Special Report from the Venice Biennale: This year's 12th International Architecture Exhibition featured a wide array of national pavillions ranging from a forest of pristine machine-cut lace to crashing wave of metal strips to a now-collapsed ethereal cage of rebar. Here is a collection of representative examples.
The goldeb-hued installation at the Egypt Pavilion appeared to be a CNC-milled sculpture made of brass, but was actually cut entirely by hand with a large pair of scissors.Courtesy MA Studio
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Above: The architects from Raumlabor Berlin were commissioned by Sejima to create an outdoor installation for the Giardini. They responded by making wooden chairs that could be stacked in any configuration, including a wall. People were allowed to take the chairs home.
Courtesy Raumlabor Berlin.
Right: The forest of laser-cut plastic lace at the Canada Pavilion created by architect Philip Beesley wavered and moved in response to body heat.
PBAL
Below, Right: Atlanta architect John Portman's Peachtree Plaza was featured along with 16 other installations about collaborative public-private projects at the U.S. Pavilion.
Courtesy John Portman Associates
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Theoretician and architect Andrea Branzi put an updated spin on his ideas about commodification and the city in Object City.Courtesy Andrea Branzi
The Bahrain exhibition, which won the Golden Lion for Best National Pavilion, featured a room full of reconstructed shacks made out of scavenged wood that are typically found on waterfrontsand used as social gathering spaces.Christian Richters
The Polish Pavilion installation, called Emergency Exit, was built out of a mountain of wire chicken coops from which visitors were encouraged to jump into a cloud of fog. Many lined up to do so.Maciew Landsberg
The Israel Pavilion curators showed a collection of vintage 1940s photographs of kibbutzim revealing the modern style being cultivated by the young socialist state.Courtesy Israel Pavilion
Another view of the rusted-rebar Croatia Pavilion from the interior. This floating pavilion was never able to dock and has since collapsed.Zelimir Grzancic
Read the companion feature, How Real is Real?, about the 12th International Architecture Exhibition by The Architect's Newspaper Editor-in-Chief William Menking.