By: Johanna Grahn
Planning for the world’s most important upcoming architectural event, the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale is in process. The latest news is that the creative directors who will be designing the Australian Pavilion for the event have been announced, namely Anthony Burke and Gerard Reinmuth.
The two creative directors were chosen for their deep knowledge about the field, and the expertise they will provide to the Australian contribution at the event.
Anthony Burke specialises in contemporary design and theory in relation to technology and its implications for architecture in the built environment. He works as associate professor and Head of the School of Architecture at UTS, he is an international curator, writer, and architectural designer, and a director of the architectural practice Offshore Studio. Anthony also has a prestigious academic background, with a Bachelor of Architecture from UNSW and a first class honours in 1996, and he is a graduate of the MS AAD from Columbia University from 2000.
Gerard Reinmuth founded Terrior in 1999 together with Richard Blythe and Scott Balmforth, and is today one of the directors for the practice. The idea was born from conversations between the directors around the potential for architecture to open up questions of cultural consequence. His research and practice on these questions led to his appointment as visiting professor at the Aarhus School of Architecture in 2010 and Professor in Practice at UTS in Sydney in 2011.
The Australian Pavilion will be designed as a “soft landscape of connections and possibilities”, and display the exhibition ‘Formations: New Practices in Australian Architecture’, which will “challenge traditionally held beliefs about what architecture can be, and celebrate new opportunities for architects working in non-traditional ways”. ‘Formations’ will highlight “the unconventional and world-leading innovative range of architectural
practice types being developed across Australia”.
The Australian pavilion will be a “space of engagement” in which viewers can interact and “participate in architectural conversation at close quarters”, as it will focus on actual projects and their impact. There will also be a series of what they call ‘flash formations’, which are free informal and intimate public events around Venice that will “allow viewers to get up close and personal with some of Australia’s most innovative architectural practices and commentators and their work”. The creative minds of the Australian team will be bringing their skills and expertise to areas as diverse as robotic fabrication, government policy, and indigenous housing.
To find out more about the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale visit The Australian Institute of Architects at: http://www.architecture.com.au/
