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13th Annual Venice Biennale
13th Venice Architecture Biennale Common GroundArchDaily exclusive coverage
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Venice Biennale 2012: hands have no tears to flow / Austria Pavilion
2012 Venice Biennale: hands have no tears to flow / Austrian Pavilion; Copyright © Günter [ August 29, 2012 to November 25, 2012. ] The Austrian Pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale is a collaboration of Wolfgang Tschapeller, Rens Veltman and Martin Perktold, a team that consists of interdisciplinary fields of study, thought and action from architecture and art. The contribution, entitled “Hands have no tears to …
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Venice Biennale 2012: Voices / Malaysia Pavilion
© Nico Saieh The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
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- Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921)…
The limits of our minds are reflected by the limiting capacity of our language. All the world we know is shaped by our external circumstances, -
Venice Biennale 2012: Formations: New Practices in Australian Architecture / Australia Pavilion
© Nico Saieh The current fascination with the ‘reconstruction’ of the architect comes as a direct response to the turbulent forces reshaping global contemporary culture. This unsettling of the professional stability of architecture for most of the past century has forced many architects…
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Venice Biennale 2012: Futura Bold? Post-City: Considering the Luxembourg case
Courtesy of Luxembourg Pavilion Exhibitors Yi-der Chou, Radim Louda, Philippe Nathan [ August 29, 2012 to November 25, 2012. ] The Luxembourg Pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale, entitled Futura Bold? Post-City: Considering the Luxembourg case, is a speculative exploration of the future issues that cities of the 21st century will be facing. Using Luxembourg as a case study, Post-City… seeks
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Venice Biennale 2012: Made in Athens / Greece
© Nico Saieh Contemporary Athens is a city of strong contradictions: It is a city whose particular identity was shaped during post-World-War-II reconstruction. A city which has at its disposal an exceptionally talented cadre of young architects, international in orientation, well educated and…
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Venice Biennale 2012: Venice Takeaway / Great Britain Pavilion
© Nico Saieh The British Pavilion presents the work of ten architectural teams who travelled the world in search of imaginative responses to universal issues. Venice Takeaway charts their course in Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Thailand, and the USA,…
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Was the Biennale Very Political? Or Not Political Enough?
The Torre de David Café by Urban Think Tank + Justin McGuirk + Iwan Baan. According to Kimmelman, the Biennale's "coup de théâtre." According to Quirk, a flawed and yet important exhibit. Photo © Nico Saieh. Yesterday, Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic for The New York Times, …unleashed his anticipated take on this year’s Biennale. Usually, we find ourselves almost perfectly aligned with Kimmelman’s socially-oriented perspective (in fact, we lauded his approach in “The Architect Critic
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Venice Biennale 2012: Grands & Ensembles / France
© Nico Saieh The subject of the grands ensembles… (housing complexes) selected for the French Pavilion is a good example of the ambivalence of an architect’s role, which is often decried; once, the urban environment of towers and large housing complexes was even
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Venice Biennale 2012: The Banality of Good: New Towns, Architects, Money, Politics / Crimson Architectural Historians
© Nico Saieh Presenting six cities built between the World War II and the present day, the installation sets their extraordinary diversity against the spatial, demographic, and economic formulas that lay behind their development. Displayed through a mix of bold typography, architectural elements,…
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Venice Biennale 2012: Pictographs – Statements of Contemporary Architects / Valerio Olgiati
© Nico Saieh Through this installation, Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati explores the ambiguous and complex “common ground” of inspiration and imagination in architecture. Images, selected by architects from around the world, represent the infinitely varied forms of visual material that are collected in…
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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.
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i-City… -
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.
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In the following videos you can see Toyo Ito, curator… -
Venice Biennale 2012: The Most Political Biennale Yet
© Nico Saieh. OMA's Public Works Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Of all the critiques of this year’s Biennale, there was one that was particularly hard to miss: “This event is an expensive danse macabre. [...] In truth it is all hollow, arduous, exhausting, bleak and boring. It is no longer…
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Venice Biennale 2012: The Filigree Maker / Kosovan Pavilion
© Nico Saieh After a long struggle for independence, Kosovo became a new European country in 2008. Much of it’s urban landscape consists of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Communist era architecture that has been mostly remained untouched by the war. As wealth returns and…
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Venice Biennale 2012: Hungarian Pavilion
Courtesy of the Hungarian Pavilion The Hungarian Pavilion for the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale presents a “forest” of white architectural models as a tribute to the common process and existence of this important subject within the profession. With an understanding that the model is where…
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Venice Biennale 2012: Taifa Letu Tujenge / Build Our Nation
Courtesy of Build Our Nation The student led humanitarian initiative ‘Build Our Nation…’ has begun a two-week workshop as part of the Biennale Sessions 13th International Architecture Exhibition. Through workshops and events students are collaborating to explore and experiment with ideas, discuss and
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Architecture Biennale Venice 2012: Questions without answers
Presentation of The EU City manifesto by The Why Factory Text and photographs: Jaakko van ‘t Spijker
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As opposed to what certain critics and commentators have suggested about the opening week, they actually were there, the exhibitors with sociopolitical engagement asking relevant questions, at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale opening.… -
Venice Biennale 2012: Common Ground/Different Worlds / Noero Architects
Keiskamma After Geurnica | 7.8×3.5m Tapestry | Mixed Media | Various Hand Stitched Textiles | The Keiskamma Trust | Hamburg Women’s Co-operative As a contribution to the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale, Noero Architects showcase two powerful works of art in their exhibition Common Ground / Different Worlds… to reveal that architects, and artists alike, work to reinterpret, reinvent and transform preexisting ideas and forms. However, Jo Noero,
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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…
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Venice Biennale 2012: Copycat, Empathy and Envy as Form Makers / Cino Zucchi Architetti
© Nico Saieh The International Jury of the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale has awarded Cino Zucchi Architetti (CZA) a special mention for their installation, Copycat. Empathy and Envy as Form Makers…. Their contribution is based on the notion that “we are all
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Venice Biennale 2012: Inhabitable Models / Eric Parry Architects, Haworth Tompkins, Lynch Architects
© Nico Saieh Inhabitable Models presents the work of three practices -Eric Parry Architects, Haworth Tompkins, Lynch Architects- who find their common ground in an engagement with London, as a city of found fragments. Perhaps uniquely among world cities London exists as a…
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