“In the Freespace manifesto,
we talk about the Earth as client
and we also know that we will be
a much more urban planet over
the next fifty years.
I a sense, it twill be a world built
by our profession.
Within the profession we need
to have courage and outside
the profession we need support”
“We think that Architecture
should offer free spaces as gifts,
and try to be generous in every
project, even where conditions
are more difficult”
Yvonne Farrell + Shelley McNamara
P
Somewhere other, John Wardle
Architects, Australia. Cannochiale
percettivo spaziale per legare la realtà
interna a quella esterna, Corderie /
Spatial perceptual telescope linking
the inner reality to the external one,
Corderie
p
Songyang story, storia di
rivitalizzazione di un paese, padiglione
Cina, Corderie / the story of the
revitalization of a county, PRC Pavilion,
Corderie
which pervade the values of beauty and
quality of an architectural work built with
passion. At the same time, the revelation
of details and of particular traits enriches
the awareness of the reasons that underlie
the selfless gesture of the architect when
he expands his tasks and duties by giving
added values in a far-sighted vision.
In fact, Yvonne and Shelley have defined
the essence of this exhibition through a very
clear thought: “We think that Architecture
should offer free spaces as gifts, and try
to be generous in every project, even where
conditions are more difficult.”
One of their favourite slogans, “Creativity
must be at the service of the community,”
summarizes the basic assumption of the
exhibition. However, walking through the
exhibition sections, from the Giardini to the
Corderie, the general impression we got was
that the common thread was not so clear and
definable. In fact, each participant designer
has, together with his curator, given a very
personal interpretation of the sense of
Freespace, declining the approach to added
value according to his own compositional
language but, above all, according to
his own conception of communicating intent
and purpose. Many exhibition spaces echoed
a classical typology while others proposed
visions aimed at the future and the
evolutionary dimension of space.
Eduardo Souto de Moura was awarded
the Golden Lion for a project that belongs
to a classic and non-futuristic conception,
the careful and respectful transformation
of the convent of Santa Maria do Bouro into
a hotel in Braga, Portugal.
Differently, the Silver Lion was awarded to
Jan de Vylder, Inge Vinck, and Jo Taillieu for
their project “Unless ever people”, in which
a regeneration of a historic building from
the beginning of the century was carried
out in the city of Melle, in Belgium, turning
a hospital psychiatric facility into a space
dedicated to the community.
The Golden Lion for the best national pavilion
was awarded to Switzerland, thanks to a
reflection on the nature of the domestic space,
which has more deeply examined a theme
of individual identity, compared to the simple
contemplation of a formal compositional act.
In fact, the pavilion, housing the
reconstruction of domestic interiors in the
phase that precedes the implementation
of furnishings and fittings, allows the physical
immersion in a built Architecture,
characterized by leaps of scale as provocative
perceptual distortions, room by room.
Other experimental forms are evoked in the
conception of spaces and places that allow
an introspective relationship with the needs
and curiosity that are aroused by a reasoned,
stimulating, and environmentally friendly
architecture.
From the Wardle’s telescope, which opens a
dialogue with the landscape and investigates
the sense of participation between internal
and external environment in the skilful play
of shapes and materials, up to the model of
representation of non-sustainable architecture
such as the popular district of Riga, in which
the motion of the dispersed energy is
scenically exalted, many are the themes dealt
with on the qualitative merit of architecture.
Probably Freespace will not be remembered
as a Biennale characterized by a clear and
binding curatorial choice, but rather as an
opportunity for reflection on an extended
theme almost every architect cares a lot about:
the possibility given by a transformation,
a reconversion, or a new use of the space
that can give the inhabitants an opportunity
for development, growth, and better cohesion
with their daily environment, as stated
in several points in the Manifesto written
by the curators.“
VENICE BIENNALE SPECIAL REPORT / LUCE 326
21