Again to the Venice Biennale of Architecture to look around the trends in world culture, mirroring itself in this always impressive exhibition. After offering in the past years an image of technology revolution and human-machine fusion (2023) and the impact of woke movement (2024), the present edition has not a common vision to transmit, but you receive the impression. of a big cultural fragmentation along the various world regions and nations. The most clear return to tradition has been expressed from USA Pavillon, whose image introduces our reflection. In this beautiful context, transformed in a wooden veranda where visitors can seat quietly to relax and think, University of Arkansas collected historical remembers of American buildings in the South and North of the States and presented comments and histories about this typical ‘porch’ tradition of building a house. Sometimes the house becomes a small dependance of an enormous veranda, where to live, contemplate, being in a community but preserving a private space. From the visit you receive a big confort and hope in a renovated world of beauty and happiness. So far from the woke Native village of last year, very nice but far from the focus of American way of living as the world knows it. Completely rooted in the nature according its traditional culture, the Japanese Pavillon. Here humans are only a component of the big nature world, which interacts with the others parts, exchanging informations from all its actors, trees, rivers, seas, mountains, animals, stones, flowers. So you get the two main message, tradition and nature through this very emotions driven stage.
In Europe framework, Germany confirms the green deal transferred to EU policies, insisting on warming problems, with apocalyptic scenes of massive dead in all the European countries before 2050 by heating wawes hitting Berlin and other major cities. By the way in Venice was very cold for the season…Uk presented a Pavillon designed in cooperation of Kenia, forecasting for our future buildings the African traditions as the best, completely out of the wonderful English homing traditions so universally appreciated. France as often is innovative but not clear in the message, in any case a lot of referring again to African context. The Nordic countries presented a very unified message: “The collapse of standard”, tested by ruined homes, destroyed cars, graffiti everywhere. The end of civilisation as we know it, probably suggested by the immigration disaster in Sweden. Denmark doesn’t dare a vision for the future, just a presentation of a site for building houses, with tools and materials ready for the construction, letting to single individuals to immagine the result. Switzerland escapes in an abstract world where big panels of wood and concrete symbolised human and nature testimonials, in a fluid atmosphere created by moving tents changing the visual effects. Hungary very realistic approach announce they will not present architects, but only new small technological objects and research, everything supported by results of a professional enquiry on the role of architects, realised on 3100 students of these Faculties in the country. Ucraine, present at Biennale, whereas Russia and Israel Pavillons are closed, presented an academic research on materials and forms of roofs in Ukrainian villages of the various regions of the country, appreciated because no war propaganda is included.
The single masterpieces are as usual presented in the big Arsenal spaces and here we can find again a lot of fragmented messages, only apparently unified by nature, mainly insisting on properties of old and new building materials, inspired also by biological structure at microbic level. The installations are enormous and you can cross them or seating inside to better thinking. Sometimes they becomes just a big toy for children very happy to see these fantastic forms. Many of these installations are from China, always innovative environment also in this cultural area. As usual an outstanding experience, a real key to understand better the world we live in, beyond and much more effective than social and other media digital support so popular. Venice Biennale remains one of the most powerful occasion of reaching the world so rapidly evolving culture, this year giving also some message of return back to basis of our civilisation, to find renovated energies to change again.
