Rem Koolhaas confirmed as 2014 Venice Biennale curator

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has been officially confirmed as director of the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. The board of the Venice Biennale, chaired by Paolo Baratta, met today in Venice to thank David Chipperfield for his achievements at the 2012 Architecture Biennale, and to congratulate Koolhaas on the appointment. Koolhaas said: “We want to give a new look to the basic elements of architecture - used by any architect, anywhere and at any time - to see if we can discover something new about architecture”. The board of the Venice Biennale described Koolhaas as “one of the greatest personalities of the architects of our time “.

Via bdonline

The British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

For the month of October I am here in Venice working in the British Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale. For those of you who don't know about the British proposal for David Chipperfield's Common Ground theme, here are a few words and photos. As you can probably tell I've kept this post pretty impartial...

Here's what the British Council say:

The British Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale presents the work of ten architectural teams that have travelled the world in search of imaginative responses to universal issues. Venice Takeaway charts their course in Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Thailand and the USA and demonstrates the creative potential of sharing ideas across borders.

Research, in the form of photography, drawing, film and objects will be displayed in a Research Emporium, while in the galleries of the pavilion you will find Takeaway Proposals – installations and objects that encapsulate their ideas for change.

Commissioned by the British Council and curated by Vanessa Norwood and Vicky Richardson, Venice Takeaway responds to Venice Biennale Director David Chipperfield’s theme of Common Ground by identifying new ways to negotiate the challenges of making architecture and making the case for internationalism.

The exhibition is a reminder that the practice of architecture is as much about observation and thinking as it is about design. We have taken inspiration from Albert Einstein who said, ‘If we knew what we were doing, it would not be research, would it?’ While keeping an open mind, Venice Takeaway presents a set of clear intentions that we hope will be pursued beyond the life of the exhibition.

Also be sure to check out www.venicetakeaway.com for more on each explorer, as well as www.venicetakeawaystewards.tumblr.com for steward diaries. 

Emporium Space

Public Works, Urban Projects Bureau and Owen Pritchard

Elias Redstone

dRMM

Smout Allen and bldgblog

aberrant architecture

Forum for Alternative Belfast

Ross Anderson and Anna Gibb

Darryl Chen

Toh Shimazaki