British Pavilion at 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale set to "amplify perspectives that have been previously overlooked"

The British Council has announced that the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023 will be curated by Jayden Ali, Meneesha Kellay Joseph Henry and Sumitra Upham.

Founding director of architecture studio JA Projects Ali, Victoria and Albert Museum curator Kellay, Sound Advice co-founder Henry and Crafts Council head of public programmes Upham will curate an exhibition that explores the architecture of the British diaspora through a pre-colonial lens.

Top: Ali, Kellay, Henry and Upham (from left to right) will curate the British Pavilion (above) in 2023

"Our exhibition will explore architecture of the diaspora through a pre-colonial lens, celebrating the spectrum of architectural philosophies, making practices and material knowledge within those communities," said the curation team.

"Foregrounding their currency at a time of growing social polarisation and ecological degradation, we intend to amplify voices and perspectives that have been previously overlooked in British architecture."

Pavilion "will readdress the architectural canon"

The group will curate the exhibition for the 2023 biennale occupying the British Pavilion – a building in the Giardini built in 1909 which evokes an Italian-style English country house.

They will collaborate with numerous architects and reseachers to create an exhibition that represents many voices. Currently, the exhibition is untitled.

"Our pavilion will readdress the architectural canon through a joyful celebration of pluralism," added the curation team.

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The Venice Architecture Biennale is the most significant global architecture event. Earlier this year Scottish-Ghanaian architect and academic Lesley Lokko was named as its first Black curator.

Last year's British Pavilion was curated by London studio Unscene Architecture, which created an interactive exhibition called The Garden of Privatised Delights.

In 2018 architecture studio Caruso St John and artist Marcus Taylor installed a huge platform on top of the pavilion, while the 2016 pavilion was named Home Economics and curated by Jack Self, Shumi Bose and Finn Williams.

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The Living creates "probiotic" architectural pavilion that supports living microbes

New York studio The Living developed a pavilion for the Venice Architecture Biennale to demonstrate how organic materials with microbial properties could be used in architecture to help create healthier environments for humans.

The Living was invited by Biennale curator Hashim Sarkis to create the Alive pavilion for an exhibit titled Among Diverse Beings, which is presented at the city's Arsenale venue. The installation has been shortlisted in the small building category of Dezeen Awards 2021.

The Living constructed the pavilion using microbial materials

The pavilion represents an evolution of ongoing research by The Living, which has worked with biologists and academics to explore the potential of multi-species architecture and how best to harness the microbes that surround us all the time.

According to The Living founder and principal David Benjamin, advances in biological technologies such as bio-computing, bio-sensing and bio-fabricating offer new opportunities for using living organisms in architecture.

The Alive pavilion displayed at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale

The exhibition at the Arsenale examines the potential for creating an "urban microbiome" that would see cities evolve to become more healthy and sustainable by employing bio-receptive materials in their construction.

"As a society, we are increasingly aware of how a good gut microbiome promotes individual health," Benjamin told Dezeen, "and in a similar way, it is now clear that a good urban microbiome promotes public health."

"This means that instead of creating architecture and spaces that are sterile and antibiotic, we should develop environments that are alive and probiotic."

The structure was built as part of The Living's ongoing research project into biomaterials

Bio-receptive materials trap and host microorganisms in surfaces containing pockets with different temperatures, moisture levels, air flow and nutrients. These organic, living materials support colonies of microbes that in turn promote the health of people in their vicinity.

The Alive installation is made from dried fibres of luffa – an inexpensive, renewable and fast-growing vegetable that grows on vines in tropical and subtropical regions.

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Luffa's fibrous surfaces form a strong and organic material that is ideally suited to hosting diverse microbes and could be easily adapted to form panelling products or partitions for use in architectural projects.

"The project is a prototype for architecture of the future, but at the same time it is relevant to current buildings," Benjamin suggested.

"[Luffa] can be easily adapted into many environments like today's offices and restaurants, with partition walls and acoustic tiled ceilings, or tomorrow’s buildings with microbial facades that remove pathogens from the air."

The material can be used across different architectural interventions

The pavilion's design promotes the architectural possibilities of luffa and other probiotic materials while also creating spaces that allow different levels of light and air flow.

Following the conclusion of the Biennale in November 2021, the prototype will be deconstructed and used for several ongoing experiments. One section will be returned to New York City and analysed to assess how microbes grow in different conditions.

The pavilion was made using luffa fibres

Researchers and previous collaborators Kevin Slavin and Elizabeth Henaff will use a DNA sequencer to determine what species of bacteria lived in the material.

Comparing this DNA with samples from other materials and locations will allow the project to feed into early studies about the biomes of various buildings and cities.

The pavilion was formed from a flat sheet of material

The Living's previous projects include a temporary pavilion made entirely from bricks grown using organic materials that was installed at the MoMA PS1 gallery in 2014.

Other projects shortlisted in the small building category of Dezeen Awards 2021 include a writer's cabin fitted with a wavy bookshelf by Mudd Architects.

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SOM's inflatable habitats could allow people to "thrive over the long term" on the Moon

Architecture studio SOM and the European Space Agency have created more visuals for Moon Village, a concept for a settlement on the moon made up of inflatable modules.

SOM presented a detailed scale model of Moon Village, which it first announced in 2019, as part of its exhibition Life Beyond Earth at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale.

The proposal is for a collection of individual four-level units located in the moon's south polar region that would provide hubs for scientific research.

The units are designed to be inflatable

SOM said that Moon Village could grow over time, evolving from a settlement for research into thriving communities offering wider opportunities such as tourism.

"For SOM, designing a Moon Village meant creating an environment in which humans will be able to thrive over the long term," senior designer Daniel Inocente told Dezeen.

"This is human-centric design."

Life Beyond Earth is on show at the Venice Architecture Biennale

The modules are designed to be inflatable so that they could be compressed and transported to the moon by rocket, where they would be expanded to full size.

Each of the units would be built around a hybrid structural design that would include a rigid titanium alloy perimeter frame and a soft structural shell.

A scale model and site plan are included in the installation

This shell would feature a layer to protect from micrometeorites and a layer made of open-foam polyurethane and double-aluminised Mylar for insulation.

"Unlike other inflatable designs, which place structural mechanical systems at their centre, this solution creates an open interior that allows for optimised environmental conditions, air distribution and recycling, as well as visibility, efficiency and mobility," said SOM associate director Georgi Petrov.

The units would have four levels

The habitats would be located in the south polar region because it gets a lot of daylight throughout the lunar year, which would allow the units to harness sunlight for energy.

"Its location was also chosen in part to enable access to undisturbed material from the early history of the Solar System," SOM design partner Colin Koop told Dezeen.

"Material that will help scientists better understand the formation of our world."

Life Beyond Earth includes a scale model for an individual inflatable unit, as well as a site model showing a collection of units that would make up the village.

The installation addresses the biennale's theme for this year that looks towards the future and asks, "How will we live together?"

An interior view of an inflatable unit

The project was informed by European Space Agency director-general Jan Wörner's concept of a Moon Village, an international community he defines as one whose members could live and work alongside each other in space.

As a lunar settlement, Moon Village is intended to encourage collaboration between countries and communities rather than competition.

The modules are intended initially for scientific research

Koop explained that while there is no definitive timeline for the project, it is designed to be realised with existing technologies and those emerging in the near future.

"Just as innovation from the mid-century space race brought us beneficial technology that we otherwise would not have, the Moon Village will enable the research and innovation that will help solve pressing problems here on Earth."

As well as providing a liveable habitat in space, Koop suggested that the project would offer insight into how we might build more adaptable settlements on Earth in the future.

"Designing a self-sustaining settlement on the moon in such a hostile environment will teach us invaluable lessons about sustainable and resilient design," said Koop.

"It will help us prepare for a changing climate and pioneer new methods of building for a variety of environments."

A community of units forming a lunar village

SOM, or Skidmore, Owings & Merill, is a global architecture, engineering and urban planning firm headquartered in Chicago and founded in 1963.

Formed in 1975, The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to space exploration.

Other recent designs for the moon include a similarly expandable and self-sustainable lunar habitat by a startup called Instarz and a human lander designed by Elon Musk for a 2024 mission scheduled to carry the first woman to the moon.

All the images are courtesy of SOM.

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Canada blurs fact and fiction with green screen-wrapped Venice Architecture Biennale pavilion

Montréal studio TBA has wrapped the Canadian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in a green screen so that it can be replaced digitally with other buildings.

Called Impostor Cities, the pavilion was designed to be a comment on architectural authenticity focusing on the way Canadian cities are often used to portray other places in films.

"The Pavilion celebrates the protean Canadian cities and buildings that pose as cinematic doubles," said the pavilion's design team.

"Challenging visitors to think about architectural authenticity, the onsite and the onscreen, at a moment when the blurring of fact and fiction takes on an important significance."

TBA wrapped the Canadian pavilion in green sheeting

TBA and curator David Theodore aimed to drastically alter the appearance of the Canadian pavilion, which was designed by Italian studio BBPR in 1958 and was recently renovated.

It has been largely wrapped in green sheeting to give the building a dramatic impact.

The green mesh has a construction site aesthetic

"Dramatic is the right word, but also theatrical, mischievous, and cinematic," the design team told Dezeen.

"Wrapping the structure in a green mesh fabric highlights its quirky spiralling profile," they continued.

"The wrap changes the pavilion into an icon visible across the Giardini, in bold contrast to our neighbours, the staid British, German, and French pavilions. Even at a distance visitors will instantly identify our theme of architecture and cinema."

The green wrap disguises the building

The green mesh disguises the building and gives the impression that the pavilion's renovations are still underway.

"It's about architectural identity and faking it," they continued.

"We hope visitors think that the pavilion is under renovation again and that then they discover they can digitally erase and replace the pavilion with Canadian impostor buildings."

The wrap also allows the building to be used as a digital green screen.

Using an Instagram filter called Svela-Finzione, which translates into English as "reveal the fake", visitors can replace the pavilion with a building in Canada.

"If you're standing there, you see a green-wrapped building," said the tam.

"If you look through your camera, you see buildings from Canada digitally inserted in the place of the Pavilion. The wrap flips the script, making movies double as architecture."

An Instagram filter can be used to replace the pavilion with Canadian buildings

Within the pavilion is an exhibition that aims to highlight when Canadian buildings and cities have been used to represent other places in the world.

"The exhibition shows visitors that the fictional worlds they see onscreen are likely to be Canadian cities," said the team.

And it challenges them to reimagine what it means to experience architecture. The cities we inhabit together onscreen are meaningful and valuable ways to live together in a changing world."

Germany's 2038 pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale also utilised digital technology with QR codes placed on the walls of the empty building. Scanning the codes allowed visitors to watch movies explore the world in 2038.

We rounded up 10 of the best pavilions from the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale that respond to this year's theme of How will we live together?

The photography is courtesy of Impostor Cities.

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