Exhibitions: The Latest Architecture and News

For the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Finland's Pavilion revisits a moment in local history when a refugee crisis led to new ways of building and a reconfiguration of domestic space, which ended up influencing different places around the world. Titled New Standards, the exhibition curated by Laura Berger, Philip Tidwell and Kristo Vesikansa presents the story of Puutalo Oy, an industrial enterprise specialized in prefabricated wooden buildings that set new standards for residential design in the 20th century and created Finland's most widespread architectural export.

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Titled Oræ -Experiences on the Border, (oræ, Latin for “borders”) the Swiss contribution to the 17th Venice Biennale explores the spatial and political dimension of the country’s border, investigating the social implications of this inhabited territory. Created by a Geneva-based team of architects and artists comprising Mounir Ayoub and Vanessa Lacaille from Laboratoire d’architecture, as well as filmmaker Fabrice Aragno and artist sculptor Pierre Szczepanski, the exhibition details a series of participative processes performed along the Swiss border that investigate the frontier and its inhabitants, revealing the poetic character of the space.

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Titled "Composite Presence", the Belgian pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, will explore the complex love-hate relationship between architecture and cities of Flanders and Brussels under the theme of "memory as a design studio". Curated by Bovenbouw Architectuur in collaboration with Flanders Architecture Institute, the national pavilion will be on display from 22 May until 21 November 2021.

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After an extensive renovation, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) completes the transformation of the Willis Tower observation deck and inaugurates a new interactive exhibition showcasing how architecture shaped Chicago’s identity through the city’s history. Now reopened to the public, the Skydeck is part of SOM’s ongoing design stewardship of Willis Tower, which started with the building’s conception and continued in 2009 with the addition of the Ledge.

For the 17th international architecture exhibition – la biennale di Venezia 2021, Denmark is creating a water cyclic system that connects people with each other and with nature. The national pavilion, titled “Con-nect-ed-ness”, is curated by Marianne Krogh and Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects, and will be on display from May 22nd to November 21st, 2021.

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"The house is among the first concepts shared by society and architecture", states André Tavares and Pippo Ciorra, curators of the exhibition called At Home: Projects for Contemporary Housing, on display at Garagem Sul / Centro Cultural Belém, in Lisbon. The show, which is the unfolding of another one previously held at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, gathers pieces from the huge collection of the Italian institution and seeks intersections with contemporary Portuguese architectural production. Its main topic – the house, the home – has never been more discussed than right now.

Bringing together houses of different scales, built in diverse locations by various methods and techniques, and designed by Italian, Portuguese and international architects, the exhibition gathers, in groups of three, projects from which it is possible to weave relationships that go beyond geographies and materialities and foster reflections about the future of housing and what the home of tomorrow will look like.

We had the opportunity to talk with Tavares and Ciorra about the exhibition, its motivations and expectations with its opening in the physical venue of Garagem Sul. Read below.

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Believing firmly that "architecture is [...] too important to leave solely to architects", Ole Bouman embarked on diverse activities throughout his three decades of work, reflecting on “architecture, not so much as the art or technique of making buildings, but architecture as the intelligent way to organize our lives on earth, and infuse it with purpose”.

After having shared Bouman's essay Finding Measure, ArchDaily had the chance to discuss with Design Society’s founding director his thoughts on the role of architecture, the current challenges of the world, the digital revolution, and many other thought-provoking topics.

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Whether as a retrospective, a collection of contemporary works, or a compilation of prospects for the future - and all the other possibilities in between -, architecture and urban planning exhibitions have played an important role in shaping the future of cities over the decades. These events are often open to the public, reaching many people who don't necessarily have a background in the field, thus providing great environments to explore a collective view of the future of architecture and cities.

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MVRDV is celebrating the upcoming opening of its Berlin office with an in-house exhibition, showcasing the firm’s 30 years’ worth of work in Germany. Launched at the Architektur Galerie Berlin, the event takes over the walls of MVRDV Haus Berlin, showcasing the company’s archive, some only on paper but much of it realized, with “both current and past German projects, including unseen projects from the past and newly-revealed future projects”.

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Catalonia in Venice - air/aria/aire, part of the Collateral Event of the Biennale Architettura 2021, is an exhibition curated by architect Olga Subirós, commissioned by the Institut Ramon Llull, with the participation of 300.000 Km/s, an urbanism studio in macro data-based strategic planning. Reflecting on the central theme of the Biennale “How will we live together?” the project investigates the role of architecture and urbanism within the context of the climate emergency and the public health crisis.

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As the world is moving into a post-pandemic time, museums are finally resuming their work under strict social distancing and health measures. Arc en rêve d’Architecture in Bordeaux, France has reopened its main gallery with an exhibition by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine, entitled Homo Urbanus. Shown for the first time in its complete version, the exposition offers a vibrant tribute to public spaces.

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La Biennale di Venezia is presenting for the first time an exhibition curated by all the Directors of the six Artistic Sectors from Art, Architecture, Cinema, Dance, Music, Theater. It will also be live-streamed on July 15th, 2020, at 2:30 pm (Italian time).

What makes Denmark a role model, and what are the ingredients of the coveted Danish everyday life? The new exhibition Hello Denmark presented by The Danish Architecture Centre (DAC) in Copenhagen showcases the conditions that contribute to the Nordic country’s high quality of life and this exploration of the mundane creates a new and unique way of understanding architecture and design.

MAAT, the museum of art, architecture, and technology in Lisbon, Portugal has officially reopened its doors on June 10, unveiling to the public the new projects originally scheduled to launch before the Covid-19 lockdown, such as Beeline, an architecture intervention by SO – IL. Transforming the museum into a landscape of encounters and conversations, this exhibition also generates a temporary second entrance to the gallery space.

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From the famous Kitchen Debate between Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon to the popularity of Henry Ford within the USSR, the hundreds of factories designed by Detroit engineer Albert Kahn for Soviet Russia, and skyscrapers erected in Moscow, the Cold War had a peculiar side to it, that is the Russian fascination with American culture and technology.

In time for Women’s Day, the artistic outcome of the first call of the Lilly Reich Grant for Equality in Architecture opened at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. Running till the 22nd March 2020, the exhibition entitled Re-enactment, carried out by Laura Martínez de Guereñu, aims to put the spotlight on Reich’s overlooked work.

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RIBA presents Forms of Industry, an exhibition of contemporary photographs by Alastair Philip Wiper (1980) and archival images by Eric de Maré (1910-2002) from the RIBA Collections. Separated by more than 50 years, the two photographers share a common interest in industrial buildings and landscapes, yet their differing approaches create a commentary on changing attitudes towards industrialisation and sustainability.