image: North Wall of Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry, 1932-33 (fresco) / Detroit Institute of Arts, USA / Gift of Edsel B. Ford / Bridgeman Images.

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.

Timeline

August 13, 2015: Deadline for architects submitting an Expression Of Interest.

Fall 2015: Participants travel to Michigan for a Friday evening presentation at Taubman College and Saturday site visit and community meetings in Detroit.

August 2015–January 2016: Design and fabrication of projects.

June 2016: Publication of cataLog (Log 37).

June–November 2016: 15th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

Eligibility

Any firm or team composed of individuals with permanent resident status must include a US citizen to be legally eligible; individual architects must be US citizens. Teams must include at least one practicing architect or architectural designer. Current architecture students are not eligible to participate. An architect may participate in only one EOI submission, whether as an individual, with a firm, or on team of individuals.

Please click here to see ''How To Participate''

> via thearchitecturalimagination.org