Atxu Amann: The Latest Architecture and News

Videos

After the interruption of the 2019 edition due to the Social crisis in Chile, the Chilean Architecture Biennial returned to Santiago in January 2023 under the theme of 'Vulnerable Habitats', addressing issues such as "the emergence of the housing deficit in a context in which slums, informality, and illegal land takeovers have increased in recent years" and "the vulnerability and deterioration of public spaces; the urgent protection of tangible heritage; and environmental vulnerability in a context of a climate crisis."

Videos

Past, Present, Future is an interview project by Itinerant Office, asking acclaimed architects to share their perspectives on the constantly evolving world of architecture. Each interview is split into three video segments: Past, Present, and Future, in which interviewees discuss their thoughts and experiences of architecture through each of those lenses. The first episode of the project featured 11 architects from Italy and the Netherlands and Episode II is comprised of interviews with 13 architects from Spain, Portugal, France, and Belgium.

The goal of the series is to research these successful firms and attempt to understand their methods and approaches. By hopefully gaining a clearer picture of what it means to be an architect in the 21st century, the videos can also serve as inspiration for the next generation of up-and-coming architects and students as they enter the field.

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During the inauguration of the Spanish Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Biennale, we spoke with Spanish architect Atxu Amann, curator of the space, to better understand the ideas and motivations that shape the exhibition called "Becoming." One of the most interesting concepts –and with the aim of avoiding unnecessary waste– is that 2018 budget was mostly applied to remodel the pavilion building itself; then Amann's team "tattooed" its walls with more than 140 projects made by students and young architects.

(Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara) underscore the concept of generosity, which I think is important because we have to give space and time to those who are not yet building or constructing. We have been very lucky. When I was 30 years old I was already building. Here we have young people between the ages of 35-40 who have never built anything.

On one hand, this has made it so that they don’t have visibility, but on the other hand, it has made it so that during this time different architectural themes emerge –other ways of being an architect. (...) So this is the spirit of generosity: this is a Spanish space and we give it to you (the students) so that you show what you are doing.

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage, we present the completed Spanish Pavilion. Below, the curatorial team describes the exhibition in their own words.

Becoming, the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2018, seeks to respond to the general theme of the event through the proposals and research being developed in the different learning environments within the country, placing special emphasis on the architect's new multidisciplinary profile.

The exhibition, curated by the architect Atxu Amann, has occupied most of its budget in restoring the building in which it is located, "tattooing" its interior walls to load them with 143 proposals that are unified through 52 relevant concepts to our discipline today.

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While 2016's Golden Lion-winning project 'The Unfinished' surveyed architecture after the construction crisis, this year's Spanish pavilion will explore architecture's future through the eyes of researchers.

The 'becoming,' an exhibition curated by Spanish architect Atxu Amann, opens its doors to the works and productions of architecture students developed between 2012 and 2017. According to the curators, "becoming makes an allusion to a vector of the future, with a common educational background in the 'EscuelaS,' which extends to other learning experiences in space and time, in dialogue with other disciplines."