Category: Blog

Venice Biennale part 2, exhibition laboratories

Inside the 26 national pavilions of the Giardini, some of the most interesting exhibitions evolve as temporal research during the six months of the Architecture Biennale. The pavilions of Russia and Israel remain closed, as blank reminders of the real geopolitical crisis and destruction. The beautiful Venezuela pavilion also remains closed, due to the country’s difficult political situation.

Carlo Ratti’s overarching curatorial theme is an invitation for exploring the potential of human intelligence and action against the climate crisis. As he points out, architecture has always been the ultimate expression of human invention and engineering, the architecture of Venice being an enduring example of audacious urban design. Although projects expand over various thematics, there is an emphasis on ideas and approaches for a better use of materials and technological inventions for improved and alternative construction systems. These exhibition laboratories are great examples of imaginative approaches, in which the symbiosis of nature and technology forms new kinds of milieus, connections and environments.

Belgian Pavillion, Venice Biennale 2025 — ‘Building Biospheres’, Belgium Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2025 , photo @Marianna Wahlsten

At the Belgian Pavilion landscape architect Bas Smets, in collaboration with neuroscientist Stefano Mancuso, has created an indoor exhibition garden with over 200 subtropical plants. Although exotic plants have been in conservatories and winter gardens for centuries, this garden uses contemporary technology for monitoring the plants responses to their environment, for optimising the artificial conditions of this man-made microclimate. Bas Smets is known for prestigious landscaping projects, such as the urban transformation around the restored Notre Dame in Paris. At the Biennale he has introduced a laboratory for better understanding how plants will respond and behave in this monitored space, designed for amplifying the atmospheric effects they produce for improved climatic conditions. It is a calming oasis, offering also a glimpse into the history of indoor gardens and greenhouses. In practice Bas Smet’s project extends the modernist premiss of control and progress underpinned by human intelligence.

Nordic Countries Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2025 — Nordic Countries Pavilion, Giardini, photo @Marianna Wahlsten

The technological dimension of architecture is also a subject of critique at the Biennale. At the pavilion of Nordic Countries, the exhibition titled Industry Muscle, curated by Finnish architect Kaisa Karvinen looks at the oppressive and authoritative effects in architectural design through a series of performances and installations showcased inside the large open-plan pavilion, deconstructing the modernist myth of progress, which is at heart of the design of the pavilion itself, designed by Sverre Fehn. It is an argument against the categorical production of space in modernist architecture, which the exhibition explores as a gendered bodily experience. The rationalism of the modernist organisation of space is presented as harsh and constraining, calling perhaps for an idea of a more diverse, sensorial and fluid public space, although the proposed alternatives remain enigmatic…

‘Build of Site’ at Danish Pavilion, Giardini, photo @Marianna Wahlsten

One of the most real and direct material presentations of the Biennale must be the project at the Danish Pavilion, curated by Søren Pihlmann, an architect specialising in restoration. The building is undergoing full renovation on a massive scale, and the curatorial project explores the potential of recycling and reusing all the existing materials, which are carefully laid out for the exhibition inside the pavilion. For anyone interested in building materials it is a real delight, even just for witnessing the range of textures and substances extracted from the building site. But more importantly, Pihlmann’s project exemplifies an imaginative approach for the reuse of materials, which will hopefully become an ongoing inspiration for architectural practices everywhere. I saw Danish architect Bjarke Ingels exploring with enthusiasm the techniques Pihlmann has introduced to the project, so hoping future projects by BIG will also be focusing on new ways for recycling existing materials. Pihlmann says the exhibition has forced him to think differently, taking the restoration as a laboratory, open to constant public observation: “For creative people it’s always great when you have narrow boundaries to work with,” he says. As an ongoing testing ground, it opens a window to future approaches and simultaneously an archaeological viewpoint into the context of the Giardini, which is very inspiring.

Spain Pavillion, Giardini, photo @Marianna Wahlsten

At the Spanish Pavilion, a similar theme around the use of materials is presented in a more traditional exhibition format with a wider scope, curated by Spanish architects Roe Salgueiro Barrio and Manuel Bouzas, titled Internalities. While the Danish exhibition played with the rough reality of material presence, the Spanish curatorial team brings forth the potential of beauty of naturally produced local resources and recycled materials in compelling displays. The central hall presents sixteen current architectural projects from different regions of Spain, selected from an open call. Designed around a curatorial idea to emphasise the balancing act in the use and production of materials, the exhibition evokes the sensorial quality combined with the ecological ambition to stick with locally sourced materials. The qualities of various types of stones as well as earth used in the production of traditional construction materials is brought out and juxtaposed with new approaches, such as ‘urban mining’. Showcasing these characteristics and methods to be understood and appreciated instead of extracting new materials, the curators call for legal incentives to support and advocate more creative approaches and a renaissance in material culture.

'Picoplanktonics' at Canada Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2025, photo @Marianna Wahlsten — Canada Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2025, photo @Marianna Wahlsten

As a showcase for ecological material production, the project at the Canadian Pavilion feels much more abstract, like a futuristic science fiction laboratory. The exhibition titled Picoplanktonics looks at a biological process, which is shown to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, based on the special feature discovered in marine cyanobacteria Picoplankton. It is an organic substance, now growing on robotically manufactured structures during the exhibition. In this environmental experiment for improved atmospheric oxygen levels, living organisms are simultaneously strengthening the structures on which they grow. The atmosphere inside the pavilion does indeed feel unusual, as if dense with oxygen. This fascinating biological process, in which digital technologies are part of the organic fabrication, is the invention of a research team at ETH Zurich, led by designer and architect Andrea Shin Ling.

Another kind of immersive material experience can be found at the Serbian Pavilion, curated by architect Slobodan Jovic. Recalling late 1960s conceptual artworks, which sought to replace harsh industrial materials with more fluid and organic forms, this project titled Unraveling: New Spaces is designed as a kinetic artwork with digital programming. As the cloud-like hanging structure knitted of wool is being unravelled, it will continue altering and diminishing its form during the six-month period of the Biennale. Relying on an algorithmic design, this process will bring the yarn back to its original state. Happening in time and space, this project evokes Ratti’s theme in multiple ways, bringing together craft and technology, ultimately as a digital process that will undo the physical part of the exhibition, leaving the pavilion empty.

Marianna Wahlsten

[mashshare]

Venice Biennale part 1, full-on at Corderie dell’Arsenale

By Marianna Wahlsten

While the Biennale has received critical comments for being chaotic and providing too much content, it is simultaneously a great reflection on current global concerns and tendencies. Lead by Italian architect and engineer Carlo Ratti, the 2025 Biennale, titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective, aims to break some boundaries, exploring the potential for technological solutions for saving the planet. Professor at the MIT in United States, as well as running his own global design firm, Ratti is passionate about the latest discoveries in tech for architecture. To the point, where some believe, his enthusiasm seems to overrule any aesthetic and social sensibilities. However, without preaching, Ratti’s curatorial work brings up some controversies.

Venice Biennale 2025, Arsenale, @Marianna Wahlsten — Entrance at the Corderie dell’Arsenale, start of the exhibition, @ Marianna Wahlsten

The main exhibition takes place at the gigantic Corderie dell’Arsenale shipyard. It is one of the greatest exhibition spaces in the world and the entry sets the underlying tone for this incredibly varied showcase for ideas and approaches in contemporary architectural culture. This year there are over 300 projects exhibited, chosen from an open call.

The first project launches the narrative, as you are immersed in the dystopian malfunction of the ‘machine-to-live-in’. This room represents a strange sense of realism – the uncanny – while deconstructing the technological premises of Modernism. Like a cinematic set, it shows the paradox of the modern air-con systems, which keep pushing out and generating more heat outside. The scene recalls the iconic artwork by British artist Richard Wilson, in which the viewer is perplexed by reflective surfaces and the smell of gasoline. While in here, it’s the heat, an instant reminder of the contemporary condition of crisis.

Walking through the 700 meters long shipyard, it is difficult to study each participating project. As an extreme alternative Ratti suggests the possibility of running through it in 15 minutes, to get a speedy overview in the style of the scene in the Godard movie shot at the Louvre. Or if you really want to get familiar with each exhibited project, it could take a whole week Ratti admits. The space is filled with installations showcasing experimental projects with materials and digital tools, for example the installation by Kengo Kuma Architects, made of tree trunks, collected on the landscape in Italy after a storm, held together with 3D printed supports. Apart from the AI-based design method on which the components were assembled, it doesn’t seem to have any direct significance for architectural design. It is rather like a poetic evocation of natural forces, technological culture, raw materiality, and hope for healing.

Kengo Kuma Architects, Venice Biennale 2025 — Close-up detail of installation by Kengo Kuma Architects @ Marianna Wahlsten

There are several exhibited projects that borrow the language of conceptual art, which is perhaps the way ideas are fused today and how influences circulate across art, architecture and design as part of a wider cross-cultural discourse. There are also lots of beeping robots and other sounds recalling the universal technological condition that underpins our daily moves and orchestrates what we can do. Although there were some complaints about the chaotic nature that these machines induced, robots are part of the digital workflow in construction industry, which couldn’t be overlooked at the Biennale. And the fact that short introductory texts for each exhibited project were created with AI was a great help and a showcase for the use of AI in organising information. It would be interesting to know if any of the curators had objected to this… In any case it was a way for providing a unified and neutral summary for each project, always helpful.

Towards the latter half of the Arsenale exhibition, after crossing through the mix of projects on all scales, ‘Material Palimpsest’ at the Moroccan Pavilion delights through its simplicity. The sensorial aspect of the material presence stands out against the overload of tech. Curated by Atelier BE, the exhibition is a showcase for Moroccan traditions of using earth as material for construction, combined for more precision with the use of digital software. Curators Khalil Morad El Ghilali & El-Mehdi Belyasmine explain that digital tools are used in their practice for mapping, modelling and simulating traditional techniques for adopting them for contemporary situations. Parametric modelling supports prototyping of more complex elements while using local materials. They strongly believe in the hybridisation of design processes, combining low tech approaches with the precision offered by new technologies, “It’s not an opposition, but a fertile dialogue”, they say.

Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, Moroccan Pavilion, Material Palimpsest — Detail from the exhibition ‘Materiae Palimpsest’, Moroccan Pavilion @ Marianna Wahlsten

Awarded the Golden Lion for the best pavilion, one of the last exhibited projects at the Arsenale is titled ‘Heatwave’ at the Bahrain Pavilion, which makes for the perfect ending in Ratti’s curatorial narrative. The space is furnished with giant sand-filled cushions for seating – much appreciated after coming through the exhaustive amount of mind-blowing information. Calming by its minimalist presentation, which initially doesn’t give much away. In total contrast to the estrangement of the effects of failed technology showcased at the very first space at the start of the Arsenale show, this gallery has been equipped by a system for air-conditioning, based on a natural mechanism drawing cooling air from the ground, designed for outside cooling to ease working conditions under extreme heat. The system seems mysterious, but the experience brings pleasure and hope as a positive outcome through its elegant simplicity.

Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, Arsenale — A new form for transport on the lagoon: pier and gateway designed by Norman Foster in collaboration with Porche @ Marianna Wahlsten

Outside after the far exit of the shipyard, ending on a high note celebrating technological design, the project created by Norman Foster with Porche brings a sense of shimmering fun after the intensely animated stroll through the Corderie dell’Arsenale galleries. On the quay side a gateway leads onto a jetty where rides can be taken over the water with bikes gliding smoothly over the lagoon, exemplifying the high-tech aesthetics of Fosters practice. The pier is covered with lightweight pieces of aluminium moving in the wind, providing shade, while sustaining cooling airflow through the gateway. Foster’s engineering supports this new transport mode, which, who knows, could provide a new perspective for exploring Venice in the future.

[mashshare]

Serpentine Pavilion by Minsuk Cho

In recent years the emphasis of the Serpentine Summer Pavilion design has been increasingly focused on ecological thinking, sustainable materials and flexible forms. The 2024 pavilion by South Korean architect Minsuk Cho, designed mostly in locally sourced timber, exemplifies this trend. The open-plan form allows for a creative approach in how space is used and divided. It’s a delightful formal exploration, which echoes in poetic ways the previous pavilions.

If you missed visiting the pavilion, here you can explore the space through this virtual tour, provided by archi.tours

360 tour made by Nikilesh Haval

Text by Marianna Wahlsten

[mashshare]

Bijoy Jain, the power of materials

‘The breath of an architect’, Fondation Cartier, Paris, 9.12.2023-21.4.2024.

As founder of Studio Mumbai, Indian architect Bijoy Jain works with his team at the intersection of art, craft, architecture and design. His artisan-like method is well-known to be a slow working process, challenging the demands of technological production, where robotics and AI have been adopted for increased efficiency. Bijoy Jain collaborates with local craftsmen, exploring the potential and true spirit embedded in different materials. The exhibition at Fondation Cartier in Paris aims to show the interconnections between art and philosophy underpinning the Studio Mubai practice.

Chris Dercon, the new director of Fondation Cartier, links Bijoy Jain’s production to a trajectory of Indian design and architecture that was inspired by Charles and Ray Eames’ The India Report. The Eameses were invited by the Indian government in 1958 to find out how to strengthen the country’s craft-based traditions and small-scale industries. The report led to the establishment of the National Institute of Design (NID), which Dercon sees as a turning point.

Studio Mumbai, Bijoy Jain, Fondation Cartier, photo ©Marianna Wahlsten — Seats carved from stone inside the large structure made of bamboo strips tied together with string at Fondation Cartier, photo ©Marianna Wahlsten

Bijoy Jain has received many awards, for example the Alvar Aalto Medal in 2020. His interest towards traditional craftsmanship is expressed through a simplicity and fragility in the handling of materials showcased in the exhibition space designed by Jean Nouvel. Completed in 1991 the Fondation Cartier is one of Paris’ best-known contemporary art exhibition spaces. It is filled with objects in total contrats to the High-Tech style of the building. Sculptures carved in stone are shaped into benches and chairs, while bamboo woven structures are knotted together with twine to form a whole. The lightweight seats, made of silk thread wound around the wood, contain a structural poetry, as does the large abstract geometric pattern inscribed with red pigment on limestone, representing the flow of water.

The idea of ‘breath’ in this exhibition’s theme could be understood as in Monism, as the metaphysical dimension that unites mind and matter as one essence. For Bijoy Jain this idea conveys a sense of hope, despite the current state of the world. Although Jain’s architectural studies and early career took place in the United States, his work is strongly informed by Asian spiritual experience and a mystical connection with nature, where water, air and light are seen as the elements of architecture.

As a building, Jean Nouvel’s gallery concept has links with Mies van der Rohe’s Neues Nationagalerie in Berlin. In both, the walls are all glass and offer no hanging space. On the other hand, the connection to the surrounding garden is an essential element and a fine example of the modernist ideal of the outdoor-indoor connection. Nouvel’s architecture is dominant and perhaps Bijoy Jain’s material sensibility cannot be fully appreciated against Nouvel’s heavy steel structures. This, of course, results from different choices in the presentation, curation and design of the exhibition. And while Studio Mumbai’s artworks are in a fascinating way, the antithesis of Nouvel’s architectural language, on some level the tension between the two does not result in a synthesis. As a spatial experience, the massive steel columns somehow obstruckt the link to Studio Mumbai’s subtle production, which remains a bit flat.

At the initiative of chief curator Hervé Chandès, the exhibition also includes works by artists Hu Liu and Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye, who share Bijoy Jain’s interest in the spiritual dimension of materials. However, as the display contains very little explanation of the origins or purposes of Jain’s production, these other works seem to diminish the strength of the exhibition. Perhaps Studio Mumbai’s works should have been given more room to ‘breathe’, in order to show their conceptual links?

Studio Mumbai’s architecture has also attracted some criticism, because their artisanal approach resulting in sought-after and expensive design objects could be seen as elitist in the context of India’s housing crisis. Indeed, a sense of ‘conscious luxury’ characterises Studio Mumbai’s work, but on the other hand, their design approach should be understood as an example that elevates the value of craftsmanship. Rather than direct action, Bijoy Jain’s work conveys spiritual convictions such as honesty in the use of materials, which is inspiring in itself, and an interest in the existential forms of one’s own country. This is well illustrated in the documentary ‘The Sense of Tuning’ filmed for the exhibition by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine.

[mashshare]

Serpentine Pavilion by Lina Ghotmet – in panoramic 360 views

This year the Serpentine Summer Pavilion is a wooden structure, inspired by Mediterranean and African architecture. Designed by Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh the building is featured here in 360 panoramic views. Ghotmeh envisioned the space as a meeting point around a large circular table in the heart of London in the historic setting in Kensington Gardens.

Serpentine Pavilion 2023, architect Lina Ghotmeh, photo Danica O. Kus — Architect Lina Ghotmeh in front of the 2023 Pavilion, photo Danica O. Kus

Panoramic tour by Nikhilesh Haval

Text: Marianna Wahlsten

[mashshare]

The future according to Norman Foster, a retrospective at Centre Pompidou

Exhibition open until 7th of August –

Marianna Wahlsten –

While planning the exhibition, chief curator Frédéric Migayrou worked very closely with Norman Foster, who was ultimately in charge of the over-arching concept. His meticulous attention to detail shows throughout. It’s the first ever show on the top floor galleries of the Pompidou Centre dedicated to architecture, which brings a special kind of aura to the contents on display. Exploring the most important projects and sources of inspiration, it’s a showcase for key ideas behind the Pritzker-prize-winning architect’s creative process.

Although Foster does not entirely approve of the concept ‘High Tech’ architecture in relation to his own approach, he is recognised as the leading architect of that movement. In the press conference I asked what is it that he disliked about the High Tech definition, and he explained that he mainly objects the stylistic association with glass and steel, and clearly wants to bring attention beyond that to other aspects in his large and hugely influential body of work. However, the formal language behind the buildings designed by Foster + Partners is a culmination of ideas and approaches that have been enabled by technological innovation, and the fascination towards the technological reality of objects. In Foster’s designs key principles of Modernism have been appropriated and translated in response to contemporary scientific developments and material innovations.

Chief curator Frédéric Migayrou and Norman Foster at press conference at Centre Pompidou, where the 88 years old architect was questioned about the ecological impact of his urban strategy. ©Marianna Walsten

If architecture exhibitions can sometimes seem dry and boring (as Jacques Herzog has famously commented), in this one the abundance of material and different juxtapositions of objects is enlightening. Entering the first gallery we are immediately confronted with what lies at the heart of Foster’s creative method: drawing and sketching. The walls are covered by material retrieved from his enormous archive, showing a development in Foster’s research process spanning six decades. In the middle there is a long vitrine, containing over 200 spreads from his A-4 sketchbooks. Starting from 1975, observations and thoughts are recorded in these books, of which there are over 2000, according to Migayrou. The continuity of this material is impressive.

In the next gallery projects are represented through framed drawings and renderings, videos and architecture models, as well carefully constructed 3-D dioramas, which are rarely seen in architecture exhibitions. They certainly clarify meanings, adding a level of information to explain some of the formal connections for the general public. Some of the architecture models have been created especially for this exhibition. Through their scale and detailing, the development of Foster’s formal language can be observed and studied.

A project from the 1970s of machine-like pavilions, designed to be set in a forest without disturbing the landscape, as explained through the diorama and sketches

Objects by artists and architects, who have inspired Foster over the years are scattered in the middle of the gallery amongs his own architectural works. Some of them are from Foster’s private collection, like the restored vintage automobile owned by Le Corbusier. Richard Buckmister Fuller’s Dymaxion car, and a stripped metal body of a Mercedez-Benz 300 SL model, are reminders of Foster’s obsession with dynamic technical systems and structures. Artworks by Umberto Boccioni, Constantin Brancusi and Ai Weiwei illustrate formal inspirations.

From Foster’s private collection, the vintage automobile, that once belonged to Le Corbusier, carefully restored, next to the Dymaxion car by Buckminster Fuller

There are seven main themes in the exhibition. The overarching idea is Foster’s belief that the climate crisis can be resolved through technological research. ‘Vertical Cities’ is one of the themes and a guiding idea of Foster’s urban strategy, where the high-rise building is seen as ‘one the best inventions of the modern era’. It’s an idea in line with Modernist principles, and which Foster believes is also the most ecological solution in dense urban environments. He believes that each crisis will generate new urban forms and thus make the city more resilient. “I’m not complacent. I share the concern about rising sea levels and global warming. We are pursuing strategies for renewable energy, and huge strides have been made”, Foster argues.

Foster’s ideological models are founded on, and still underpinned, by 1960’s optimism, the ‘big acceleration’ of technological revolution. As a young architect in the United States Foster worked on experimental projetcs at Buckminster Fuller’s office, which shaped the recent graduate’s thinking, as well as the Californian Case Study houses program, designed out of simple, inexpensive elements. Other influential figures in Foster’s early years were Louis Kahn, Christopher Alexander, and his teachers from Yale Paul Rudoplh and Serge Chermayeff.

As a culmination of Foster’s futuristic aspirations, the exhibition introduces some of the projects developed in collaboration with NASA, in which architecture moves to outer space. Designs for stations on the Moon and on Mars are part of an architectural strategy, demonstrating how Foster + Partners continues to look forward, always motivated by expanding what is possible technologically. In order to find ecological solutions, the starchitect strongly believes that technology will eventually save the planet.

Centre Pompidou

[mashshare]