People meet in Architecture

Finally it's time to talk about Venice Biennale.
As everybody knows this year the exhibition has been curated by Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA architects, the first woman in the history of Venice Biennale. The theme suggested by Sejima is really exciting, somebody could argue that "People meet in architecture" is pretty banal but I must disagree. Actually it's not banal to remind in these days that between spaceships and withstanding bulwarks of tradition there's a common aim for architecture and it has much to do with people's feelings towards it.  So in my opinion the key is all in the word "meet", and why meeting is different from living or using.
I think it is because meeting implies an exchange of feelings and someway the possibility of a self expression of people in relation to each other and with (and within) architecture and its environment. A fascinating encounter between people in architecture and with architecture should be the beginning of a romance.
So  I think this is a difficult challenge for architects, to create a space that makes people feel comfortable not in merely functional terms; a space which is highly emotional, fulfilling and able to adapt itself to the inner scenario that each user draws in it bringing its own presence, activity and life inside architecture.
I had huge expectations that actually weren't disappointed but, nevertheless I should say that in some cases the national partecipations at Giardini lacked of some particularly surprising, unexpected and exciting elements I was expecting to witness there. Anyway maybe it's just because I already knew about many of the most acclaimed installations. So I just missed the surprise effect! :-)
By the way let's start with a little review of the Arsenale (I'm sorry, the one about Giardini is yet to come).
I've always visited Arsenale first, and this year it was astonishing.
As I said above, I already knew about many projects but trust me this is really something to experience!
Opening is good with Wim Wenders video (3D, is fashion) about Sanaa's Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne. To be honest, I didn't go crazy for the video. I disapproved too much ecstatic celebrations that made it a bit rhetoric and repetitive. However Sanaa's project is so revolutionary, complex and still simply graceful that really wouldn't ask for any embellishment.

As you walk ahead you can find the installation by Antón García-Abril and Ensemble Studio entitled Balancing Act . Two giants girders break through the Arsenale so that space is no more perceived as unitary, instead it appears disjointed and divided. Each section acts more like a singular, private and more intimate place with the girders working both as structural lines and diaphragms that hide each corner from other's glances. Silhouettes  passing along are gently designed by the soft light on the rough surface of the girders.

The next astonishing and acclaimed project is the Cloudscape by Transsollar and Tetsuo Kondo Architects. When I first read of it on the web I thought that this reminded me of Diller and Scofidio Blur Pavilion realized for the Swiss National Expo in 2002.
Immediately as you enter the room in the Corderie you're in a totally blurred space. Everything around is foggy and dilated, nothing can be clearly distinguished and an overall sense of disorientation is experienced. Then you start to climb over the top of the thin ramp, which swings a little unstable under your feet, and you feel like you're on a plane, passing through the clouds. Finally you're on the top facing closely the capitals of the columns,  beautifully shrouded in the misty cloudscape. World has suddenly disappeared underneath, just a warm light filters through the high windows of the Arsenale.

After some beautiful picture from the artist Walter Niedermayr about Iran's urban landscape and how it is influenced both from western world and the legacy of the ancient Persian culture, you find another masterpiece, winner of golden lion for best project: "architecture as air: study for château la coste" by Yunia Ishigami associates . This project is really about the essence of architecture beyond physical matter. Architecture as air, void, thinneness and weightlessness pushed to the very boundary of the visible. By the way I'm not sure I can find better words that author's so I'll better  report part of the explanation which completed the exhibition.

The critical mass of architecture's existence: an experiment


At what point does architecture form architecture?
This is an attempt to find the threshold of architecture's existence using compression elements of 0.9 mm in diameter, and tension elements of 0.02 mm.
1. The visual threshold
An experiment in achieving a form of "transparency" through scale, the minute size of the structural elements exceeding the limits of human vision despite the structure itself being opaque in property.
2. The structural threshold
An experiment in finding the critical conditions under which architecture manifests physically, and thereby creates space. With an overload of a mere few lengths of sewing thread, the entire structure collapses. The quest was to find the infinitesimal limits of its critical mass. Normally threshold experiments are conducted fragmentally, and on small scale. This one was conducted at the actual scale of a building.


[…] The structure and the space blend ambiguously. Despite of the structure, people do not feel the stream of power. It seems that someone draw in the space […]. Few hours later, this structure disappear like a morning dews.

In the following room Studio Mumbai recreates a working place with models,
sketches and drawings that illustrates the process of learning through making. Studio Mumbai Architects were awarded with a special mention, commending them "for the immersive environment presented in their installation--an exceptional insight into the creative context of the atelier in which their work originates."

I've been little disappointed by R&Si(e)n. The project is interesting in the concept of a reactive "building which never dies" but honestly, compared to other works and to my expectations towards Francois Roche, whom I respect for many of his cutting-edge projects,  I must say that this one lacked not only of elegance and poetic attitude but also of that specific attention to human experience which was the challenge theme of this Biennale. I mean, maybe is not enough to make a machine whose "components glow as a detector, an architectural marker of the mutation of our environment and occur as a signal of UV human pathologies" to draw people attention on architecture .
I'm not arguing about the unchallenged value of R&Si(e)n's scientific research nor criticizing this kind of approach but, if on one hand some hasty observers could argue that it's not easy to understand (however this is not surprising when dealing with Roche's work), I'm just wandering about how pertinent is this experiment to the theme requested. Maybe for this exhibition they could have realized something more appealing, even if less specific, and phisically involving in terms of space.

By the way, a question arises; is architecture about "space" or about" object"? Remember that last Biennale, directed by Aaron Betsky, was entitled "Out there: Architecture beyond building" and was supposed to be a rich observation platform on avantgarde and transdiscliplinary design. In fact these two edition have in common at least the will to go beyond traditional approaches toward architecture and architectural practice, this is why many projects could be considered borderline between the two.

The following room accomodates a set of video interviews by Hans Ulrich Olbrist; it is very well arranged and all furnished with the lovely rabbit chairs by Sejima+Nishizawa. Altough it's impossible for the visitor to listen to all the interview in a few hours, anyway they can all be found on the web  [http://www.labiennalechannel.org/locator.cfm?PageID=4] .

An impressive work is the installation by Olafur Eliasson, Your Split Second Hous,  is made up by four rubber pipes hanged to the ceiling and enlightened with a stroboscopic light. When the water is piped inside, they begin to spin around in a chaotic way and, due to the pressure, water is refracted and transformed into crystals of light that draw astonishing whirls and flashes in the dark. Eliasson is a master in creating high impact artificial atmospheres out of nothing by means of manipulation of elements such as light and water. This kind of enviromental experiments on "weather architecure" is, not surprisingly,  a leading theme of this Biennale (see Transsollar and Tetsuo Kondo's cloudscapes) since it puts together scientific research with a more choreographic approach (this one I found lacking in R&Si(e)n'a proposal) in creating affecting artificial enviroments. An older counterpart was represented by Philippe Rahm's project Hormonorium, shown at the Swiss Pavillion during the 8th Venice Biennale in 2002 ("The Hormonorium is a proposal for the design of a new public space. It is based on the disappearance of the physical boundaries between space and the organism, as revealed by biology and the neurosciences. [...] Understanding the physicochemical mechanisms that govern organisms brings about a change in how we understand space, and thus in the way we inhabit the environment.). 

A physical construction of space through sound is explored by Janet Cardiff with her work The Forty Part Motet (2001), an audio installation based on the Renaissance choral music "Spem in alium nunquam habui" by Thomas Tallis (1514-1585). Forty audio speakers play different voices separately recorded so that music is perceived differently while moving along the oval space delimited by the acustic equipment of the installation. The listener perceives music as a spatial construction of overlapping parts and only when standing in the middle of the room the choral melody can be heard  as a whole.
The french duo Berger & Berger realized "ça va", a prefabricated cinema for an audience of 80 people in the Arsenale. The temporary structure stands as an architectural object which is completely autonomous since it defines a inner spatial condition (in this case the project plays with acoustic and visual effects typical of theatre design)  and modify its outer context at the same time. Imposing itself as a "pure presence" architecture is turned into a solid fictional object that is not just as an interface between the user and the requested performance but it contributes to the creation of a singular spatial (narrative/fictional) experience.

There are some other interesting exhibitions at Arsenale.
Toyo Ito's project for Taichung  Metropolitan Opera House (currently under construction, so... yes, it is arguable that everybody already knew about this project) is exhibited with a rich display of material (drawings, pictures and prototypes of formal and structural studies) and a giant model.

Amateur Architecture Studio from China have realized a light timber structure with the same structural behavior of a dome but gently standing but without a base that firmly anchors it to the ground. The structure is thought to be assembled easily by people who don't have necessarily any specific architectural knowledge (architecture is built by "amateurs") and is an attempt to bring traditional craft skills (an homage to chinese vernacular building tradition) back in contemporary architecture with new results in terms of form and design process.

 Among national participations at Arsenale is worth mentioning Kingdom of Bahrein - Reclaim (winner of best national participation); Macedonia - Learning Architecture

  Argentina - Meeting Places: recent argentine works 1983 (Democracy comeback) - 2010 (Bicentenary)

Last but not least, the marvellous Croatian Floating Pavillion. Documentation about the design and construction process is printed on cargo boxes and displayed inside the exhibition space of the Arsenale assigned to Croatia. The project is very well documented on the web with a booklet, pictures and videos at: http://www.pavilion.hr/about.html