AUSTIN, Texas—The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture is one of 12 influential research institutions worldwide that have been invited to participate in the 10th annual Venice Biennale Architecture Exhibition. The Biennale, which runs from Sept. 10-Nov. 19, is the premier international arts/design exhibition in the world.
Dedicated to “Cities, Architecture and Society,” this year’s exhibition will, for the first time in its history, focus on key issues facing large-scale metropolitan areas around the world. Concerns such as migration, mobility, social integration and sustainable growth will be addressed at the exhibition.
“It is an honor to join 50 other countries in an international forum addressing issues that resonate in our own community and around the globe,” said Fritz Steiner, dean of the School of Architecture. “The framework of the exhibition will provide a basis for continued public discourse for years to come.”
The School of Architecture’s exhibit, “Resilient Foundations: The Gulf Coast after Katrina,” presents and explores a range of proposals circulating on post-Katrina reconstruction plans. The large-scale exhibit will incorporate strategies from a variety of organizations and institutions, including submissions from architectural firms and from 13 universities across the United States, including Columbia, Harvard, Tulane, Princeton and Southern California. A team of faculty and students from The University of Texas at Austin will contribute its own design proposal for the region and, in particular, New Orleans.
“The Biennale gives The University of Texas at Austin an important international stage from which we can offer our expert opinions and hopefully influence the course of reconstruction in the region,” said Nichole Wiedemann, associate professor in the School of Architecture. “We will not provide easy answers to the questions facing the region, but instead, will offer a set of environmental, regional planning, urban design and infrastructure requirements, without which all reconstruction and development efforts are ineffective.”
Faculty and students at the university are completing the school’s exhibit, which, when constructed in the National Pavilion of the Giradini de Castello in Venice, will fill a 75-by-30-foot room. The display, which incorporates four areas (Foundations, Propositions, Adaptations and Projections) will include six computers housing flash presentations and an animation of every hurricane that has hit the Gulf Coast in the past 100 years.
For more information contact: Amy Maverick Crossette, School of Architecture, 512-573-1078.
