Freespace is the theme of this year’s Venice architectural biennale, which runs from 26 May to 25 November 2018. The exhibition showcases work from some of the world’s most exciting architects here’s a selection of some urban explorations at this year’s exhibition.
Source: Freespace: architects rethink space and the city – in pictures
 |
| Russia - Station Russia Photo: Courtesy the Russian Pavilion, Venice A vast territory, Russia has a special relationship with its railways, which span the country transporting goods and people to areas highways cannot reach. The pavilion explores the architecture of stations, and asks whether the space allocated to these transport hubs could in future be transformed, reduced and re-used. |
 |
| Slovenia – Living with Water Photo: Francesco Galli/Italo Rondinella Water is essential to life, but also a threat if not managed appropriately. With global warming threatening to submerge many urban areas, Slovenia’s pavilion offers a timely meditation on how this precious resource might be managed without overwhelming us. |
 |
| Chile – Stadium: an Event, a Building and a City Photo: Francesco Galli/La Biennale di Venezia Chile’s national stadium in Santiago has been recreated here, its seating areas replaced by maps of the city’s shanty towns. Using three key events in the stadiums life: the 1962 World Cup, its use as a centre for detention and torture in 1973 and Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1987, this pavilion investigates the segregation caused by Chilean urban housing policies. |
 |
| Latvia - Together and Apart Photo: Francesco Galli/Italo Rondinella This section of Latvia’s pavilion looks at the inefficiency of heating and cooling city housing blocks built in the 1970s. |
 |
| Denmark – Possible Spaces Photo: Francesco Galli/Italo Rondinella The Danish entry showcased four projects, but it was the section featuring part of Virgin’s Hyperloop One that asked the biggest urban question: how does the world change when cities are connected in new ways? |
 |
| Venezuela – CCS Espacio Rebelde Photo: Francesco Galli/Italo Rondinella The Venezuelan entry presented the idea of Caracas as a ‘rebel city’, and proposed three new free social spaces that “democratise and reprogram the use of urban land”. |
 |
| Finland – Mind-building Photo: Francesco Galli/Italo Rondinella The public library has a special place in Finnish hearts as well as the country’s cities and suburbs. The Finnish pavilion focuses on this central role of the library, and looks ahead to the opening of Helsinki’s new public library, Oodi, later this year. |
 |
| Czech and Slovak Republics: Unes-co Photo: Francesco Galli/Italo Rondinella Tourism brings many benefits, but what happens when your city is constantly the centre of a tourist scrum – so much so that the actual inhabitants are pushed to the edges to make room for visitors? Focusing on the city of Českÿ Krumlov, home to 13,000 but visted by over a million tourists annually, the Czech and Slovak pavilion is the office of the fictional Unes-co project, looking at ways to reverse the process. |
 |
| Brazil - Muros de Ar / Walls of Air Photo: Francesco Galli/Italo Rondinella A cartography and data lover’s dream, the Brazilian pavilion offers maps covered with demographic information highlighting the spatial and conceptual separation that have occurred as a consequence of urbanisation. The information is so detailed that telescopes are provided to give viewers a closer look. |
 |
| Egypt – Robabecciah: the Informal City Photo: Francesco Galli/Italo Rondinella Robabecchia is an Arabised Italian word meaning “jumble or “old clothes” and from it Egypt have taken the theme of their pavilion, which looks at how souks and informal trading spaces sprawl in urban and suburban areas, becoming the predominant element driving the use of space. How can street and market trading be better integrated and rethought while still allowing trade to flourish? |
 |
| United Arab Emirates – Landscapes Beyond Bigness Photo: Tash Reith-Banks for the Guardian UAE has become synonymous with ambitious skyscrapers and fast growth. This exhibition focuses on four urban areas in Abu Dhabi and Dubai which have remained human-scale and resident-oriented. |
 |
| Romania – Mnemonics: Collective Memories Define Our Territory Photo: Tash Reith-Banks for the Guardian What is the future of public space? The Romanian pavilion takes a playful approach, and is based on the public space found between housing blocks as a symbol of the country’s rapid urbanisation during the second part of the the 20th century. |
 |
| Lebanon – The Place That Remains Photo: Tash Reith-Banks for the Guardian A series of highly coloured projections over a relief map of Lebanon reflect how the country, one of the most densely populated in the world, might re-image both built and as-yet unbuilt space. In this projection, areas marked red are built areas; green sections are places to protect and perhaps imagine a different type of future for. |
 |
| Korea - Spectres of the State Avant GardePhoto: Matteo Chinellato/IPA/REX/Shutterstock The four projects featured in the Korean pavilion were all built in the late 1960s to as as propaganda for Korea as an industrial powerhouse. Today, all four raise questions about how these aspirations fit with the modern-day incarnations of the cities in which they are situated. |
 |
| United Arab Emirates – Landscapes Beyond Bigness Photograph: Tash Reith-Banks for the Guardian Oases are common in the city of Al Ain. The one represented in this architect’s model is the 62 acre (0.25km sq) Al Mutaredh oasis, looked after by seven farmers throughout the year. Oases are natural landscapes and in Al Ain they are used for both agricultural and recreational purposes; there are at least seven functioning oases in the city. |
 |
| Israel - In Status Quo: Structures of Negotiation Photograph: Antonio Calanni/AP Israel’s pavilion examines five of the country’s most important sacred sites, which because of their religious importance have often become places of bitter struggle. Pictured is a series of architectural models showing how the area around the Western Wall has changed over the decades. |
 |
| Saudi Arabia – Spaces in Between Photo: Courtesy of Pavilion of Saudi Arabia/Misk Art Institute With its walls made of resin – a petrochemical byproduct – and sand, the Saudi pavilion explored the country’s wealth, rapid urbanisation and sprawl. The suburban settlements around the country’s four main hubs have effectively become single-function districts separate from the cities to which they belong – making citizen car-reliant into the bargain. The exhibition explores how to reconnect communities by directing urban development back into city centres and creating walkable public spaces. |
Source: Freespace: architects rethink space and the city – in pictures
Comments