History of the Architecture Biennale in Venice
4 min readNo present without a past
With only 16 editions, much younger than the Art Biennale, the Architecture Biennale fascinates visitors with a long, complex history full of highs and lows. Only in 1991 was it completely detached from the Art Biennale and established as an exhibition in its own right and with its own time schedule. Since then, it has been held across the entire Arsenale, at the national pavilions and the central pavilion in the Giardini.
The architect as a seismograph
The list of curators for the main exhibitions of the past reads like a random cross-section of the most recent decades of architectural history: Paolo Portoghesi (1980 & 1982), Aldo Rossi (1985 & 1986), Francesco Dal Co (1991), Hans Hollein (1996), Massimiliano Fuksas (2000), Deyan Sudjic (2002), Kurt W. Forster (2004), Richard Burdett (2006), Aaron Bet- sky (2008), Kazuyo Sejima (2010), David Chipperfield (2012), Rem Koolhaas (2014), Alejandro Aravena (2016) and this year Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects.
Theme for 2018: Freespace
The curators are Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. They titled the 16th International Architecture Exhibition Freespace, and explained their choice with the following words:
The British Pavilion
At the 5th Architecture Biennale in 1990, the national pavilions in the Giardini were used for the first time to house exhibits. Since then, we can look back on an impressive diversity of themes and settings:
- 1991 Sir Norman Foster, Nicholas Grimshaw, Michael Hopkins, John Outram, Sir Richard Rogers, James Stirling and Michael Wilford: „British Architecture Today: Six Protagonists“
- 1996 Professor Michael Brawn: „The Architecture of Information“
- 2000 Alsop & Stormer, Nigel Coates & Doug Branson, David Chipperfield and Zaha Hadid: „City Visionaries“
- 2002 Fashid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera Polo: „Foreign Office Architects (FOA)“
- 2004 Peter Cook: „Nine Positions“
- 2006 Jeremy Till: „Echo/City – An Urban Register“
- 2008 Ellis Woodman: „Home/Away“
- 2010 muf architecture: „Villa Frankenstein“
- 2012 Vanessa Norwood and Vicky Richardson: „Venice Takeaway“
- 2014 Sam Jacob and Wouter Vanstiphout: „A Clockwork Jerusalem“
- 2016 Shumi Bose, Jack Self and Finn Williams: „Home Economics“
- 2018 Caruso St John and Marcus Taylor: „Islands“
The British Pavilion 2018: Islands
Caruso St John Architects and artist Marcus Taylor have been selected as the curatorial team for the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018. Their concept engages with current political debates and responds to the theme of Freespace.
