2018 Venice Biennale: The Latest Architecture and News

The Vatican has released details of the Holy See Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Biennale, marking the Vatican’s first ever entry to the architectural exhibition. Situated on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, the Holy See Pavilion will lead visitors on a journey through ten chapels designed by ten architects.

The beginning of the journey will be marked by the Asplund Chapel, designed by MAP Studio and built by ALPI, drawing inspiration from the “Woodland Chapel” built in 1920 by Gunnar Asplund at the Woodland Cemetery in Stockholm.

While Moshe Safdie may be more well known for the bold forms defining his portfolio of built projects—ranging from the National Gallery of Canada and the horizontal Raffles City Chongqing to the iconic Habitat 67—the architect considers his unbuilt works as important, if not more. Safdie ponders the role of these projects and more in PLANE-SITE’s latest addition to the series Time-Space-Existence.

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage we present the proposal for the Greek Pavilion. Below, the participants describe their contribution in their own words.

Xristina Argyros and Ryan Neiheiser have been selected to curate the exhibition of the Greek Pavilion in the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia - under the general theme “Freespace,” commissioned by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. Entitled “The School of Athens,” the project will examine the architecture of the academic commons - from Plato’s Academy to contemporary university designs. The selection was made by The Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy and the Secretary-General of Spatial Planning and Urban Design, Eirini Klampatsea.

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage we present the proposal for the Turkish Pavilion. Below, the participants describe their contribution in their own words.

Curated by Kerem Piker and coordinated by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the Pavilion of Turkey will present Vardiya (the Shift) at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, taking place from May 26th to November 25th, 2018. Co-sponsored by Schüco Turkey and VitrA, the Pavilion of Turkey is located at Sale d’Armi, Arsenale, one of the main venues of the Biennale.

Conceived in response to the theme of Freespace, the title of the Biennale Architettura 2018, Vardiya offers a programme of public events with the Pavilion of Turkey, providing an open space for encounter, exhibition and production.

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage we present the proposal for the Saudi Arabia Pavilion. Below, the participants describe their contribution in their own words.

The first Saudi participation at the International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will be located in the Arsenale and will feature an exhibition commissioned by the Misk Art Institute under the theme of “Un/Design.”

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage we present the proposal for the Finnish Pavilion. Below, the participants describe their contribution in their own words.

Finland’s representation at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia responds to the theme "Freespace" by transforming the Alvar Aalto Pavilion of Finland into a temporary library space.

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage, we present the proposal for the German Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition 2018 La Biennale di Venezia. Below, the participants describe their contribution in their own words. 

For 28 years, Germany has been united – exactly as long as the Berlin Wall existed (1961–1989). On the occasion of this parallel, GRAFT and Marianne Birthler are curating the exhibition “Unbuilding Walls” at the German Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice.

In 2018 the Vatican will participate in the Venice Architecture Biennale for the first time. Ten international architects will construct 10 different chapels as part of the representation of the city-state in the Italian architecture event. The news was confirmed by Paraguayan media outlets ABC y Última Hora, who revealed that one of the participants was local architect Javier Corvalán.

The elite group of architects was selected by Francesco Dal Co, an Italian architecture historian and curator. The designers have been instructed that their chapels must be able to be relocated so that they can be deployed around the world, in places that are in need of these spaces of worship.

The architects who will build chapels in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale:

The Irish Ministry for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht have announced Free Market as the theme of the Irish Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. A team of curators—including Laurence Lord (AP+E), Orla Murphy (Custom), Jeffrey Bolhuis (AP+E), Jo Anne Butler (Culturstruction), Tara Kennedy (Culturstruction), and Miriam Delaney (DIT)—will present an exhibition which explores the common space of market towns in Ireland.

The Latvian Ministry of Culture have announced Together and Apart: 100 Years of Living as the theme of the Latvian Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Urbanist Evelīna Ozola, architect Matīss Groskaufmanis, scenographer Anda Skrējānem, and Director of the New Theatre Institute of Latvia Gundega Laiviņa will highlight "ideological turning points from the last one hundred years," presenting ways in which "architectural projects and processes of apartment blocks have embodied different ideas about living together and building a nation."

Following an open call, a selection committee coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) has revealed Vardiya (The Shift) as the theme of the Turkish Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Curated by Kerem Piker, the exhibition will propose "a spatial organisation for meeting, encountering, and architectural production."

The Israeli Ministry of Culture have revealed In Statu Quo: Architecture of Negotiation as the theme of the Israeli Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. In the exhibition architects Ifat Finkelman, Deborah Pinto Fdeda, Oren Sagiv, and curator Tania Coen-Uzzielli, will examine "the complex mechanism of the 'Status Quo' within shared holy places in Israel-Palestine, which functions as an informal—if controversial and fragile—system of coexistence between rivals."

The British Council have revealed Island as the theme of the British Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. In the exhibition, Adam Caruso, Peter St. John (Caruso St. John), and Marcus Taylor will engage "with current political themes," and was submitted by means of an open call with reference to Shakespeare’s The Tempest:

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises; Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

The Canada Council of the Arts has selected Indigenous design project UNCEDED to represent Canada at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Led by Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal, the exhibition will bring attention to and analyze the architecture of Indigenous cultures from across Turtle Island (the Indigenous name for North America).

Het Nieuwe Instituut (HNI) have announced WORK, BODY, LEISURE as the theme of the Dutch Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Envisioned as "a collaborative research endeavor by a national and international network," Marina Otero Verzier—head of the Research Department at HNI and a member of the After Belonging Agency, curatorial team behind the 2016 Oslo Architecture Triennale—will act as the creative mediator of a series of collaborative contributions, pooling the expertise of "architects, designers, knowledge institutions, and the private sector."

Following an open competition, the Australian Institute of Architects have announced "repair" as the theme of the Australian Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Baracco+Wright Architects, collaborating with artist Linda Tegg, will oversee the cultivation of "thousands of temperate grassland species" within the pavilion, alongside "large-scale architectural projections." According to the AIA, "visitors will enter a physical dialogue between architecture and endangered plant community, reminding us what is at stake when we occupy land."

Following an open competition, the Estonian Architecture Center have announced "Weak Monument" as the theme of the Estonian Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Laura Linsi, Roland Reemaa, and Tadeáš Říha will develop a project which views the "architectural environment as a layered and historically continuous system," focusing the exhibition on "projects from the recent and more distant past."

The winners of the 2017 Pritzker Prize, RCR Arquitectes, has been selected to lead the proposal and design of the Catalan pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale. The news was announced yesterday by Santi Vila, Minister of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia, during the opening of this year’s Venice Biennale of Art.