Architects for the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale U.S. Pavilion Announced

Twelve participating teams from across the country will design projects for sites in Detroit, which will later be used to produce the Venice Biennale exhibition titled “The Architectural Imagination.”

The US Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale will host The Architectural Imagination, an exhibition of new speculative architectural projects commissioned for specific sites in Detroit but with far-reaching application for cities around the world. The exhibition will emphasize the importance and value of the architectural imagination in shaping forms and spaces into exciting future possibilities. The birthplace of the automobile industry, the free-span factory floor, the concrete paved road, and Motown and techno music, Detroit was once a center of American imagination, not only for the products it made but also for its modern architecture and modern lifestyle, which captivated audiences worldwide. Like many postindustrial cities, Detroit is coping with a changed urban core that for decades has generated much thinking in urban planning. As advocates of the power of architecture to construct culture and catalyze cities, curators Cynthia Davidson and Monica Ponce de Leon will commission twelve visionary American architectural practices to produce new work that demonstrates the creativity and resourcefulness of architecture to address the social and environmental issues of the 21st century.

The exhibition will consist of architectural projects commissioned for four specific sites in Detroit that address the major social and environmental issues we face today. Three firms will each collaborate on one project. This fall, the teams will conduct site visits and attend community meetings in Detroit, and consult with faculty and students at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. They will also design and fabricate the projects until through Jan. 2016. The projects will then make their way to Venice for the Biennale, which runs from May 28 to Nov. 27, 2016.

http://www.thearchitecturalimagination.org/process/