Gaston Nogues, a friend of mine from my Gehry days, participated in the Venice Biennale Architecture submissions this year. Above is his submission. Its great to see Ben Ball-Gaston Nogues’ work and the energy behind it. Ball and Nogues are all about the design, execution, craft (and gasp!: a sense of humor). Which is often whats lacking in the curation of such an event.

Norman Foster's Metropolitan building as a prison

Another standout was the Polish Pavilion – subtitled: “The Afterlife of Buildings“. Nicolas Grospierre and Kobas Laska collage recast modern landmarks (above) after a ‘major transformation’ or breakdown of civilization.

The Reviews: I took a survey of the reviews and found some critical gems among the lavish praise. After years of doorknob polishing reviews its refreshing to actually see some critical reviews of the event that differ from the waxing standard fare -Here’s a sampling:

From the Los Angeles Times: “In the way it embraces celebrity architecture and digital design without hesitation or irony, Betsky’s Biennale seems nearly a decade out of date.”

From the Architects Journal: “The Arsenale is full of pieces like this – by people who are getting old and have a pressing need to reassure each other that they are artists.”

No Quarter is given especially to Zaha Hadid:  “When I see Patrik Schumacher (business partner and factotum of Zaha Hadid) speak about architecture, I get very sad for him. He looks like a member of Kraftwerk trapped in one of those kidnap videos released by organisations with names like Swords of the Righteousness Brigade.” – Ouch! -

(when is enough enough?)

via Bryant Yeh, 19 November 2008 12:21am | |