Unfoldings and Assemblages: Mexico’s Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale

Following a competition that received 286 entries from 26 of the 32 states of Mexico, 31 proposals have been selected to be presented at the Mexican Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Narrating the “deep history of social participation in Mexico,” the exhibit, “Unfoldings and Assemblages,” will feature “architectures assembled from fragments, modules, relations, stories, tactics, technologies and construction strategies.” The exhibit will focus on work and experiences that can change, propagate and adapt, rather than closed systems or final products.

The pavilion is built around a principal axis of historic manuals. The manuals, and the work connected to them, shifts the focus from architecture’s common perception of unique authors and stand-alone works. These manuals provide the knowledge for self-determination, allowing communities to build their own environments and asking what modern instruments or technologies can further bring the public into architecture.

The exhibition pavilion itself is built using the same principles of assemblage and dissemination. Using a repeating system of large structural modules and a textured honeycomb structure - all of which are made stable with rigidly flexed plywood panels – the pavilion exhibits notions of adaptability and resilience.

Every component of the pavilion can be disassembled, collapsed of folded for easy transportation and storage. Each module is divided in three pieces, reducing the transportation volume by over 80%.

Two large walls hold each module, acting as storage spaces for all transit and packing materials, both for the pavilion and furniture, and all the exhibit boxes. The storage space is accessed through the outside walls by means of removable panels, leaving the inside walls free to display prints, photographs or other artwork. 

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Cite: ArchDaily Team. "Unfoldings and Assemblages: Mexico’s Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale" 21 May 2016. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/787588/unfoldings-and-assemblages-mexicos-pavilion-at-the-2016-venice-biennale> ISSN 0719-8884

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