For me, university was about finding the confidence to explore creativity, the notion of self, and determining my own measurements of expectation. Last year I wrote an article entitled “10 things you don’t get taught in architecture school,” which provided advice on how to succeed in an academic setting. Having now graduated the following article is reflective of my first 2 years working full time in architecture.

My experience in the office so far has required another round of self-configuring: repositioning the value of free thinking, redetermining the notion of self within the larger context of someone elses expectations, and managing my objectives with those of others. The measurement of success is no longer determined by me but by various organisational objectives and requirements.

Essential to the journey of finding my current job, I have initiated substantial life changes that include establishing a career strategy, reevaluating how I position myself in the field of architecture, and questioning who I am as an individual and what I want to contribute to the profession.

The following 10 things were instrumental in obtaining my job in architecture:

1. Build a supportive network

Jim Rohn, was an author and motivational speaker who famously said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” (1) I have always found this idea incredibly fascinating. In the scientific study, “Nonconscious Mimicry: Its Ubiquity, Importance, and Functionality,” authors Amy N. Dalton and Tanya L. Chartrand suggest that humans unconsciously mimic their social surroundings. It is undeniable, then, that your support network – both near and far – forms an important component in defining not only who you are today but also how your future ideals are shaped.

I have always focused on building meaningful relationships – both personal, professional and hybrid. Throughout my career journey I often turn to colleagues, mentors, friends, and family for guidance. I often speak to them without an agenda, enabling clarity and helping me to better understand myself and what I want in my career. Importantly, such a support network should encourage one’s growth, contribute to one’s creativity, expand one’s thinking, and question one’s preconceived values about work.

The most profound, yet simple question was put to me one morning at a cafe, by Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar. As I struggled to define my purpose within the field of architecture, he asked me, “What are you solving for?” as if my problem were algebraic with a clear mathematical structure. After much deliberation and deep introspection, I was able to better define my purpose (refer to no. 2, below), ultimately establishing a set of professional values to compare potential employers against (refer to no. 3, below).

2. Define your purpose

After finishing university, I worked at a high profile international office, under extreme pressure for incredibly long hours (I’d often start at 8am and finish past midnight, as well as work on the weekends). I was investing a large portion of my energy to satisfy the various organisational objectives, leaving me very little time to consider what I wanted to achieve in my own career. As I continued to work under these conditions I could see that the directors of the organisation were striving towards something very different to what I sought for my personal future. I am so appreciative of this experience in my career, yet at the time, I knew I needed to explore a more personally meaningful direction in architecture.

It was important that I take a step back and reflect upon my purpose. In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey talks about the importance of beginning with the end in mind (2), by developing a personal mission statement and establishing your desired objectives.

Below is my own personal statement:

1. Create quality: Studies in neuroscience indicate the quality of a built environment has the ability to enhance the performance of the brain and to generate the growth of new brain cells (3).  When seeking a cure for polio, Jonas Salk retreated to the Basilica of Assisi. Salk insisted that the design and environment in which he found himself had cleared his obstructed mind, inspiring the solution that led to the polio vaccine. Architecture has the ability to teach, create and expand our understanding of the world and allows for unique opportunities to influence our thinking and broaden our interactions.

2. Create knowledge: The notion of teaching through the environment was developed in the 1940’s, by Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach in preschool and primary school education. Malaguzzi explains, “There are three teachers of children: adults, other children, and their physical environment,” including their social surroundings (4).

3. Create meaning: Architecture is produced through a unique understanding and interpretation of placemaking. Architects should be aware of the artistic, social, political and cultural context of site.  My current focus in architecture relates to the home: where families grow and contract, habitual routines are developed, and our notions of safety and placemaking are formed. I seek to find meaning through connectivity and by creating a positive impact on the lives of others.

4. Create with principles: Inspired by anarchist punk ethics (5), which rely on the principles of freedom, autonomy and negation of power . I have no desire to be another visionary architect. Architecture, to me, is grassroots, without exclusion, open for interpretation and never dictatorial. Open for interpretation, architecture should not be a commodity, and may be created for anyone by anyone. To expand this thinking, I have written the article, “Architecture and Anarchy.”

To those of you searching for a framework to develop your own mission statement, the Franklin Covey Institute has an great online mission statement builder.

3. Form a selection criteria

After identifying what I wanted to contribute to the profession, I was able to recognise that my current organisation was not driven by the same values. Dissatisfied with my current position, I found it quite straightforward to define what was missing from my role in architecture. Having identified the above principles, I was able to reverse-engineer my dissatisfaction into a constructive selection of criteria to which I could compare potential employment opportunities.

Throughout this process I was counselled by Paul Dickinson, a leadership coach based in Sydney. Dickinson helped me to extract my ideals and ultimately put pen to paper. I looked to the people I admired, both inside and outside architecture, and began to think about their journey, their role and what they offer to the world.

Based on my core values and purpose within the field, I developed the following criteria:

I want an office that will…

a)  Provide mentorship: I seek individuals who will invest their time to teach, listen and guide my direction.

b)  Contribute to exciting project roles and responsibilities: I want to be involved in the entire process of building and to understand how things come together.

c)  Accommodate and extend on my personal values: What matters to me also matters to the people around me. We must operate within authentic values.

d)  Foster a fun and culturally driven work environment: It is important to be around people that I can relate to, that inspire me, and make me laugh.

e)  Be a creative firm with a point of difference: I want to work for a firm that has consistently good projects. Knowing which projects to turn down is just as important as knowing which ones to take on.

f)  Provide opportunities to upskill and learn: I want to be around a team that is willing to share knowledge in order to help me navigate my way into their system, thus fostering my professional growth.

g)  Acknowledge and appreciate my contribution to the company: I want to work with a company that openly communicates and shows appreciation for its employees; a company that is validating and motivating.

h)  Allow creative freedom within my role and provide autonomy: I wanted the opportunity to express myself through design and to find a firm that is comfortable enough to let me fail or to guide me through the creative process.

i)  Support and encourage extra-curricular activities: I wanted to find a company that sees the value in personal development and that encourages me to have a personal life outside standard work hours.

j)  Have purpose-driven projects that extend beyond commercial gain: I want to find a firm that had a greater purpose beyond the commercial aspirations of a project, I want them to have a bigger story, with a more meaningful agenda that I can operate within.

k)  Allow input on the company’s direction: I want a company that provides a framework that fosters “ownership thinking” amongst the team members for sharing collective goals.

l)  Be surrounded by people that live inspired lives: Jim Rohn in his book, Leading an Inspired life, touches on having compelling goals, discipline, and focusing on personal development as the fundamentals for personal success. It is essential to work with people who seek to reach their potential while maintaining a work-life balance.

If you want to begin the process of developing your own job selection criteria, I recommend watching these videos: Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation and Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, also by Dan Pink. He discusses the three core human motivations of mastery, autonomy and purpose.

4. Seek, first to understand, then to be understood

Being introverted by nature means I am often reserved and analytical. I try to achieve a deep understanding of myself, others and the world through listening, observation and study. In the process of finding my current job, my introverted personaly often translated into self-directed learning to continue developing, first-hand travel to continue experiencing, and communication with others to continue connecting.

I learn most effectively through reading, music, conferences and courses. Since graduation, I have read broadly about architecture, business, marketing, personal development, science and religion. If you are an architecture student you might find this Archi-Ninja.com post helpful: List of Top 10 Architecture Books for Student Architects.

Through music, I have attained perspective and developed a set of ethics. My current thinking has been greatly influenced by both Henry Rollins of Black Flag and Greg Graffin of Bad Religion.

I often listen to podcasts or TED talks about the most eclectic and exciting subjects. By doing so, I hope to broaden my knowledge and influences.

Through travel I have attained a better understanding of various cultures, history and notions of place making. After university, I traveled around Australia, Europe, Spain, the UK and the US. During this time I toured notable architectural buildings and visited architecture offices including Bjarke Ingels and Frank Gehry. I also volunteered for various events including the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012. At times confronting, the opportunity to take in, to ”inhale” these new experiences while travelling allowed me to, in turn, “exhale,”,to reflect upon my position in the world.

Seeking to understand is about deeply and empathetically listening and connecting to those around you. I believe it is more important to deeply understand potential employers not in terms of what their company provides but instead focusing on who they are. I spent time interviewing with many firms that I thought were a fit for me. During my interviews, rather than trying to express my opinion, I focused my energy on listening to what they were choosing and willing to share with me. I sought to establish whether they could provide an inspirational and satisfying workplace.

5. Represent externally who you are internally

Despite external influences, everyday pressures, and dealing with my self-consciousness, authenticity (to myself and to other people) is of great importance.

Interviews and portfolios are often impersonal, constructed as a sales pitch representing yourself as the best possible job candidate. Naturally people will hold back their option or agree to something in order to avoid confrontation. Realise that no matter how much you think you want the job, if you cannot genuinely express yourself then it’s probably not the right value fit. My portfolio was designed to represent only a single chapter of my life; a reflection of my personal and professional work during my time at university. It was created as an authentic and honest archive of my history, experience, achievements, and explorations in architecture.

The interview provided a forum to share my larger goals, values, weaknesses and aspirations. Most importantly I wanted to understand how my story fit into the larger story of my potential employer.

I have always argued that you do not need to be serious in order to be taken seriously and to have a meaningful agenda. Though dressing casually I have been asked – and at times told – to appear like a “responsible” corporate employee, I have never done so in a way that goes against who I am and how I choose to present myself. Rather than superficially, the most compelling, influential and approachable stories are often conveyed through the unexpected turn of  intellect, energy, humor and play.

6. Make an impression

Your portfolio will be just one in a pile of hundreds, if the firm you hope to work for has a strong reputation. Your first challenge is to establish your point of difference. The best way to make an impression is through your credentials, however, this required me to disregard the most common (superficial) advice on “How to make a good impression.”

Education aside, I have invested a considerable amount of time into attending and speaking at conferences to build awareness and to network with potential employers. To build my confidence, I went through a rigorous presentation training program. This improved my ability to communicate effectively both one-on-one and to an audience. I have also invested in a number of other personal projects including object design, logo design, archi-ninja.com, writing, and curating industry exhibitions.

While developing my portfolio, I also contacted three companies outside the architecture industry, including an online ecommerce store, a builder, and a model maker. I used this time as an opportunity to see how my education in architecture could be applied to other industries and to establish whether architecture was the right direction for me at the time. Having allowed myself to step away from the industry, I was able to look into the profession as an outsider and to truly evaluate what it was that I wanted from it.

I spent about four weeks designing and distributing my portfolio. I wanted to be confident that in a pile of other portfolios mine would stand out. I considered the size, shape and how the user would navigate through the content. Most candidates email electronic copies and this may not be seen by the right person. I considered having my portfolios delivered by a ninja but instead went with a courier, still making sure it was received by the right person.

I sent my portfolio to many companies, even if they were not hiring. The goal was to have coffee with as many potential employers as possible. I sought to make the most of their time: visiting their offices, flying interstate, or talking via video chat. Gaining greater exposure to the different types of interview styles allowed me to be more comfortable when it came to the one I really wanted.

7. Don’t be afraid to pursue change

When I lived in Sydney, I sought to pivot the direction of my career into residential architecture, however, I felt that a few firms located in Melbourne were better suited to the direction that I wanted to move in. Melbourne better accommodates younger, creative firms to explore residential, shop, café and bar projects. Sydney is well known for its tourism potential and urban interface via the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Melbourne, by contrast, is characterised by deep layers of vibrant, urban culture. It is within the latter context that I am most at ease and inspired.

Few things in life are permanent and when making the decision to move interstate, I weighed up the positives and negatives. At times confronting, the move pushed me far outside of my comfort zone as my entire support network was back in Sydney. My existing network is incredibly strong and I am in contact with them daily while at the same time I focus on building new support pillars in Melbourne. During the transition I also reflected upon the story of who I am as projected by other people, moving to Melbourne and re-evaluating what I wanted from my career is largely in-part about defining that story to be more accurate.

It is important to aspire for new influences, mentors, and challenges. We are creatures of habit and so we easily fall into routines that make us complacent and near-sighted – routines that muffle our critical eye.  By uprooting my life to a new, perhaps more suitable city for emerging and experimental architects, I welcomed another round of self-reflection, redress, and redefining of my career goals.

Unexpectingly, new and exciting opportunities have presented themselves in Melbourne. By pursuing change, I have grown more independent, boundless and confident. Autonomous in the new city, I have had no other choice but to seek new opportunities, to attend industry events and invest in new social relationships. In so doing, I have presented myself as I am, with the hope that the right people will will be attracted to accordingly.

8. Identify your value

During university, I invested my energy into finding a company that had the ability to support me during my education. Working on exciting projecting, I was surrounded by great friends, teachers and mentors. It was only after leaving my first post-university job that I was able to step back to reflect upon my value contribution.

I believe the most important thing is to set your own benchmark for success, a marker that will often be higher than the expectations of those around you. At the time of selecting a firm post-graduation, I did not seek my “dream job,” for I had very little knowledge of the industry and what being an architect in a practical sense actually entailed on a day-to-day basis. My focus, rather, was to find the right value fit.

When looking for a firm, spend time to evaluate your relevant, unique and compelling value contribution. The next step is to find a firm that fits what you are looking for; a firm that understands your contribution and will in return gain value from what you can offer to them.

Many organisations have a nice sounding value statement: Enron, whose leaders went to jail for fraud, displayed their values of “integrity, communication, respect and excellence” in their building lobby. By contrast, I believe true company values are shown by action: Who receives respect within the company? Who is promoted or let go? Seek out these inquiries and make note of these individuals as representatives of the company’s behavior and valued skills.

Many students or recent graduates undervalue their position in the industry by voluntarily working overtime hours or offering their services for free, in turn creating unhealthy culture and expectations within the industry. Social theorist Slavoj Žižek argues that modern organisations fabricate a culture to empower the employer while denying the employee the right to vocalize and protest dissatisfaction. These organisations are devaluing the profession, creating an environment that is difficult to resource or manage without relying on cheap (or free) labour.

Netflix released a great presentation on adding value to a company by seeking to be a “rare responsible person;” self motivating, self aware, self disciplined and self improving: Netflix Culture: Freedom and Responsibility. Once you recognise your value and rare responsibilities, you should seek to engineer a role that allows for your attributes to be implemented.

9. Your job is only one part of what defines you

Understand that your career is only one component of what defines you, and it’s the remainder of that definition that provides the capacity for you to uniquely contribute to your job. The most important thing for me as a recent graduate was to find a good work-life balance.

Architect Andrew Maynard wrote a great article about work-life balance, “Work/life/work Balance,” in which he describes the commonality of employees to neglect other components of their life by believing they will find happiness and contentment at a later time. This is identified by Clive Hamilton as the Deferred Happiness Syndrome.

My own imbalanced life was isolating potential opportunities, both personal and professional. Working extreme overtime was mentally and physically exhausting. It was debilitating to my creative production, my ability to look at my work critically, and to my social stamina. It is alarming to learn that overworked, low-rung employees (and even unpaid interns) are rampant throughout the architecture world.  How can we, as architects, assume responsibility for resolving fragile social, urban, and environmental issues if our workforce is performing out of desperation and without a clear perspective on both their professional work and their personal relationships?

University life exposed me to egalitarian culture, “all-nighters” and over-valuing the importance of the architecture industry. Initially this translated directly into the workplace. I burnt out, and after reflecting upon this my focus has been directed toward finding balance. I finish work before 6pm, allowing the opportunity to find greater pleasure in life. New opportunities have begun to create a meaningful life-balance, allowing me to bring more energy and focus into the office and to better contribute through my unique experiences beyond nine-to-five.

10. Know when to quit your job

The corporate world is directed towards keeping employees in their current roles rather than matching the individual with their ideal role. I realised that I needed to take ownership over my own role. When interviewing I was very clear about what I needed from the office including what I was willing to take on.

Staying in the wrong role can have a negative impact on your confidence. We tend to internalize the false-expectations of others. It is important, especially as a recent-graduate, to present yourself as you are: with minimal professional experience (which is gained naturally with time and effort), but also an individual with innovative ideas and technical abilities that are unique. No employer should expect you to know how to seamlessly project-manage the entire process of building right out of university. Your employer should manage their expectations to suit. In turn, you should offer your fresh perspective and technical agency in exchange for their experience, mentorship and guidance.

I have always been a long term employee, and so leaving the organisation that fostered my growth was no easy decision. Make sure you leave an organisation for the right reasons (6). Look for the signs that your job is no longer in line with your personal goals, or that perhaps the position is not in line with your skill level or skill set.

Leonard Schlesinger, in his book, Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future, establishes a series of questions to ask yourself when you are considering leaving your job, and also to recognise the difference between ordinary, occasional dissatisfaction and a genuine mismatch.

After leaving my job in Sydney, I took on part-time employment to support my living expenses, allowing me to decline a number of positions in order to follow my heart and intuition when selecting a firm. Of the positions that I did accept, I negotiated a trial timeframe to truly evaluate whether the organisation was a value fit. If not, I walked away quickly and on good terms.

Recognising the shortcomings of my past positions allowed me to redirect my journey. This experience has been one of the most rewarding and gratifying successes in my life.

I hope recent graduates and current architecture students find my advice helpful. For anyone who would like to learn more about my experience or the people and readings that have informed my career decisions, please feel free to email me at linda@archi-ninja.com. For anyone who has finished architecture school or currently learning things along the way, I’d love to hear your own experiences and advice in the comment section below.

In the 1940s, Italian educator Loris Malaguzzi developed the Reggio Emilia Approach, a style of preschool and primary school education in which young students are encouraged to initiate self-guided explorations of both their physical environment and their immediate social community. Unlike traditional educational practices where there is a distinct student-teacher hierarchy, the Reggio Emilia Approach prescribes that the teacher is not a dictator, rather s/he is a co-learner and collaborator with the students. Malaguzzi states, “There are three teachers of children: adults, other children, and their physical environment,” the latter of which is subsequently referred to as the Third Teacher. As I reflect on my own early education which was traditional and top down, it is clear that the physical environment was not a valued source of teaching or considered as an influential medium. As architects, it is essential to consider the ways in which our work not only shapes the physical environment, but also – perhaps inadvertently – functions as the Third Teacher.

I recently spoke to architect Hristo Harlov, co-founder of the Bulgarian-based TheThirdTeacher project, an interdisciplinary architecture and educational consulting organization that works to create inspiring and stimulating physical environments in school systems.

TheThirdTeacher project – created by Harlov along with Radosveta Kirova, Radomir Dankov, and Cvetelin Radev – ran for the duration of seven months at Vassil Drumev High School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. During this time, TheThirdTeacher designers directly engaged students in the design process to effectively inform the redesign of the school’s architectural space. Upon reconstruction, the designers envisioned a school that would function as a dynamic working mechanism, aiding in the development of both its immediate occupants and the surrounding community. Initially the designers expected to resolve the school’s challenges with a clear-cut architectural renovation, however, upon conducting an intensive student collaboration with surveys and participatory activities, the designers identified the need for much more substantial restructuring.

During the seven-month collaboration the design team conducted a school-wide survey that asked students to re-imagine the school’s physical space. A unanimous 96% of students expressed the desire for major improvements. They also proposed some amazing ideas. The results were presented to the school’s management and the larger community in Vassil Drumev.

The survey asked students, simply, “What is missing in your school?” The most common reply was striking: toilet paper and hot water. Although these two products have no direct architectural value, the attitude towards their consumption does; the toilet paper was revoked as contraband by the school’s management because the students used it for play rather than as a necessity. The management’s response was to remove the item rather than educate and advocate for more appropriate use.

The survey also revealed that 71% of students expressed a desire to stay at the school after hours. They wanted the school to become a new social and cultural center. The management’s impulse was to reject this need based on a lack of existing facilities. The designers suggested various ways that the school’s existing facilities could be repurposed beyond it primary 9am to 3pm function. The conflicting opinions between the school’s students and management warranted a negotiation process that involved all views on the issue, which the designers worked to facilitate.

Following the collection and presentation of data, the designers introduced students to the basic principles of architecture. Two age group of students across various classes were asked to explore how their classroom and common spaces could be reconstructed to better support their learning.

Images © TheThirdTeacher

This engaged activity sought to influence and improve the student attitude toward their educational environment, and perhaps toward each other. Echoing the Reggio Emilia Approach, the designers asserted the idea that the students were agents of creative change. The designers quickly discovered that they didn’t need to explain the concept of “active use” to the students at all; they naturally shape their own spaces, for example, in the schoolyard. TheThirdTeacher further provided a forum for students to reorganize, repaint, and repair their school. In the initial survey, 66% of students wanted to actively engage in the design process and 88% wanted to take part in the construction process.

Images © TheThirdTeacher

TheThirdTeacher also aimed to equip the school for new programming, used by both the students and the community at large. Vassil Drumev High School was built in 1971, within an entirely different pedagogical and technological framework. The current students decided that the school now required an open plan that was better suited to a more progressive, 21st-Century style of education. Students also indicated that they didn’t want to occupy a space that was uniform throughout the school’s entire grounds. Each individual requires different boundaries and unique rules. The students wanted their learning spaces to feel specific and personalized.

Images © TheThirdTeacher

“More than the physical space, the environment includes the way time is structured and the roles we are expected to play. It conditions how we feel, think, and behave; and it dramatically affects the quality of our lives,” explains designer and education theorist Jim Greenman. In their collaboration with Vassil Drumev High School students, TheThirdTeacher team sought to recast the role of the architect as an organizer, a facilitator, a provocateur, rather than the omnipotent authority figure. The architect understands the role of the environment as a teacher and acts as a social worker. The architect, therefore firstly creates a building and thereafter is the protagonist in constructing knowledge.

Prior to the final reorganization and reconstruction of the school, TheThirdTeacher project was cancelled by the school administration. TheThirdTeacher project however is still running  and the team is currently working on a new project  in another school including the reconstruction of common space. Should you like to get in touch with Hiristo directly you are welcome to contact him via email: hristoharlov@fillform.eu

We spend a collective 7 billion hours a week playing games. Why? Because gaming fulfills the innate human need to overcome obstacles. I have always wondered why architects are so into gaming. When playing a game we spend 80% of our time failing and facing the fear of loss and death. Sounds a little like a standard workday, yet unlike the real time situation we approach gaming with greater optimism and curiosity; there is a framework of resilience and that we can learn from gaming.

David Fletcher is a landscape architect and urban designer. For the past two years, Fletcher Studio has been designing the virtual island for the video game, Witness, a first-person game of cerebral puzzles. Jonathan Blow, game industry misfit and Witness creator explains, “It’s a game about epiphany, that leap your mind makes when you instantly go from confusion to understanding.” Source. Sound familiar?

Fletcher was brought on board by the game developers Thekla, Inc., along with architect Deanna VanBuren of FOURM Design, to help synthesize what was, at the time, a remote, anonymous island setting without much context. The task was to flesh out the visual and functional details of a site that was essentially a-geographical, a-historical, and a-cultural. For a firm whose practice is embedded in site-specificity, Witness required the landscape architects to reverse engineer a site from ruins to birth. Fletcher determined early on, ‘We cannot design this space.’ Instead, we can design its history and allow entropy to suggest how things might evolve.”

There were architectural ruins scattered throughout the minimalist terrain, which Fletcher knew were somehow connected to the game’s puzzle narrative, though the specifics were not revealed.  Fletcher employed studio designers Nicolaus Wright and Beth Bokulich to help design the history of the terrain, layer it with the rise and fall of civilizations, and determine a pre-human logic to the terrain’s physical formation.

Fletcher’s past conceptual and exhibition work largely deals with alternative futures. In the 2009 project, Infrastructural Armature, Fletcher speculated on the fate of Los Angeles in the year 2125, visualizing a dystopic city confronted with resource scarcity, global warming, sea level rise, and economic destabilization. The narrative was broken down into episodes and then into a list of assumptions about how present-day Los Angeles could have evolved to this state.

Using a similar approach with Witness, Fletcher and VanBuren broke down the island-ruin scenario and asked “How might things have evolved politically or structurally? How did materials evolve? What about food and sustenance? How was water formalized from ponds and ditches to canals and wells to water towers and plumbing?”

The design team amassed a plethora of research about island ecosystems and topography, notably, from knowledge they gleaned about the Portuguese Azores. Collected visuals were compiled in a 2D collage that represented the Witness island in plan, embellished with new geologic and ecological details, and with a greater understanding of the landscape’s underlying mechanics.

Virtual scale presented a challenge.  The island is less than a mile wide, and its microclimates range from rainforest to mangrove, a transition that in reality would cover several hundred, if not thousands of miles. Yet, in the service of the narrative, these microclimates had to be condensed, and the thresholds that separated them into distinct biomes had to be articulated so that the player could roam relatively free. The design team became familiar with various gaming tropes–the unsurpassable chest-high wall, the inaccessible incline–that would help guide the player through the site, ultimately aiding them in solving the puzzles. “It’s a psychogeography of the gameplay, an exploration in the vein of an open world where you can go anywhere you want,” Wright explains, “However, there is an order and a narrative structure to moving through the island.”

As with design in real space and time, site lines were, perhaps, the single most essential tool in organizing the virtual space. Creating focal points that guide the viewer towards other zones, screening the superfluous, establishing a hierarchy of visual characteristics–the choreography of these elements influence the player’s spatial perception, just as it would in reality. The “picturesque” in historic landscape architecture is highly contingent on the treatment of views: the foreground, middle ground, and background are all treated for the utility of specific visual effects–from habitable geometries to the serpentine meander, and eventually diminishing into the untouched wild. From Repton’s Blaise Castle to Olmstead’s Central Park, the picturesque landscape follows a painterly composition, framed, narrative, and perspectival.  The grounds in Witness, by the nature the virtual medium, is an illustrated space, flattened by the screen view and removed from multi-sensory experience. To achieve a spatial understanding of the island (and to generate the narrative), the viewer must be coaxed through visual exploration.

While Fletcher Studio is designing the Witness island for the experience of a single person (the player), the potential reach is far greater. Blow’s previous game, Braid, sold more than 2 million copies. Witness is expected to receive as much, if not more, attention. It will likely be available on mobile devices, as well as its debut on Playstation 4. The puzzles, the narrative, and the island landscape, therefore, could support hundreds of thousands of solitary experiences, all at once. Wright describes the educational value of the game’s landscape:

Its interesting to think that there is a didactic component to introducing people to the potentials of landscape experience and environmental design. We, as landscape designers, think about the theory of the built environment and know it very intimately, immediately able to recognize built natures and artificial ecologies. Most people do not recognize that going to Yosemite is an entirely constructed experience. Witness, which is a total simulacra of nature, is perhaps even more explicit about it’s designed character.

David Fletcher asserts that there is no ultimate “revelatory or ecological agenda” in designing the landscape for Witness.  “The take away for landscape architecture is the notion of time,” he says, “Landscape architects are able to think across scales, about temporal evolution.” In Witness, physical scale is often condensed and the present moment is haunted by the island’s rich, fabricated history. The player is able to explore the landscape in way that feels plausible and intellectually stimulating.  Andrew Lackey, the game’s sound designer elaborates:

We’re not just talking aesthetics…Noticing, is key to discovering solutions and even finding the puzzles themselves. Nothing in the Witness is superfluous. Source

Images provided by Jonathan Blow. I would love to hear your feedback in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

A theme that was explored by various architects at the 2012 Architecture Biennale in Venice was the exploration of finding inspiration from past precedents in architecture. Philippe Block recently came to Sydney to talk about this and his application of modern technology including parametric modelling. Throughout university I avoided all discourse surrounding parametrics because I felt that the agenda of many students was to develop an impressive image or aesthetic as opposed applying the process in a more meaningful context.

There is however a very valid future for parametric modelling if considerating its application is to produce smaller, stronger and more sustainable buildings and components with less material, money and time.

The work of Philippe Block, the leader of BLOCK Research Group and a partner of Ochsendorf, DeJong & Block, appropriates the past and incorporates parametrics in manner far beyond aesthetics. He utilizes modern technology, software and digital fabrication tools, to re-explore historic construction techniques. In referencing past building methods and while generating new types of forms, Block advocates for economy of material. He is currently investigating the affordable housing issues in third world countries.

MasterClass studio at UTS Sydney - Ribbed Catalan Vault

Trained in both engineering and architecture, Block first began looking to the past while serving as a research assistant for John Ochsendorf, an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He explores lost technologies like the famous Gothic fan vaults at Kings College at the University of Cambridge and Guastavino tile vaults, such as those used in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal which feature multiple layers of terracotta tiles laid in compression without formwork (based on Catalan vaulting methods from Spain). Under Ochsendorf’s guidance, Block developed force diagrams to map out the thrust network of the historical vaults. “Vaults are simply—or not—balanced in compression, a concept that applies at any scale, so it’s possible to test in small models and anticipate what happens at the scale of a building,” he explains.

Free-form Catalan Thin-tile vault

Block continues to experiment alongside his own students in his position as an assistant professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. His students model anticlasitic curves (double curves) using the RhinoVAULT plug-in developed by the BLOCK Research Group for Rhino 3D modeling software. They build 3D-printed models without using glue. Upon these models, they apply load testing to validate their designs—sometimes they stand, but failure is occasionally inevitable, and in some cases, intentional. During his lecture last October at the University of Technology (UTS) School of Architecture in Sydney titled “Novel Masonry Shells – Learning from the Gothic Master Builders,” Block showed videos of students building the mock-ups and then relishing in knocking them down. “Pushing structural models to collapse is always fun, but more importantly, it’s very educational,” he believes, adding that “masonry does not lie.”

Brickworks: Masonry vaulting

Beyond encouraging his students to stage collapses by swinging sledgehammers, Block sees far-reaching implications for masonry vaulting, particularly as a valid approach to affordable housing, for which he believes it could lower construction cost and schedules. In many countries, timber and reinforced steel are not locally available, but dirt is plentiful and can be molded into masonry units. Though using dirt to build is not a new concept, Block believes vaulting provides an opportunity to achieve greater spans than many other types of construction while using less material; in some cases, vaults can create 2 cm thick floors that don’t need reinforcement. To date, he has explored this possibility in countries such as South Africa, through building the Mapungubwe Interpretive Centre, and in Ethiopia, where he tested out vaulting in a two-story format for the Sustainable Urban Dwelling Unit (SUDU) and then expanded it to the scale of an entire ‘pilot town’ for NESTown (New Energy Self-Sustained Town).

SUDU: Sustainable Urban Dwelling Unit

Modern vaulting however, raises some issues when it comes to safety. In many of the areas in need of low cost housing, is high potential for earthquakes—a condition in which masonry doesn’t perform so well. Block’s team utilizes discreet element modeling to simulate all possibilities, but they can’t account for the errors made by workers during the construction process. While vaulting techniques might have been standard building methods hundreds or thousands of years ago, it can be challenging to train workers to quickly and efficiently build these types of structures today. Block notes communication issues and cultural differences when it comes to definitions of accuracy and acceptable tolerances, for example. In addition, using “new” methods of construction requires obtaining special permission from local authorities as well as testing and analysis of soil and other building materials, since such standards are not often in place.

Aside from residential applications, Block sees another possibility: building large-span roofs for outdoor pavilions. For the past four years, he and his team have been researching and collaborating with construction and stone fabrication partners, Escobedo Construction, to develop a large stone structure in Austin, Texas, USA. The structure will not only be unreinforced (no steel rebars), but also constructed without using mortar; the stones will be laid dry on top of one another. The Park Vault Chestnut Plaza, which was exhibited at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale 2012, features stereotomic vaults that exist in compression only and are made from CNC-cut stone. It will serve as an amphitheater for performances, provide covered space for markets and include a seminar room. The design even features an oculus to allow light to shine down on a stage for gospel choir performances.

MLK Jr. Park Stone Vault, Austin, TX, USA

Some of Phillippe’s biggest critics are other engineers who are wary of the power provided to architects by new computer software, such as BLOCK Research Group’s RhinoVault plug-in and eQUILIBRIUM, a graphic statics-based learning platform created for structural design students. They worry that such software could potentially put engineers out of work. Block assures that the engineering profession is in no danger of becoming obsolete, and points out the major benefit in empowering architects: “the structural discussion happens directly at a higher level.”

Block believes that “one can learn a lot from the past—not only from the failures, but from the successes of masterpieces by master builders.” Despite using weighty materials, vaulted structures are extremely efficient, according to Block: “what we show in our research and projects is that formal freedom does not need to be equal to material waste.” While much of Block’s research has been about understanding historic masonry vaults and recovering knowledge that had been lost, he hopes this research will lead to many new advances in structural engineering. Block summarises, “in general, I believe that nothing is more noble and elegant than using materials in an honest manner,” referencing the famous quote by architect Louis Kahn:

And if you think of Brick, for instance, and you say to Brick,
“What do you want Brick?”
And Brick says to you “I like an Arch.”

Thank you for reading. Id love to hear your opinion, please leave your comments in the section below.

I recently had to opportunity to interview Thomas Bailey from the collaborative architecture office of Room11. Located in Hobart and Melbourne, Australia, Room11 was founded in 2005 by Nathan Crump, James Wilson, Aaron Roberts and Thomas Bailey. The collective met at university and today produce work that is progressive, dynamic and critical, extending the profession of architecture into the realm of research and public discourse.

Thomas explores through Room11 the possibility for landscape to populate architecture appropriately.  He also works in industrial and furniture design. The work of Room11 is  unique and specific to every brief,  responding to conditions of material, earth and light. Room11 have received national and international recognition for their sustainable and socially conscience projects. They are currently working on new residential projects and the second stage of GASP.

Below is my interview with Thomas, I in particular love his response to question 6:

Interview with Thomas Bailey from Room11

AN: 1. Which of your projects has been the most rewarding and why?

TB: It is difficult to say which project is most rewarding for Room11, certainly for Nathan, James and me (Thomas) building our own houses is rewarding everyday. I think it is very easy as a designer to end up giving all your good ideas away and living with very little. Making your own house is a great testing ground but also it improves your life to be surrounded by a building that reflects your values. You also learn a lot about simple things that usually are not important to architects who tend to be focused on aesthetic resolution of junctions and less on plumbing or how well a door works over the seasons of a year.

I guess the first building I did with Aaron, Clifton Beach House 01, kinda set things up in some way – it was a great leap to realise that your ideas once built actually had some of the qualities you hoped they would.

Clifton Beach House 1 – Image Source [1]

AN: 2. Room11 are active bloggers, why?

TB: Shameless self promotion. No it gives us an opportunity to use the web in the way it was intended as more 
of a communication tool instead of a brochure and marketing tool which is the bulk of commercial web use.

Little Big House – Image Source [1]

AN: 3. How do you think architecture will change in the next 50 years?

TB: I don’t know – it is tempting to say lots of positive progressive ideas such as – ‘architecture will become a method for liberation,’ it needs to get out of its silo and actually do something useful. Rise up and stab the ‘musing brigade’ with our clutch pencil sabres! It is very narrow, it needs to broaden.

AN: 4. What changes would you like to see in the Architectural profession?

TB: Other than what I have already indicated I would like to see more young firms being given a go. It is a tragedy that the finest minds of a generation are forced to plug in to headphones and 3d model very dull ideas by someone else.

AN: 5.Do you think that architecture tends to be trendy today?

TB: Sure – architecture is the sales of ideas, it is harder to sell something subtle like having a nice life. It is 
much easier to say hey ‘diagonal is new’ – I will give you some ‘diagonal’ stuff, you will pay me.

AN: 6. What would students learn from reviewing the body of projects you have completed?

TB: If you want to make buildings you should. I don’t like people who are not sure what they should do – I am 
not talking about not questioning yourself or moving in haste, but certainly work by people who are unsure just says ‘I’m not sure’ which does not really help the cause. Who wants to walk down a street of insecure buildings? I don’t, I want to walk down a street of confident generous buildings. Building should always be an act of generosity, that is very important, if you can honestly say that your building is generous to anyone who may come across it then you should proceed. We also think that architects should have a very good understanding and knowledge of construction – be practical as well as utopian, if that is possible…

AN: 7. What are you most proud of in your career or any aspect of life?

TB: My relationship and daughters. (Vomit if you must – sorry)

AN: 8. Who do you think is the most overrated architect, and who do you think deserves more credit/recognition?

TB: Underrated in Australia: Peter Markli, Morger and Degelo, Lewerentz, Sean Godsell, Esmond Dorney. I still think Mies is underrated and misunderstood, so is Corbusier.

AN: 9. What aspect of Architecture do you find most important?

TB: What is fundamental to your practice and your design process? 
Loving what you are doing is fundamentally important, it is key to have fun in order to offer something positive, we like to enjoy ourselves in our studio as well as work hard. We also have an analytic approach to design tasks and would rather arrive at a solution based on given elements rather than imposing something onto a problem.

AN: 10. What inspired you to become involved in Architecture?

TB: Sheds always inspired me as a kid, I found a picture of the Villa Savoye and was obsessed with it and 
maybe still am, in a different way. My dads 70’s Bang & Olufsen turn table. Music is really key to being inspired, it is also inspiring to see other people doing well and making worthwhile projects.s.

AN: 11. What other interests do you have?

TB: Lots of music, I cycle, Scandinavian design, we are interested in made things really.

AN: 12. What is your favourite time of the day, and why?

TB: Dawn, all architects are interested in newness.

AN: 13. What would be your ultimate design project?

TB: I don’t really like the idea of ‘unlimited funds’ I enjoy having parameters, without parameters it is sculpture not architecture. That is not to say that I would not accept a sculpture commission that was building scale, it just might be better if a sculptor did it.

AN: 14. What are you doing at the moment?

TB: Some great housing projects and a few larger scale buildings, they are all buildings.

AN: 15. Who would you most like to work with on a project?

TB: Oscar Niemeyer.

Stage 01 GASP – Image Source [1]

Death Cloud – Image Source [1]

ARH2 – Image Source [1]

Mountain House – Image Source [1]

I’d like to thank Thomas and Room11 for participating in the interview, it was a pleasure. If you’re interested in getting in touch or finding out more about Room11, visit their website.

If you are interested in being interviewed and featured on Archi-Ninja, please contact me.

I hope you have enjoyed my highlight coverage of the Venice Biennale. Below are my favorite projects from the Arsenale Central Pavilions. This article is the final of five installments which cover my time at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012. Check out the first, second, third and forth installments here, here, here and here.

Alvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura

As long-time collaborators Alvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura each have a piece that accompany and compliment the other. The work of Moura creates a gateway; it opens up to create a grand scale while looking outward across the water. The work of Siza however, evokes the intimate bodily scale of the streets of Venice, framing a new setting for the land.

One piece is introverted while the other extroverted, here the notion common ground is through friendship, commonalities, differences, context and site.

Atelier Peter Zumthor, Wim Wenders – Notes from a day in the life of an Architect

Created by Atelier Peter Zumthor and Wim Wenders, notes from a day in the life of an architect captures the uncompromising approach to Zumthor’s work. The exhibition is an intimate and very personal portrayal of Zumthor at work in his small studio in the village of Haldenstein, Switzerland.

The documentary speaks of the poetry, practicality and radicalism behind Zumthor’s work. The video conveys his passion and sensitivity in architecture that is genuinely compelling and inspiring.

Bernard Tschumi Architects – Advertisements for Architecture 2012

Created by Bernard Tschumi Architects, Advertisements for Architecture 2012 builds upon the iconic series of posters created by Tschumi in 1976-1977. The posters were manifestos for understanding architecture and incorporated tactics of advertising to emphasise the difference between architecture theory and architecture in reality.

The exhibition is a series of 4 prints that re-conceptualise the original series to raise new questions about public space, truth, function, conditioning and planning.

Case Studio Vogt – Un Common Venice

Created by Case Studio Vogt, Un Common Venice documents and explores the public space in Venice. The exhibition is the result of an extensive research project, involving interviews and public opinions including the topic of tourism, water usage and ownership of space.

The research is printed as a newspaper that forms part of the exhibition content. The newspaper also contains unique maps of the city based on tourist and local experiences. The newspaper can be obtained from within the Arsenale and also throughout Venice. Postcards from the exhibition allow the spectator to conduct their own surveys on the street and to contribute to the greater dialogue. The continual presence of the exhibition throughout Venice makes Un common Venice a unique, engaging and highly effective project.

Cino Zucchi Architetti – Copycat empathy and envy as form-makers

Created by Cino Zucchi Architetti, Copycat empathy and envy as form-makers explores the notion that we are all in part products of copying. The installation investigates culture and objects that are propagated by processes of imitation and reproductive progress.

The installation shows a collection of look-alike objects and images that express the idea of common ground through similarity rather than originality.  The work explores the idea that resemblance permits dialogues and gives form and classification to our urban environment.

DK-CM – Folk in a Box Venezia

Created by David Knight & Cristina Monteiro, Folk in a Box a mobile performance centre, travelling throughout Venice during the Vernissage and then located in the Arsenale. The vessel allows a single performer and a single audience member for the duration of a single song to sit within a compelling space.

By removing the element of vision, the exhibition intends to provide a highly intimate and sensorial experience. Darkness amplifies the sense of hearing and allows one to not only hear but to listen. The exhibition romanticises the ambiguous and through darkness everything or nothing can be understood as common.

FAT – Museum of Copying

Created by FAT, the Museum of Copying explores the concept of architecture progress and influence derived not from originally but imitation. The installation reveals copying as a rich terrain for ideas and succession. The centrepiece of the room is a large-scale cast of Palladio’s Villa Rotunda, possibly the most copied building in history. Through five installations the Museum of Copying recognises that copying threatens the mythology of architecture production.

Sam Jacobs of FAT describes the copy as both opportunity to perfect and evolve and also as the enemy of progress,representing an inauthentic dead end.  Shown below is Ines Weizman’s installation Repeat Yourself: Loos, law and the Culture of the Copy which explores the function of copyright in architecture investigated through the ownership disputes of Adolf Loos. Also below is the Book of copies, a publishing project by San Rocco, spectators contribute to a new library through the photocopy of existing books.

Gigon/Guyer – Inflection of Common Ground in Several Cases

Created by Annette Gigon and Mike Gyer, Inflection of Common Ground in Several Cases explores common ground through the movement that occurs within and around architecture. Seven rooms contain mediums of sound and film to capture the rain, animals, people, cars and objects that animate the quotidian life of a building.

Each room is suggestive of events that have taken place within architecture. The 1^st room shown below is titled taking care and shows the working space of an engineer, artist, architect or craftsman. The second image is titled Walking on an Ancient Battlefield and shows the archaeological findings from the Teutoburg Forest Battle between the Roman and German tribes.

Herzog & de Meuron – Elbphilharmonie

Created by Herzog & de Meuron, Elbphilharmonie is a concert hall designed by Herzog & de Meuron, located in Hamburg the project came to a halt in 2011 due to political, budgetary and ideological complications. The exhibition exposes the common battleground and invisible forces that surround architecture and development.

Uncensored newspaper extracts cover the perimeter walls and chronologically chart the debate and negative public opinion surrounding the project. Physical models and video content document the design of the concert hall. The exhibition brings to light the often-complex history of development.

Mark Randel and Thomas Kupke – Tempelhof Airport

Created by Mark Randel and Thomas Kupke, Tempelhof Airport in Berlin is a palimpsest for the issues and histories that saturate the public ground of the 21^st century city. Through video, drawings and photographs the exhibition exposes the process of the airport design, construction, disuse, dereliction and future for one of Berlins most famous and contested building sites.

The site represents major opportunity for development in Berlin and is a case study for a currently contested common ground. The exhibition allows the spectator to question the future benefits of the site.

Norman Foster – Gateway

Created by Norman Foster, Gateway is a projection, video and sound exhibition examining the history of architecture and public space. The result is a collage depicting architecture culture and verging on the encyclopaedic.

The film highlights the diversity of space; the historic, canonical spaces of the western world, the unstable new cities of Asia and South America and the huge interiors of modern museums, stadiums and airports. The exhibition refers to the body of knowledge passed on through generations of architects, designers and critics and also refers to the use of space for important communal and social orders and disorders.

O’Donnell + Tuomey – Vessel

Created by Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey, Vessel explores the notion that architecture practice is inseparable from art and literature. The centerpiece of the exhibit is in the form of a timber ‘Vessel’ providing a place for contemplation and directing portal views toward tables with contributions from poets, artists and architects.

The ‘Vessel’ mimics the geometric form of the ubiquitous brick walls of the Arsenale. The theme of common ground is reflected in the relationship between the architect’s physical and intellectual manifestations.

Robert Burghardt – Denkmal Fur Die Moderne

Created by Robert Burghardt, Denkmal Fur Die Moderne (monument for modernism) presents a hybrid building for a real site in Berlin. The model contains references to 24 modern buildings (including Le Corbusier, Mies var der Rohe and Oskar Hansen), but here they are chopped up and stuck back together, creating a hybrid building, far from an ideal modern form.

The exhibition brings together work, big and small, east and south. The model is a satirical piece about the obsession and instability of modernism, raising questions about how architecture can build upon modernism and postmodernism to produce something new. His work is a reflection upon what a building of our time might be.

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects – Wunderkammer

Curated by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, Wunderkammer is an exhibition about the unlikely and sometimes mundane objects that inspire architects. 35 Boxes were sent to 35 architects from around the world (including Peter Zumthor, Glenn Murcutt and Toyo Ito) who then filled them with a selection of inspirational artifacts.

The collection explores the differences and similarities between architects and their inspiration. The exhibition provides an insight about the collection of items that architects chose to keep and be surrounded by.

Urban-Think Tank, Justin McGuirk – Torre David Gran Horizonte

Created by Urban-Think Tank and Justin McGuirk, Torre David Gran Horizonte documents the Torre David vertical slum in Caracas. The Torre David is a 45-storey uncompleted office tower now inhabited by over 2,500 people who would otherwise live in the slums of Caracas.

The exhibition is a series of photographs that capture the culture and living condition of Caracas. A Venezuelan restaurant weaves through the exhibition space transporting the diversity and taste of public life in Caracas. The notion of meal sharing and informality provides the common ground for discussion.

Valerio Olgiati – Pictographs – Statements of Contemporary Architects

Curated by Valerio Olgiati, Photographs – Statements of Contemporary Architects explores the complex and ambiguous common ground of imagination and inspiration in architecture. 41 influential architects from around the globe display their own personal inspiration through a selection of images.

323 images in total refer to something important about their work, history or influences. Some speak of analysis and explanation while others of memory and atmosphere.  Each however represent the common middle space of imagination that is by nature unique and highly personal.

Other exhibits within the Arsenale Central Pavilion include projects by Thomas Struth, Luigi Snozzi, Ruta del Peregrino, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Peter Marlki and Steve Roth, Robbrecht en Daem architecten, M Jose Van Hee architecten, Noero Architects, Hans Kollhoff, Farshid Moussavi Architecture, Sergison Bates, Kenneth Frampton, Seung H-Sang, Gort Scott, Robert McKillop, Renzo Piano Building workshop, Zaha Hadid Architects, Anupama Kundoo, Alberto Campo Baeza, Eric Parry Architects, Haworth Tompkins, Lynch Architects, San Rocco, 13178 Moran Street, Luis Fernandez-Galiano, Team Chicago: City Works, Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA, Jose Rafael Moneo, Mario Nanni, Piet Oudolf and Aires Mateus.

Thank you for reading my five part series. Please feel free to contact me on linda@archi-ninja.com if you would like further information or photographs on any of the exhibits. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

I hope you are enjoying my highlight coverage of the Venice Biennale. Below are my favorite projects from the Arsenale National Pavilions. The article is the forth of five installments which cover my time at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012. Check out the first, second and third installments here, here and here.

Argentinian Pavilion – Identity in Diversity

Curated by Clorindo Testa, Identity in Diversity presents the works and projects of Argentinian designers and architects who have won major international competitions. The purpose is to show the historical construction of Argentina alongside and contrasting to the present.

Each winning competition reflects upon the positive interactions between architecture, territory and society throughout the history of Argentina. The proposals are curated in order to construct a story of diversity, integration, memory and territory that together form the modern identity of Argentina.

Chilean Pavilion – Cancha

Curated by Maria Pilar Pinchart Saavedra and Bernardo Valdes Echenique, Cancha is derived from the word Quechaun, indicating a void that enables a connection to the ground. The exhibition explores common ground via the Andes mountain range as a resource for producing heritage and landscape. Common ground is hereby not territorial.

7 Architects present 7 points of view on the interpretation of this definition. 7 lanterns throughout the room present 7 ideas of natural resource production as a critical moment in social change. The floor of the pavilion is covered in salt to connect the natural resource of salt with intellectual and emotional space.

Chinese Pavilion – Originaire

Curated by Fang Zhenning, Originaire is a word representative of memory and mental image in the original world. Five architect and designers show their work on the interpretation of this meaning.

The work of TAO Na, Palace in the Sky is the layering of 3 views, the forbidden palace, the land-form of Mars and the unbounded galaxy. 4000 blocks create a layering of these views and spectators are asked to take a block home, therefore transforming the picture into something else, leaving a new composition of architecture and human civilisation. The work of SHAO Weiping, Sequence is composed of 96 Sections. It transforms the original concept of the Mobius strip, proposing that architecture is endless can be endlessly reinterpreted.

Croatian Pavilion – Unmediated Democracy Demands Unmediated Space

Curated by Tomislav Pavelic, Unmediated Democracy Demands Unmediated Space proposes a post-capitalist manifesto for listening and creating new ways of operating. The exhibition highlights the civic struggles of the region and student protesting a “Forum for Space”. The content conveys the fight and struggle for collective space, capable of containing conditions of political, social, economic and ecological fulfillment.

Through the mediums of context, map and device, Common ground is explored by representing a collective conflict and the subsequent collective hope for mediation. Strong use of sound and the distortion of imagery creates an engaging and evocative exhibition. One of my favorite!

Cypriot Pavilion – Revisit, Customising Tourism

Curated by Charis Christodoulou and Spyros Th. Spyrou, Revist, Customising Tourism explores the implications of the frequent travel activity. The exhibition represents tourism as a monopoly of rules whereby the character of the resort, theme park, hotel and city icon alienate the traveler from local.

Another of my favorite, Revist explores the customisation of the tourism industry and reconsiders the common ground between the traveler and local. Multiple projects form a think tank of ideas create a framework for discussion and propose the improvement of our built environments. The design of the pavilion re-enacts the tourist beach scene, littered with lounge chairs. Integrated media boxes conceal the projects for reshaping the tourism industry.

Estonian Pavilion – How Long is the Life of a Building?

Curated by Tuune-Kristin Vaikla, How Long is the life of a Building? explores the relationship between time and space and considers the use of architecture once a building becomes uninhibited. The theme is investigated via the modern legacy of the Linnahall Concert Hall in Tallinn.

The exhibition contains of two films that unfold to tell the larger story of reuse, redevelopment and hope for a greener future. The exhibition speaks of the need for future generations to consider building reuse and adaption and to reveal the possibilities they offer.

Hong Kong Pavilion – inter cities/intra cities: ghostwriting the future

Curated by Oval Partnership, inter cities/intra cities investigates the theme of sustainable urban development in Hong Kong and other global cities. 12 teams of architects and designers propose both real and speculative projects for the two districts in Hong Kong. The focus of the content is to support new commercial success alongside the enablement of diverse and sustainable modes of living.

The room is full of contrasting ideas that conjure debates and dialogues about the development of future cities. Scattered projects throughout the room recreate complex, partial and fragmented experiences, parallel to that of the city, with opposing voices and spaces.

Irish Pavilion – Shifting Ground

Curated by John Mclaughlin, Shifting Ground investigates architectures relationship to network flows of products, data and knowledge. The exhibition questions how global architecture can be grounded culturally, philosophically and spatially within such a context.

The pavilion charts languages of projective geometry that is embodied along the perimeter and benches of the pavilion. Diagrams present precise measurements and extraction of data relating to building, consumption and nature.

Italian Pavilion – Architecture Made in Italy

Curated by Luca Zevi, Made in Italy explores the work of Italian architects and designer and highlight their contribution to the development, well-being and cultural characteristics of modern Italy. The Pavilion showcases the work of various individuals and teams.

Created by Bosco Italia, one enters into a garden representing the infancy of the Italian landscape and from here grows the Italian forest. The growth of the forest (Italy) is a multimedia narrative of fours seasons and includes work from Olivetti to the Green Economy.

Kingdom of Bahrain Pavilion – Background

Curated by Noura Al-Sayeh, Background is the installation of real and imagined images. 5 screens duplicating the location and shape of the entrances represent video portals to Bahrain. Here background images become foreground and the individual becomes collective.

The video portals illustrate landscapes; lakes, squares and roads that largely appear empty or frozen in time. Through the stillness, one imagines the feeling within space; the breeze, tides or temperatures. The exhibition room is filled with chairs to encourage the spectator to simply sit down and soak up the atmosphere of the world outside the room.

Kosovan Pavilion – The Filigree Maker

Curated by Perparim Rama, The Filigree Maker is the collection of Kosovan architecture, past and present alongside architecture from around the world, submitted by spectators. Named after the traditional metal making technique, Filigree ties together architecture and emotion via a system of wires and colour coded lighting.

Data wrapping the exhibition is a collection of messages, emails and tweets, creating data of common ground from distant locations.  In addition to this spectators are encouraged to upload photographs of where they live, therefore creating an ever expanding library of architecture divided also into colour coded emotions of: happiness, sadness, entrapment, excitement, freedom and anger. The exhibition explores the need for people to reflect and reconsider how they think about their surroundings.

Kuwait Pavilion – Kethra

Curated by Zahra Ali Baba, Kethra is the realisation of an almost empty room whereby spectators walk over faded and defunct master-plans. Cushions surround the perimeter of the room while hanging speaker’s eco voices from above.

The defunct master-plans represent the archive of out-dated and failed planning proposals for the development of Kuwait. The cushions represent the settlements outside the city walls, while the hanging speakers recreate the noises of various places. Through investigating the past, the content of the exhibition focuses on reflection, future propagation and growth of quality.

Macedonian Pavilion – Architecture in a Mirror: Everyday and Sublime

Curated by Sasa Tasic and Aleksandar Radevski, Architecture in a Mirror highlights the fragmented work of 25 architecture components. Specific configurations of the components have been separated from their original frame and therefore take on new meaning and interpretation. The models are situated on a reflective base and are no longer of their original and casual context. The mirror provides a new and particular imagery, reflected in time.

The architecture fragments are no longer of the everyday and gaze into magical images similar but entirely different to the perfect imagery of international architecture. The fragmentation investigates the separation of architecture from place.

Malaysian Pavilion – Voices

Curated by Lim Teng Ngiom, Voices explores the unique conditions of each architect, including environment, circumstance, experience and language. The exhibition is the abstract interpretation of architecture in the context of environment. Common ground is explored through a common platform for unique expression and voice; an architecture narrative in three-dimension.

The pavilion contains 21 models, created by architects representing the voice of their architecture work pre-occupation. Each model is situated within an armature, a statement about the collective cultural landscape of Malaysia.

Peruvian Pavilion – Yucun inhabit the desert

Curated by Enrique Bonilla Di Tolla, Yucan inhabit the desert is a collection of 20 architecture projects. The exhibition responds to the recently completed tunnel that carries water from the Amazon to the arid desert on the Peruvian Coast.

Given the recent access to water, each architecture firm presents their idea for the potential habitation of the arid desert. Each idea is conceptually manifested via a clay model and supported with drawings and documentation. Common ground is in the form of an entirely new infrastructure and city capable of supporting new homes and opportunities.

Thailand Pavilion – Common Collage

Curated by a team of architects, academics, and designers, Common Collage brings together 100 ideas that collectively portray diversity in Thai architecture and culture. The work is presented through 40 models of equal size, volume and weight. Each box intends to speak of its own language, representative of individual ideas.

Neither a representation of the past or future, individual concepts are presented without synthesis; instead the spectator is required to construct this into a picture about the positive and common ground we could share.

Ukrainian Pavilion – Mirage Architect Project

Curated by Alexander Ponomarev and Olilga Milentiy, Mirage Architect Project is the investigation for habitation in the Arctic. Via videos, models and drawings, the investigation is manifested in two conceptual projects, a floating personal museum and a transformable museum of contemporary art.

The mirage is drawn from the optical phenomena of icebergs and Arctic coastlines being transformed into different structures before disappearing. Common ground is explored in the geographical reality of a new Arctic nation.

Thank you for reading and be sure to check out the last article which will cover my favourite projects from the Arsenale Central Pavilion exhibits. Please feel free to contact me on linda@archi-ninja.com if you would like further information or photographs on any of the exhibits. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

The Central Pavilions of the Giardini and Arsenale is curated by David Chipperfield. 69 projects by 119 architects, critics, designers, photographers and scholars respond to Chipperfield’s brief of common ground with specific and original installations.

Unique to the Biennale, the central pavilion represents a meeting point for the fascinating encounter of concepts between influential architects, designers and critics. Below are my favourite Giardini Central Pavilion exhibits. The article is the third of five instalments which cover my time at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012. Check out the first and second instalment here and here.

Atelier d’Architecture Autogeree – R-Urban Commons

Created by AAA, R-Urban Commons identifies human consumption beyond the point sustainable processes. The focus of their exhibition is upon regenerating and reconsidering the human consumption of water, energy and resources. Through posters and statements of new urban rules and principles, AAA advocate for a bottom-up approach to architecture and city development.

The exhibition presents multiple opportunities for new modes and interpretations of diversity, society, occupation, urban tactics, collectives and mobility. The project reconsiders the role (and focus) of architecture as one that needs to enable and facilitate the participation and energy of community citizens.

Crimson Architectural Historians – The Banality of Good

Created by Crimson Architectural Historians, The Banality of Good exhibits the unique spatial, demographic and economic formulas for six cities built in-between 1935 and present day.  Through a timeline of painted canvases, the exhibition is a critique on the progress of urban planning and illustrates the negative developing principles of city design.

The exhibition illustrates the movement away from optimistic social considerations of equity and progress to current considerations of profit, efficiency and expediency. The exhibition calls for architects and city planners to re-evaluate the motivations and implications of their work.

Eisenman Architects, Pier Vittorio Aureli and Jeff Kipnis – The Piranesi Variations

Created by a team working in-between academia and practice, the Piranesi Variations explore common ground through the interpretation of a famous but speculative Roman drawing: The Piranesi’s Campo Marzio created in 1762.

Through models and drawings, four teams create new speculations for Campo Marzo. The exploration of each team generates a unique political, social and philosophical ides, demonstrating the inexhaustible opportunities and potential for creation and reinterpretation in architecture.

Herreros Arquitectos – Dialogue Architecture

Created by Herreros Arquitectos, Dialogue Architecture contains a selection of projects including the Munch Museum in Oslo, the AGORA project in Bogota, the competition design for an Intermodal Railway Station in Santiago de Compostela, and Casa Garoza. In the centre of the room is a large table where visitors can listen to the recorded dialogues about each project and to initiate new dialogues of their own.

Common ground is explored by bringing to light the breadth of skill involved in the process of design and construction. Herreros describes the installation about “spreading technical knowledge and culture as a tool for dialogue and anchoring for ideas.” Source. The recorded dialogues and diagrams that surround the room suggest a future for the architect, not as head consultant but as mediator of the dialogues between consultants, experts and citizens.

Jasper Morrison – The Good Life

Created by Jasper Morrison, The Good Life brings to light the creativity and beauty of vernacular and everyday objects.  Six photographs of objects born from necessity including a chair, light, bus stop and pot plant make up the exhibition.

The object in focus is responsive to issues of climate, function and/or material. The outcome looks and feels different to the typical response of the architect if given the same necessities. The exhibition shows how ordinary people with unique and accumulated practical knowledge can create a specific and beautifully simple object. The photographs (and their subsequent descriptions) therefore question the appropriateness and usefulness of the architect.

Kuehn Malvezzi – Komuna Fundamento

Created by Kuehm Malvezzi, Komuna Fundamento unites two spaces at the Giardini Central Pavilion. The first intervention is directly outside the pavilion in the form of a bench. The bench disrupts the axis of the entry into the pavilion. The second intervention creates a narrow corridor to delay the spectator’s entry into other exhibitions. Each piece is created using the single material of grey slate.

Both pieces create two unique thresholds and encourage people to linger and meet or to sit down and watch. The installations investigate architecture as part of a curatorial action in space, neither the foreground nor background, but a medium of the in-between ground; common ground.

MVRDV and The Why Factory – Freeland

Created by MVRDV and the Why Factory, Freeland explores common ground in the neighbourhood and answers the age-old question of why we need our neighbours. The exhibition is in the form of a video and proposes a radically free, almost libertarian model for city planning.

The video shows the creating, working and benefit of a city made completely from ‘do-it-yourself’ and bottom-up approaches and without the rules of urban planning.  The content is successful through its presentation: a stimulating storyline where we start over, forming a new utopian vision for the future. The exhibition demonstrates common ground born from necessity, here architects respond to need rather than vision.

Olafur Eliasson – Knowing Feeling Acting

Created by Olafur Eliasson, Knowing, Feeling, Acting is delivered in three locations throughout the Biennale. A short film titled Solar Syokoy forms one part of his initiative; the film depicts a mysterious creature of ‘little suns’ emerging from the forest into the urban city. The video depicts the strange and indescribable sensations of experience.

Another work includes a fan with the same ‘little suns’ attached. When the fan is turned on the individual lights blend into one continuous ring. Each work talks of being disconnected yet connected, being committed yet indifferent and of doing rather than thinking. It is within these philosophies we can find our common ground.

OMA – Public Works: Architecture by Civil Servants

Created by OMA, Architecture by Civil Servants exhibits the work of 15 post-war buildings created by anonymous bureaucrats and employed by guiding public sectors, councils or departments. The exhibition shows public architecture with coherent and optimistic social visions. The buildings represent a mode of practice that focuses on civic service rather than the market economy.

Each building focuses on shared motivations and not private ideologies. The exhibition therefore questions the morals of current architecture and serves as a reminder that left-leaning governments and architects have created significant and influential modern buildings capable of movement and change.

Peter Fischli and David Weiss – Airport Photographs

Created by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Airport Photographs is a simple yet effective video documentary about the airport. The documentary depicts the airport as a ubiquitous and relentlessly similar space throughout the world.

The airport is explored as a place of temporary and autonomous civilisation with its own spatial system and order. The airport (irrespective of location) depicts the theme of common ground through the negation of cultural and geographical differences; here there is everyone yet no one.

Toshiko Mori Architect – Dialogue In Details

Created by Toshiko Mori Architect, Dialogue in Details exhibits ten 1:1 models. Details of building components by Frank Lloyd wright, Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, Marcel Breuer, and Paul Rudolph are displayed alongside details of building components by Mori.

Common Ground is explored through the dialogues of the building details, investigating the convergence of idea, material, tectonic and construction. The installation demonstrates how ideas can be re-embodied and re-interpreted through time.

Other exhibits within the Giardini Central Pavilion include projects by Alison Crawshaw, Grafton Architects and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Wolfgang Wolters and Mario Piana, 40,000 Hours, Norman Foster, O&O Baukunst, Thomas Demand, Caruso St John, Elke Krasny, Muf architecture/art, Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Habiter Autrement, Alejandro Aravena/Elemental, Fulvio Irace, Diener and Diener and Steve Parnell.

Thank you for reading and be sure to check out the next article which will cover the Arsenale National Pavilions. Please feel free to contact me on linda@archi-ninja.com if you would like further information or photographs on any of the exhibits. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

I am currently writing a series of 5 of articles highlighting my favourite moments from the Venice Architecture Biennale, 2012. Below is the second instalment of the most memorable projects from the Giardini National Pavilions. Check out the first instalment here.

Hungarian Pavilion – Space Maker

Curated by Balint Bachmann, Space Maker investigates the subject of the architecture model as a symbol of complexity and content. The exhibition explores the importance of the architecture model in the education and realisation of architecture projects.

Over 500 models from architecture students are on display. Each of the models are white to represent cleansing and the space is unlit to remove elements of artificiality. Silence throughout the pavilion eliminates distraction and intends to allow the spectator to imagine the possibilities constructed or embedded in each individual model.

Israelian Pavilion – aircraftcarrier

Curated by Erez Ella, Milana Gitzin-Adiram and Dan Handel, aircraftcarrier documents historical periods of uncertainty. The pavilion represents moments of social, economic, political and territorial struggles that have radically transformed and defined Israeli’s current position in architecture. The moments are categorised in the form of signals, emporiums, allies and flotillas.

The exhibition creates a ‘concept store’, selling custom made objects that relate to each historical moment in time and focus specifically on their relationship between the United States and Israel. The retail experience encourages live interaction with the theme and allows one to deconstruct the work of the pavilion which then goes on to travel the world as spectators take objects home for further reflection, examination and reinterpretation.

Japanese Pavilion – Architecture. Possible Here? Home-for-All.

Curated by Toyo Ito, Home-for-All exhibits the process of 3 emerging architects – Kumiko Inui, Sou Fujimoto and Akihisa Hirata. Home-for-All documents their process as they work together creating a shelter for the 400,000+ people who lost their homes in the tsunami of 2011. The exhibition tells a cohesive story of process through interviews, drawings, working models and video documentation.

The exhibition conveys the sense of the devastation that occurred to the area and the following collaboration processes that have taken place to rebuild. “We made this house without any barrier between “professional” and “amateur”, no distinction between “builder” and “resident”. Every step of the process was done together with local people: builders became residents, residents became builders.” Toyo Ito. Home-for-All ultimately speaks of the human spirit, energy and binds together a sense of community and through the process of devastation allows one to reconsider the meaning of architecture.

Korean Pavilion – Walk in Architecture

Coordinated by Hee Jun and Eun Leong, Walk in Architecture is divided into 2 themes; conflicted and assembled ground vs abstracted and rehearsed ground. The pavilion explores the themes in the form of five walks. Together they represent the future, beyond modernism, the past, the position and the sense.

The pavilion seeks to use the walk as a primordial means to engage, and also as a paradox to a “Walk in Venice” which positions architecture as the subject. The design intends to allow allow one to walk and think, meditate, observe, dream or wander.

Nordic Pavilion – Light Houses

Sponsored by The Museum of Finnish Architecture, Light Houses celebrates the jubilee of the Nordic Pavilion designed by Sverre Fehn. 32 architects display models representing the conceptual idea of the house. The models also reflect their personal philosophy on architecture.

The models explore themes of light, material, structure, space, nature and atmosphere. The exhibition intends to create a chorus of contemporary architecture in polyphonic dialogue with Fehn’s iconic pavilion. The images below show the models of Tyin Tegnestue Architects and Lassila Hirvilammi Architects.

Polish Pavilion – Making the Walls Quake

Curated by Michal Libera and Katarzyna Krakowiak, Making the Walls Quake is the exploration of architecture built through the complexities of sound. The theme explores the idea that sound goes on to create a map of our social lives.

The bare and physically empty pavilion amplifies the sounds that have always existed within the space (creeks, ventilation, heating etc) and through volume allows the sound to move to the foreground of the spectator’s conciseness. The volume of sound and high coefficient of reverberation makes human conversation difficult and therefore our words within the space become blurred into the amplified sound of the building.

Romanian Pavilion – Play Mincu

Curated by Mil Ivanescu, Irina Bogdan, Ana Costantinescu, Laura Iosub and Paul Popescu, Play Mincu encourages one to engage with architecture ideas and to focus on its political, bureaucratic and creative connotations. Play Mincu is both playful and thought provoking.

Upon entering the pavilion spectators are asked to produce a traditional stamp. One goes on to enter a dark room with a piece of paper. Well-lit pedestals contain stamps of various quotes relating to ideas of architecture and again the user stamps their paper. The stamp is not only representative of history and art but also the bureaucratic hurdles of architecture. One leaves the pavilion with something similar to a manifesto.

Russian Pavilion – i-city skolkovo

Curated by Sergei Tchoban and Sergey Kuznetsov, i-city skolkovo covers every surface of the Russian Pavilion in QR codes. Spectators use the codes to view various proposals for a new city of science located near Moscow, in Russia. The city will include important new scientific centres, universities, homes and over 500 jobs. The city intends to allow diverse organisations from different parts of the world to interact with one another as a network, constructing not only a new city but also a new community for the development of science.

The QR codes explore the connection and intersection between the real and virtual. The pavilion speaks of light and atmosphere. Proposals for the new city include projects by David Chipperfield, SANAA, OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, Stefano Boeri, SPEECH, Valode & Pistre architects.

Serbian Pavilion – 100

Commissioned by Dr Igor Maric, 100 exhibits a large table and though its monumental scale creates a series of metaphors and opportunities. The table represents being alone alongside everyone as opposed to being alone against everyone.

The exhibition space contains a large table, leaving only a narrow hallway for walking, standing and sitting, the interior becomes the exterior, and emptiness becomes fullness. By denying and introverting the scale of the table, the object is brought to extreme meaning; universal, indivisible, sculptural and banal.

Spanish Pavilion – SpainLab

Curated by Debora Mesa and Anton Garcia-Abril, SpainLab poses the challenging questing: “What is the Innovation in Architecture?” The exhibition brings together the work of 7 architects and designers who together represent innovation in architecture, with particular focus on community.

The exhibition displays a balance between the proposition of questioning, ideas and realisation. Each of the works are carefully curated to display not only the authors intention but also their personal emotion and motivation which is often lacking in the communication of architecture.  My favourite work is titled ‘Dream your City’ by Ecosistema Urbano. (Belinda Tato, José Luis Vallejo) Their project focuses on public space as a platform for interaction and experimentation; developing a new means for understanding and transforming urban life.

Swedish Pavilion – And Now the Ensemble!!!

Curated by Miroslav Sik in Collaboration with Axel Fickert, Kaschka Knapkiewicx, Paola Maranta and Quintus Miller, And Now the Ensemble!!! represents an appeal to architects, builders and authorities to look at urban design and architecture as a dialogue-based, evolving and collective work of art. The main hall showcases the work of three architects and propagates a hypothetical, interpretive and at times chaotic ensemble.

The exhibition intents to explore architecture beyond style and star architecture and through a series of tables and chairs encourage reflection and dialogue.

U.S. Pavilion – SpontaneousInterventions: Design Actions for the Common Good

Curated by Cathy Lang Ho, along with David Van Der Leer and Ned Cramer, SpontaneousInterventions presents the work of 124 socially motivated urban interventions that have provided immediate benefit and improvement to the public realm. Each of the interventions are displayed as a kinetic system of weights and pulleys and requires spectator participation to learn more about each of the interventions. The projects range in scale from guerrilla intervention to large structures.

One side of the display documents project images and information while the other is in the form of a barcode categorising each project relating to information (dark blue), accessibility (orange), community (pink), economy (light green), sustainability (dark green) and pleasure (light blue). Black counter weights on the adjacent wall reveal a solution to the problem when their corresponding project banners are pulled down. The pavilion is playful, interactive and informative. Another of my favourite exhibits with enough content to make for a great book!

Uruguayan Pavilion – Panavision

Curated by Pedro Livni Aldabalde, Panavision features the work of six diverse and emergent Uruguayan practices. Each practice has produced a model representing their organisation as a means to develop discussion on contemporary Uruguayan architectural agendas. Common ground is representing by imagining a common future.

Selected firms included G+, 11:54 p.m, Bednarik + Mirabal, MBAD, Fábrica de Paisajes, and MAAM. Each model was developed within specific rules of spatial, programmatic and scale conditions.

Venezuelan Pavilion – Ciudad Socializante vs Ciudad Alienate

Showcasing the work of Domenico Silvestro and Andres Agusti, Ciudad Socializante vs Ciudad Alienate. Domenico Silvestro’s work in the form of art  explores the notion of the home as a hideout and family nucleus for dream, memory and hope.

Andres Agusti’s work is an audiovisual testimony to the evidence of people power, when out of necessity and disaster they devote themselves to the transformation of their environment and home. This project again questions the role of the architect and how our work better needs to address the issues of populations living in poverty.

Venetian Pavilion – Nicholas Hawksmoor: Methodical Imaginings

Curated by Mohsen Mostafavi, Methodical Imaginings focuses on a series of important London churches designed by architect Nicholas Hawksmoor during the eighteenth century. The exhibition celebrates the structures of the city by conceiving the interior of the pavilion as an analogical site of London.

Black and white photographs of the churches are on display alongside resin models that hang in space in a similar relationship to that of their actual locations around the city of London.

Thank you for reading and be sure to check out the next article which will cover the Central Giardini Pavilion. Please feel free to contact me on linda@archi-ninja.com if you would like further information or photographs on any of the exhibits. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Last week I arrived in Venice along with rain, high tide (1.4m – thats my shoulder height!) and a 15-degree temperature drop from the week prior. Despite this Venice is stunningly beautiful and provides the perfect venue for the Architecture (and art) Biennale. Lucky the Biennale is not only on ‘Common Ground’ but also on higher ground.

The International Architecture Biennale is the world’s largest celebration of architecture, providing a venue to collectively exchange ideas and reach out to the community.

David Chipperfield, director of this years Biennale describes the theme of Common Ground as one that explores the “concern of continuity, context and memory, toward shared influences and expectations, and to address the apparent lack of understanding that exists between the profession and society.” Source.

Common Ground intends to allow participants to focus not on individual and isolated motivations but rather explore, through individual and personal experience, the shared commonalities that will shape and define the direction of architecture culture.

Importantly, this year’s theme addresses social sustainability and the need to re-engage with the users of architecture. Hopefully less about architects and more about architecture and the audience we intend to cater for. The name Common Ground implies inclusivity and anti-elitism and the Biennale gives opportunity for up-comers like Aberrant and Justin McGuirk to create discourse and present their ideas alongside the likes of Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster.

Over the next couple of weeks I am based in Venice, if you happen to be visiting the Biennale during this time be sure to come say hi at the Aussie Padiglione! I’d love to show you around and direct you towards my favourite exhibitors.

I will post a number of following articles highlighting my favourite moments from the Biennale. Below are the most memorable projects from the Giardini National Pavilions.

Australian Pavilion – Formations, New Practices in Australian Architecture.

Curated by Anthony Burke, Gerard Reinmuth and Toko Concept Design, Formations explores the current fascination with the reconstruction of the architect. The pavilion highlights the work (and unique formation) of 6 different organisations including Richard Goodwin, archrival, healthabitat, supermanoeuvre, 2112 AI and 3RRR as they respond to the various forces reshaping the profession. The pavilion explores the possibly of architecture to develop into broader realms of research, collaboration, urban design, medicine, art and media.

The most engaging work is that of archirival who create a public and engaging arena in the form of outdoor foosball tables. The exhibit creates a positive venue and explores the theme of rivalry and its transformation into a forum for play, productive interaction and discussion.

Austrian Pavilion – Hands have no tears to flow

Created by Wolfgang Tschapeller, Rens Veltman and Martin Perktold, hands have no tears to flow is an interdisciplinary study of thought, action, architecture and art. The exhibition is associated with the human body and investigates the socio-political function of architecture as a mirror of society. Interestingly one questions, is the construction of site no longer the building, but the body?

The pavilion is animated with digital figures projected onto walls that react and mimic the movement of spectators. The human figures become an eerie being (like ourselves), familiar and yet so foreign. The installation is less about architecture and more about the people who exist within the work of architects.

Belgian Pavilion – The Ambition of the Territory

Curated by AWJGGRAUaDVVTAT, The Ambition of the Territory outlines a conceptual framework to reimage the future development of Europe given its current financial, ecological and political crisis. The focus is on reinventing and redistributing dynamics, power and wealth between the traditional west and emerging markets. The goal of the project is to determine welfare systems as redundant and foster a growth in prosperity.

Various architects, urban planners and designers present their work through a series of drawings, documentation of research and design studies. The exhibition seeks to question contemporary society by making the spectator aware of their own imperfections.  Maps and images re-consider the definition of territory via inventive, efficient and productive means as opposed to the traditional zoning principles.

Brazilian Pavilion – Conviviality

Curated by Lauro Cavalcanti, Conviviality steps away from the traditional exhibition design of displaying photographs, plans, perspectives or memorials. The motivation of such is to eliminate exclusivity and autonomy and to instead focus on spatial and physical emotion.

Once of my absolute favourite, the exhibition displays the beautifully emotive work of two important architects. ‘Riposatevi’ by Lucio Costa and ‘Peephole’ by Marcio Kogan. ‘Riposatevi’ allows the spectator to rest on hammocks among guitars with can be played. “The same people who rest in hammocks can, whenever necessary build a new capital in three years’ time.” Lucio Costa. ‘Peephole’ encourages the spectator to look through fragments of life. It focuses on the unique sensation of space that can only be provoked through experience. The installation recognises the infeasibility to depict architecture and a suggestion that it can only be described through memory.

British Pavilion – Venice Takeaway.

Curated by Vicky Richardson and Vanessa Norwood, Venice Takeaway highlights the work of 10 firms from across the globe. The projects focus on the research of international issues from Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Thialand and the USA. The research includes the provision of housing, design of schools, urban planning and design, and the competition system.

Another of my favourite exhibits, Venice Takeaway is a reminder that research, observation and asking questions is just as important to the industry as building. Albert Einstein said, “If we knew what we were doing, it would not be research, would it?” Several participants explore the role of the architect and the profession’s relationship and perception to the public. The work of Open Charter titled the image of the architect examines how the perception of the architect varies around the world. It allows architects to reflect upon why and how this will affect the future of our profession.

Canadian Pavilion – Migrating Landscapes

Curated by 5468796 Architecture and Jae Sung Chan, Migrating Landscapes looks at the global concerns of migration. The exhibition questions the socio-political border, idea and attitude surrounding migration. Throughout the pavilion 18 personal experiences of im/migration are expressed via architectural models and short videos.

The videos and models are displayed among a wooden, malleable infrastructure representing the abstraction of the physical, economic and political conditions that shape individual identity. It portrays subjective stories that are tied together in a collective unsettlement.

Czech and Slovak Pavilion – Asking Architecture.

Curated by Jan Pernecky, Asking Architecture presents the work 18 artists and creative groups rather than the work of architects. The pavilion explores the potential for themes of architecture to be explored and addressed by those outside the industry and questions how this unconventional shift might infiltrate the industry to better respond to the shifting motivations and forces affecting architecture.

The installation relies on the virtual and augmented reality and only reveals the work after the spectator approaches the collateral communication presented on the wall.

Danish Pavilion – Possible Greenland

Curated by Minik Rosing, Possible Greenland explores the need for the artic region to undergo dramatic changes in response globalization, internal demographic forces and climate change. Various installations within the pavilion investigate opportunities to create new connections and interactions between Greenland and the rest of the world.

The installations tend to focus on forming new infrastructures, cultivating new resources, new ways of habitations and new social, cultural and political opportunities. The below images show one project in the form of an airport.

Dutch Pavilion – Re-Set: New wings for Architecture

Curated by Ole Bouman, Re-Set is the sequel to the Vacant NL exhibition of 2010 that explored the quantity of empty buildings available for reuse. Re-Set develops possibilities for transforming (renovating and conserving) existing or under-used space.

Full height fabric throughout the pavilion frequently moves and changes to evoke new spatial qualities and use. Every hour a new situation occurs, allowing the installation to provide a new outlook on existing foundations.

Egyptian Pavilion – Egypt, Motion Rotation and Ascent

Curated by Tariq Al Murri, Egypt, Motion Rotation and Ascent explores brick as a common element in the civilization of mankind. The exhibition recognises the first mud brick as created by an early Egyptian. This moment is symbolic of the beginning of architecture consciousness.

The pavilion contains brick structures representing the first domes and arches as important moments in building development. Singular bricks exist throughout the pavilion and allow the spectator to create their own structures.

Finnish Pavilion – New Forms in Wood

Curated by Juulia Kauste, New Forms in Wood highlights the importance of wood as Finland’s preferred building material. The exhibition highlights nature and the forest as an enduring source for inspiration in art and architecture.

The pavilion highlights the work of 5 young Finish architects as they reimage the use of wood and explore its future potential. Beautify constructed timber models communicate various possibilities.

French Pavilion – Grands & Ensembles

Curated by Yves Lion, Grands & Ensembles explores the issue of working-class districts in France. Through a series of intense and personal videos of the inhabitants of these territories, one can visualise their struggle to viably function within an area of development exclusion and misunderstanding.

The pavilion conveys human spirit and energy as the facilitators and operators of change.  Grands & Ensembles portrays a town with a population of 300,000 – 400,000: European, French, and part of the Paris region, but not found on any administrative map. A hypothetical project supported by a new housing and transport model, transforms the excluded territories to constitute a new backbone to the dense urban network. The pavilion explores the hope for developing such areas into future viable social and economic destinations.

German Pavilion – Reduce/Reuse/Recycle

Curated by a team of Architects and designers Reduce/Reuse/Recycle explores architecture as an inadequate resource for the ageing and declining population of Germany. The exhibition space highlights a number of projects with explore new design and development opportunities with reduce, reuse and recycle as paramount.

The pavilion seeks to provide a global appreciation towards resources and highlights the need for architects to create buildings that use less energy and new methods of processes.

Greek Pavilion – Made in Athens

Organised by the Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Made in Athens focuses on the strong contradictions of contemporary Athens. The exhibition seeks to expand the opportunity for talented young architects during a time of economic crisis. Two themes exist within the pavilion; one concerns the local urban tradition with a particular focus on housing and the other is the current fragmentation of public space.

Created by local architects and creative groups, the exhibition contains 8 narratives and strategies for the city of Athens. The common ground is a common goal to reshape Athens in crisis.

Thank you for reading and be sure to check out the next article which will cover the remaining Giardini National Pavilions. Please feel free to contact me on linda@archi-ninja.com if you would like further information or photographs on any of the exhibits. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.