Alejandro Aravena Appointed 2016 Venice Biennale Director
John Hill
19. July 2015
Photo: Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
The Board of la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, has named Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, who heads the firm Elemental, as director of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition to be held from 28 May to 27 November 2016.
Aravena's apppointment comes two years after Rem Koolhaas's Fundamentals exhibition and four years after David Chipperfield's Common Ground exhibition in Venice. In a statement on the appointment, Paolo Baratta said:
After the important experimental Biennale developed by Rem Koolhaas, dedicated entirely to the curator’s research, it is our belief that we must follow up with a Biennale that convenes the architects, and is dedicated to the exploration of the new frontier that demonstrate the vitality of architecture, a frontier that spans across various parts of the world and shows architecture engaged in providing specific responses to specific demands. This Biennale intends to react once again to the gap between architecture and civil society, which in recent decades has transformed architecture into spectacle on the one hand, yet made it dispensable on the other. Among architects of the new generation, Alejandro Aravena is, in our opinion, the one who can best describe this reality and highlight its vitality.
Aravena first came to international attention with the Incremental social housing in Chile, which provided residents with a house half as large as the norm with an adjacent gap for them to fill in at a later date as money and resources became available. Among other notable buildings, since has realized the Siamese Towers in Santiago and the UC Innovation Center - Anacleto Angelini; the latter won a Design of the Year Award from the Design Museum in London.
On his appointment, Aravena said:
There are several battles that need to be won and several frontiers that need to be expanded in order to improve the quality of the built environment and consequently people’s quality of life. This is what we would like people to come and see at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition: success stories worth to be told and exemplary cases worth to be shared where architecture did, is and will make a difference in those battles and frontiers.
The 15th International Architecture Exhibition will be about focusing and learning from architectures that through intelligence, intuition or both of them at the same time, are able to escape the status quo. We would like to present cases that, despite the difficulties, instead of resignation or bitterness, propose and do something. We would like to show that in the permanent debate about the quality of the built environment, there is not only need but also room for action.
The 15th International Architecture Exhibition will be about focusing and learning from architectures that through intelligence, intuition or both of them at the same time, are able to escape the status quo. We would like to present cases that, despite the difficulties, instead of resignation or bitterness, propose and do something. We would like to show that in the permanent debate about the quality of the built environment, there is not only need but also room for action.
