Nobal Glomad

Thanks to an enticing ‘you know you want to do it’ episode of Monocle Magazine‘s Design Podcast in early September, I managed to squeeze the Italian itinerary to include attending ‘La Biennale 2010‘ in Venezia. The festival encapsulates a carefully curated collection of art, architecture, cinema, dance, music and theatre, focusing on promoting new artistic trends and organising contemporary events on an international scale.

People in Architecture’ which is spread across two major venues and curated by renouned Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima. For this year’s Biennale she has tried to minimise creative ego interfering with the purity of conceptual development, shifting the industry focus from ‘look at us in our all black’ to what is possible through evolved and more puritan thinking, expressing living in new forms without boundaries. She wants focus to be on how space relates to people, helping people relate to themselves. This may all sound highly cerebral, but with her Japanese aesthetic and desire for the simplification of expression, it has created a space where some truly innovative formative thought thrives and interacts with the audience.

So early-ish on day two of my Venetian escapade, after navigating the cruise ship dumped-for-a-day crowd that filled Piazza San Marco I continued on to Venezia Giardini, the first major venue with 29 of the 42 country pavilions… a lot to cover in one day. From these, the stand out garden accessed exhibitions included:

Natural Architecture – Czech and Slovak Republic
On approach this installation literally explodes into the surrounding trees, with a controlled interior timber filled environment expanding freely on some mind altered LSD trip from the entrance. The premise for key team designer Martin Rajnis is that architecture is in crisis and our buildings are struggling to satisfy people. He is so focused on making a change that he recently closed his successful studio after 30 years of acclaimed project work. Considerable travel in third and forth level nations left him with a need to create differently, turning to nature for refreshed inspiration in terms of structure, form, colour, system and chance.

It is a wonderfully welcoming space. The smell of wood, the warmth of filtered mirrored reflection, a sense of endless space and natural light all brought together soothing your senses.

Hylozoic Ground – Canada
Had it not been for some rather smartly kerned brushed aluminium letters spelling an identifying ‘Canada’, the little red brick pavilion with deeply tinted windows, and no sign of life, could easily be mistaken for a disused  1980′s public toilet block. I honestly thought Canada had closed shop for 2010.

Emerging post-visit architectural inspirees proved otherwise. I soon discovered a hidden entrance revealing the blackened, silent space entitled Hylozoic Ground.

Hylozoism is the ancient philosophical belief that all matter has life, and that life is inseparable from matter. Hylozoic Ground is an environment that entices individual observation and interaction. Thousands of plastic, metallic, wire and glass organically shaped objects interlink to create a living, feeling environment that seems to breathe, surrounding you in artificially intelligent movement, form, light, darkness, sound and silence.

Now and When – Australia
I did my best to remove any ‘I still call Australia… home’ bias from influencing my support for my mother country’s offering.

First impressions? The entrance to the pavilion appeared second-rate and low on budget, resembling more the outer shell of some pop-up summer club in Ibiza than anything a bunch of leading architects with considerable experience would produce. Their approach inside the exhibition, the meat in the sandwich though I found to be refreshingly unique and inspiring. Instead of models, text panels, installations or staging they turned to the latest innovations in 3D projection technology.

The exhibition is presented in 2 parts: ‘Now’ is a beautifully shot arial 3D photographic study of current Australian urbanisation on the east coast contrasted against the mammoth ship-sized mining operations in the west. All the cityscapes were night-shot and Sydney in particular looked world stage worthy. ‘When’ is shaped by the ideas of 12 winning architects ideas’ realised in a moving 3D environment… without any must be practical boundaries. They oscillate in approach from possibilities in urban planning to pure uncontrolled fantasy. It’s a cutting edge Fifth Element/Avatar mash-up.

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As well as the pavilion’d Giardini, there are several solo and team projects on display at Arsenale, the second major festival venue. Noteable projects here included:

Cloudscapes – Transsolar and Tetsuo Kondo Architects
Through closed glass doors can be seen perhaps a foggy Venetian morning scene. All around are perfect blue skies and midday sunshine… you’re inside a massive artificial environment enclosed in this high ceiling’d historic Arsenale warehouse. The German climate engineering firm’s installation is designed like a joy-flight, lifting you from the ground level to 30,000ft above the clouds, then back down again in a seamless platformed steel loop. It is a wonderful child-like experience to watch people interact with this manufactured playground. Beautiful.

If Buildings Could Talk – Wim Wenders
I’ll admit I’m a self-professed 3D junkie. The German all rounder’s (director, author, and photographer) piece is a day in the life of the Rolex Learning Center in Switzerland. The camera takes us on a fluid discovery inside and out of this liquid, seamless space. The journey begins at first light, flows to peak of midday and ends with the desertion of life and cleaners returning the space to it’s initialised state. People zip in and out of screen in retro-esque electric cars, interacting in public and private glass booths, pausing to think, breathe, play, talk and listen. It is a wonderfully meditative endless visual experience of buildings speaking to us.

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It is important to invest more of our potential into regular global gatherings of free flowing, ego-reduced consciousness. Too often we get caught up in our day-to-day existence and think perhaps reading our favourite magazine, or surfing a blog will be enough to expand ideas and thought. It’s not. As human beings we need challenge, collaboration and interaction, returning to our tribal non-wi fi’d past. It’s time to re-crave the physical senses of touch, talk, taste, smell and see.

Biennale is damn good reason to push yourself to visit a remarkable destination worth experiencing at least twice in your life. It offers the perfect environment for coming out and proud of your I-always-wanted-to-be-an-architect closet. Pack your bags, your designer frames and the digital SLR, and I’ll see you in 2012 for a post-day conversational sunset Blini at Harry’s Bar.