An Intellectual African Revolution Comes to the Venice Architecture Biennale
With “The Laboratory of the Future,” this year’s curator, Lesley Lokko, places a profound emphasis on African ingenuity and radical design approaches.
By Ian Volner
May 26, 2023
8 minute read
- Share:
The Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, the curator of the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016, was on hand last week for the debut of the Biennale’s 17th edition, participating in a talk held under the auspices of the World Economic Forum. The conversation commemorated the launch of the Davos Baukultur Alliance, a new global initiative from the organization that aims to advance eight core principles it deems essential to a prosperous and sustainable future for humankind. “How to deliver on those principles when there is no money and no time?” the Pritzker Prize winner asked the audience. Answering his own question, he then put the responsibility squarely on his fellow designers, saying, “We must use housing as a tool to overcome poverty.” Backed up by images of his projects, including his celebrated half-built house developments, Aravena’s words were as stirring as ever—only now, their impact felt strangely, eerily different.
Subscribe to get exclusive access to our stories, newsletters, events, and more.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
Keep Reading
A Breathwork Practitioner Making Space for Black Women to Feel Free
16 minute read
Paola Navone’s “Take It or Leave It” Objects, as Seen in Their New Homes
5 minute read
Tom Delavan on What He Watches to Laugh, Relax, and Unwind
11 minute read
John Pawson’s Approach to Making Life Simpler
23 minute read
Daniel Humm’s Giant, Thought-Provoking, Plant-Based Pivot
15 minute read
15 Standouts From Milan Design Week
13 minute read
Our Milan Design Week Exhibition as a Celebration of Paola Navone’s Prolific Practice and Generous Spirit
8 minute read
Daniel Rozensztroch on Curating “Take It or Leave It”
12 minute read
Live From Our “Take It or Leave It” Exhibition
2 minute read
Frances Moore Lappé on Fifty-Plus Years of Plant-Based Eating (and Living)
19 minute read
Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen on the Science-Backed Pleasures of Neuroaesthetics
8 minute read
Paola Navone on the Radical Act of Giving Things Away
23 minute read
The Cosmovision of the Yanomami People and the Violent Forces That Threaten Them
12 minute read
Sanford Biggers, a Collective of Artists, and a Museum Interrogate a Problematic Abraham Lincoln Monument
10 minute read
Lesley Lokko Positions Africa as a Laboratory for Harnessing the Vast Possibilities of the Future
16 minute read
Jonah Takagi on Media as the Place Where the Practical Meets the Personal
13 minute read
Dacher Keltner on Why We All Need Daily Doses of Awe
17 minute read
A New “Cultural Biography” on Karl Lagerfeld Illuminates the Person Behind the Image
23 minute read
Nike Imagines the World 50 Years From Now
15 minute read
Marina Koren on Rethinking the “Overview Effect”
16 minute read
The Piercing Prose of the Late Janet Malcolm
9 minute read
Remembering Daniel Brush and His Immaculate, Otherworldly Objects, Paintings, and Jewelry
16 minute read
The Eerie, Dreamlike Piano Melodies Behind An Yu’s Latest Novel
6 minute read
Anne Helen Petersen on Keeping Media All Around—But at Arm’s Length
11 minute read
Simon Critchley on the Sheer Delight of Questioning Everything
13 minute read
Five Trendsetters on Their Most Anticipated 2023 Travel Destinations
12 minute read
A Walking Tour of Greenwich Village With Architecture Critic Michael Kimmelman
28 minute read
Eight Distinctive and Delightful Gifts for the 2022 Holiday Season
9 minute read
As Art Basel Turns 20, Miami Art Week Enters a New, Slightly Less Hyped-Up Dawn
12 minute read
Theaster Gates’s New Exhibition Poetically Prods the Meaning of a Museum
6 minute read
At the ICA Philadelphia, Sissel Tolaas Presents Smell as a Poetic Provocation
7 minute read
Sara Auster’s Sound Baths Are a Tonic for Our Tumultuous Times
5 minute read
Sound Is at the Core of Musician-Turned-Ceramicist Kansai Noguchi’s Vases and Vessels
7 minute read
This New App Gives Readers a Place to Convene and Connect
3 minute read
Sight Unseen’s Jill Singer on Why She Doesn’t Actually Consume That Much Design Content
5 minute read
A Start-Up Is Monitoring Space Junk to Enable a More Sustainable Space Economy
8 minute read
A Microscopic Fungus From Yellowstone’s Hot Springs Is Spurring a New Culinary Movement
3 minute read
Ghetto Gastro’s Jon Gray on “Durag Diplomacy” and the Beauty of the Bronx
11 minute read
With “Slow Show,” Choreographer Dimitri Chamblas Emphasizes the Mysterious Power of Slow Movement
4 minute read