Finally explained - What are architecture biennials for?
An architecture biennial is not only a meeting point for the world of architects, but also a market place for ideas. Here the protagonists of the scene show what our home and life could look like in the future.
The Venice Architecture Biennale should have opened these days. But like the first opening date in May, this date was also canceled due to Corona. The world's largest meeting of planners and those interested in architecture has been postponed until next year. This causes a lot of unrest among the now quite large number of architecture festivals, which can be measured against Venice and have to adjust their scheduling accordingly, even if they pursue completely different concerns.
This even applies to Sao Paulo in Brazil, which has now grown into competition from South America. The main focus here is on new issues such as the consequences of colonialism and the long dictatorship, exploitation or the lack of social housing. In Brazil there is less star cult than in Venice, but more the social debate. Sao Paulo has now announced that the current art biennial will be extended until the end of 2021, thus restoring the traditional rhythm. Background: As in Venice, the Architecture Biennale in Brazil grew out of the art event, but from the outset it was more oriented towards competition and national competition.
For the smaller architecture festivals in Chicago, Rotterdam or Berlin, this rhythm hardly played a role apart from the detail of the date on which the opening was scheduled. In each case, one looks predominantly at one's own city, deals with the consequences of new traffic systems or with gentrification.
Things are different in Lisbon, Oslo or Tallinn, where attempts are made to get between the two big biennials on a three-year cycle and to explore new topics such as language as a means of architecture or the proximity of design and architecture, and to keep a clear view across national and regional borders.
It remains to be seen whether the festival in Shenzhen in southern China, which is primarily dedicated to urban development, can survive the undisguised takeover of power by the Communist Party in neighboring Hong Kong. This festival has already suffered from the restriction on the freedom of debate that is considered a normal means of maintaining power for authoritarian systems, but which prevents a fruitful debate about the right paths to the built future. And this dispute will in all probability be fierce at the next Architecture Biennale in Venice, announced for May 2021. In Corona times, we are experiencing like never before since the Second World War, how important a functioning, fact-oriented state apparatus, general health care, broad unemployment insurance,
