Under the heading of "Chronochaos" Rem Koolhaas presents his proposals for the preservation of monuments and historical buildings. In one of the rooms at the back of Palazzo delle Esposizioni, visitors come face to face with photos, furniture and documents, some of which are stored as if in an archive. The architect has dedicated himself to a topic that comes as a surprise not only for the Biennial, but also for himself and his OMA studio.
Oscar Niemeyer still works as an architect - at the grand old age of 102. As the exhibition in the Brazilian pavilion proves conclusively. The title "Brasilia - 50 Years On" whets the viewer's appetite; after all, the rigorously modern city was the promise of the day. Alongside Niemeyer, who designed the ideal city's most important buildings, the works of a new generation of young architects are also on display. Nonetheless, the Biennial's perhaps most interesting contribution to Brazilian architecture is actually to be found elsewhere.
When the world changes, architecture changes, too. That sounds easier than it is. So what do the visions of the many different "futures" gathered at the Architecture Biennial look like? And what role does the past play in them?
Japan's pavilion finds and unusual and surprising way to celebrate the "Metabolist" movement, which kicked off about half a century ago. Instead of space capsules and concrete shelving full of living units you can peruse doll's-house-sized models and an insightful presentation of Tokyo as the city of permanent change.
In Russian Pavilion a serious attempt is being made at the dialectical triple jump from the past into the future. It presented three emotional states en route to ideas to reanimate the Russian industrial city of Vyshny Volochok.
The British Pavilion has opened its doors to a School of Seeing. Given the wealth of models, photographs, maps, drawings, notes, film and exhibits from various ages that comment on one another here, indeed seem to generate one another, all the media manifestations, differences in genres and lines dividing the epochs seem to have little validity. At "Villa Frankenstein", where architecture, art and historiography bid you good night, order gets upended.
News & Stories | 12th Architecture Biennale – exclusively presented by Villeroy & Boch Tiles
High Noon in the Red Salon
by Dirk Meyhöfer
Concluding our series on the Architecture Biennial we ask: What vision of architecture do the exhibitions and contributions communicate? What attitudes do the architects take towards the past, present and future, and what role do power, experience and atmosphere play?
News & Stories | 12th Architecture Biennale – exclusively presented by Villeroy & Boch Tiles
Designing a different society
by Claus Käpplinger
News & Stories | 12th Architecture Biennale – exclusively presented by Villeroy & Boch Tiles
The bridge across the valley
by Claus Käpplinger
The Kingdom of Bahrain has taken the Biennial's motto very seriously: People meet, take a seat, watch, listen, dream. What better place to sit and think about the loss of identity, the increase in urban space and the magic of the sea than in fisherman's huts from the beach in Bahrain that were taken down with their owners' permission. And there is already one tangible result: the Golden Lion for the best country contribution.
News & Stories | 12th Architecture Biennale – exclusively presented by Villeroy & Boch Tiles
When sugar cubes float above the coffee cups
by Claus Käpplinger
News & Stories | 12th Architecture Biennale – exclusively presented by Villeroy & Boch Tiles
Producing atmospheres or Close Links to Art
by Carsten Krohn
The solution need not always be a new building. And in the French Pavilion Dominique Perrault therefore asks how empty spaces in a city are handled and how we can rejuvenate our metropolitan peripheries. The Dutch Pavilion also focuses on how the existing can best be used. Here, Rietveld Landscape addresses the use of government-owned vacant buildings.
Kazuyo Sejima, the Director of the 12th Venice Architecture Biennial, has pulled something special out of the bag with the central exhibition "People meet in Architecture". She has managed to create an atmosphere of light-heartedness in which the opportunities afforded by contemporary architecture as well as the latter's limits are on show without glossing over the weighty issues.