The Venice Biennale, generally seen as the world’s most prominent architectural platform, has announced its winners at long last.
David Chipperfield’s theme, Common Ground, brought forth ideas from architectural firms and design teams from across the globe that can be described as nothing short of spectacular.
“The emphasis of the 2012 Biennale is on what we have in common,” Chipperfield said of his theme. “Above all, the ambition of Common Ground is to reassert the existence of an architectural culture, made up not just of singular talents but a rich continuity of diverse ideas united in a common history, common ambitions, common predicaments and ideals. In architecture everything begins with the ground.”
In interpreting this theme, Canadian firm 456796 Architects collaborated with University of Manitoba instructor Jae-Sung Chon to develop Migrating Landscapes, which focused on Canada’s identity as a nation built by immigrants, as well as the effects of globalization on a city’s built story.
“The Biennale’s theme of common ground resonates with migrating landscapes, which questions socio-political borders, the migration of people and ideas, and, at its core, exposes attitudes we all hold of others, consciously or unconsciously,” said the architects. “MLO has designed a wooden exhibition infrastructure that acts as a conceptual landscape onto which each architectural dwelling is settled, with each model representing an act of first im/migration.”
Despite the thought that went into it, Canada’s entry failed to place. Instead, the Golden Lion for best National Presentation going to Japan, with architects Kumiko Inui, Sou Fujimoto, Akihisa Hirata and photographer Naoya Hatakeyama taking top honours for a pavilion dubbed ‘Architecture possible here? Home-for-All’.
The pavilion is centered on a design rehabilitation project for those who lost their homes in the 2011 tsunami. Through a mix of photographs and models placed strategically around the room, the architects tell a story of redevelopment and rejuvenation, offering designs that providing safety and protection to those who were rendered homeless by the tsunami.
The highly personal nature of the entry moved jury members, who commented on the very sensitive and heartfelt nature of the project.
“The presentation and the storytelling in the Pavilion are exceptional and highly accessible to a broad audience,” the jury said, adding that they were “impressed with the humanity of this project.”
Other major winners included Urban – Think Tank with members Alfredo Brillembourg, Hubert Klumpne and Justin McGuirk taking the Golden Lion for Best Project of the Common Ground Exhibition, Grafton Architects earning the Silver Lion for a promising practice of the International Exhibition and a special mention going to Poland, the USA, Russia and Cino Zucchi.
