The international jury of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Architecture Biennale composed of Hashim Sarkis (President of the Jury, Lebanon, USA), Pippo Ciorra (Italy), Sergio Fajardo (Colombia), Marisa Moreira Salles (Brazil), and Karen Stein (USA) has decided to award Spanish Pavilion for Best National Participation and Gabinete de Arquitectura curated by Solano Benítez; Gloria Cabral; Solanito Benítez for best exhibition.
In the award ceremony held on Saturday May 28th 2016 at Ca’ Giustinian, Spanish Pavilion was awarded for Goldion Lion for the exhibition ‘Unfinished‘, which seeks to direct attention to processes more than results in an attempt to discover design strategies generated by an optimistic view of the constructed environment after economic crisis. The exhibition is curated by Iñaqui Carnicero, co-founder of Rica Studio and Carlos Quintans .
Image © WAC
The exhibition gathers examples of architecture produced during the past few years, born out of renunciation and economy of means, designed to evolve and adapt to future necessities and trusting in the beauty conferred by the passage of time. These projects have understood the lessons of the recent past and consider architecture to be something unfinished, in a constant state of evolution and truly in the service of humanity. The current moment of uncertainty in our profession makes its consideration here especially relevant.
Curators of the Spain Pavilion: Iñaqui Carnicero and Carlos Quintans. Image © Andrea Avezzù, courtesy of Venice Biennale.
The international jury praised Spanish Pavilion for commenting ‘a concisely curated selection of emerging architects whose work shows how creativity and commitment can transcend material constraints.’
Image © Francesco Galli, courtesy of Venice Biennale
Spain is one of the countries where the practice of architecture has been most affected by the economic crisis. There are few places on earth where such large numbers of buildings were built in such a short period of time. The lack of reflection over whether these projects were necessary or valid resulted in the subsequent abandonment of many buildings when their completion or maintenance was discovered not to be economically viable. Their appearance throughout Spanish territories has generated a collection of unfinished buildings where the factor of time was eliminated from the formula for making architecture.
Image © Francesco Galli, courtesy of Venice Biennale
Image © Francesco Galli, courtesy of Venice Biennale
Image © WAC