The business of architecture
I’m in Venice. It’s hot and humid and teeming with tourists, a cacophony of languages and accents, cheap souvenirs and selfie sticks. The water is aquamarine and pungent, a bouquet of toxic algae and dead fish. The ancient buildings guard the banks of the canals, their mostly shuttered windows reinforcing a pervading sense of decay.... Continue Reading →
Variations of the Interstitial by Robert Ventresca What is it? Last year, we ran a Design Thesis studio for final year students in the Masters of Architecture degree at the University of Melbourne. The studio was entitled Ubi Consistam and the Venice Biennale. A synopsis of the studio is as follows: Ubi consistam comes from the... Continue Reading →
What is it? Along with 30 other national pavilions, the Australia Pavilion is located in Venice's Giardini, the site each year of the extraordinary Biennale di Venezia. In the late 1980s, Australia was given the opportunity to take one of the last plots within the Giardini, however it was necessary that we occupy the plot immediately lest we... Continue Reading →
Entering this exhibition is like walking into one of Piranesi's works. Dark, moody, extravagant - I am not really sure where to look first or what I will discover. Walls upon walls of his etchings hang in soft pools of light. They draw me in close, into Piranesi's world of antiquities and what a place... Continue Reading →
What and where is it? A bridge by Santiago Calatrava that crosses the Grand Canal near Santa Lucia Station in Venice, completed in 2008. What do we think? It is a beautiful bridge, in both macro form and micro detail. It is connected to the history of Venetian bridge-building through its stone paving, yet is still recognisably... Continue Reading →