individual culture through design.

We had the chance to have Steven in our office, and he did a very interesting presentation to the ArchDaily editorial team where we learned more about his formation and early years, and how that experience has been translated in his buildings. Ehrlich’s philosophy was kindled in the seventies when he practiced as an architect for the Peace Corps in Morocco and served as a professor of architecture in Nigeria. For six years, Ehrlich lived, taught, traveled and studied indigenous vernacular architecture in North and West Africa, allowing him gain a greater understanding between the connections of architecture, culture, people and place.

Ehrlich is a graduate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He lectures extensively throughout the United States and abroad, and has served as a guest critic at USC, Harvard, Yale and UCLA. As an advocate for the arts, Ehrlich has collaborated with several notable artists, such as Ed Moses, Miriam Wosk, Guy Dill and John Okulick.

In addition to the Maybeck Award, Ehrlich Architects has won eight National AIA Design Awards and was named 2003 Firm of the Year by the AIACC, under Ehrlich’s leadership. His work can be found at a recent monograph published by Monacelli Press: Steven Ehrlich Houses.

Projects from at ArchDaily:

AD Interviews: Winy Maas / MVRDV

We had the incredible opportunity to interview , the M in MVRDV, one the most influential contemporary practices, which has been able to push the boundaries of our field in different scales, from buildings to master plan, from construction to theory. In this interview Winy shares interesting thoughts on the role of the architect and how he runs this design/research practice.

Upon graduating in 1984 from the RHSLT Boskoop in landscape architecture, Winy Maas (Schijndel, 1959) resumed his education at Delft University of Technology where he completed his degrees in architecture and urbanism, graduating in 1990 with honors. Shortly after and together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, Maas founded MVRDV in 1991.

Since then, the Rotterdam-based practice has earned a leading role in international architecture. ’s first commissions, both located in the Netherlands, included the television center Villa VPRO and the housing estate for elderly WoZoCo. Maas lectures and teaches throughout the world and actively takes part in international juries. Currently, Maas is a visiting professor of architectural design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is professor in architecture and urban design at the faculty of architecture, Delft University of Technology. Prior to this, he served as professor at Berlage Institute, Ohio State and Yale University. In 2008, Maas founded The Why Factory (t?f), a thinktank on future cities at Delft University of Technology where he remains director. You can see an example on the Urban Farming In Numbers video.

Maas is also a member of the research board of Berlage Institute Rotterdam, president of the spatial quality board of Rotterdam, supervisor of the Bjorvika urban development in Oslo and advisor to the city of Almere. To add to his ever-growing list of achievements, Maas has been made honorary member of the AIA, received the international fellowship of the RIBA and the French Legion d’Honneur. In addition to being an architect, he designs stage sets, objects and was curator of Indesem 2007.

MVRDV projects previously featured at ArchDaily:

AD Interviews: Marlon Blackwell

During the 2011 AIA Arkansas Convention I had the chance to meet one of the most influential architects in the state: Marlon Blackwell.

A Distinguished Professor and Department Head in the School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas, Marlon Blackwell, FAIA runs the internationally recognized practice Marlon Blackwell Architect in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Blackwell’s portfolio consists of pristine architecture inspired by the vernaculars, seeking to transgress conventional boundaries of architecture. This design strategy has attracted national and international recognition, numerous AIA design awards and significant publications in prestigious books, architectural journals and magazines.

I was also very impressed by how he inspires young architects, many of whom once worked at his studio, to succeed with their own independent practices.

Published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2005, the monograph of his work entitled, “An Architecture of the Ozarks: The Works of Marlon Blackwell” is a testament to the significant contributions Blackwell has provided the profession. Blackwell was also selected by The International Design Magazine, in 2006, as one of the ID Forty: Undersung Heroes and as an “Emerging Voice” in 1998 by the Architectural League of .

He has co-taught design studios with Peter Eisenman (1997 & 1998), Christopher Risher (2000) and Julie Snow (2003) at the University of Arkansas. Most recently, Blackwell served as Elliel Saarinen Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan. His resume includes a growing list of visiting professorships, including the Ivan Smith Distinguished Professor at the University of Florida (Spring 2009), the Paul Rudolph Visiting Professor at Auburn University (Spring 2008), the Cameron Visiting Professor at Middlebury College (Fall 2007), the Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis (Spring 2003), visiting professor at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Spring, 2001 and 2002) and Syracuse University (1991-92).

In 1994, he co-founded the University of Arkansas Mexico Summer Urban Studio, and has coordinated and taught in the program at the Casa Luis Barragan in Mexico City since 1996.

He received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University in 1980 and a M. Arch II degree from Syracuse University in Florence in 1991.

projects at ArchDaily:

Video edited by JP Barrera F.

AD Interviews: Brad Cloepfil / Allied Works Architecture

Recently we had the chance to visit Allied Works office in NY to interview the firm’s founder Brad Cloepfil. It was a great interview, and I really liked the atmosphere of the office: A young team, many abstract study models, beautiful drawings on the boards, and a subtle music playing in the background, it was like seeing the inside of a creative machine at work.

Established in 1994 by Brad Cloepfil, Allied Works Architecture is an awarding-winning practice known for their expressive design and pristine detailing. Portland, Oregon hosts the firm’s headquarters and maintains a close, interdependent relationship with the City office. Together the 50-person practice has completed a number of influential public, institutional, commercial, and residential projects worldwide.

Allied Works’ strong reputation started with the Maryhill Overlook in the Columbia River Gorge, followed by the Wieden + Kennedy Agency Headquarters. Currently Allied Works is involved in a variety of commissions, including the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado, the National Music Centre of Canada, and the Vancouver Community Connector in Washington.

Architectural historian and critic, Sandy Isenstadt, describes Cloepfil’s work as “aiming to create oases of legibility, spaces that can look out upon the simultaneous contrasts of the modern world to appreciate them from a place no less complex, but one that unfolds over time, with repeated visits, rather than at the speed of a camera shutter, thereby rewarding continued occupation rather than just dazzling the eye.”

Allied Works projects at ArchDaily: