The story has been updated. The Venice Biennale has announced 17 Collateral Events and Meetings on Architecture at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale which opens to the public today. The Venice Architecture Biennale will be on view until Sunday, November 21st, 2021 in the Arsenale and the Giardini venues.

The 17th International Architecture Exhibition is curated by Hashim Sarkis under the theme "How will we live together?", Sarkis' theme will delve into a special context of "widening political divides and growing economic inequalities" as well as helping architects to "imagine spaces in which we can generously live together".

The 17 Collateral Events have been approved by the Curator, promoted by national and international non-profit entities and institutions. The events are organized in various venues across the city and they present a wide range of projects and participations that enrich the pluralism of voices that distinguishes the Exhibition in Venice.

Scroll down to see Collateral Events & Meetings on Architecture of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021:

Air/Aria/Aire _Catalonia in Venice
It is time to call for air design to be considered as part of the design of the city. The scientific community is not only alerting us to the global climate crisis caused by human action on the planet; it is also calling us to act in the public health crisis caused by air pollution in cities. If the built environment is part of the problem, how can architecture be part of the solution? Aire/Aria/Air reflects on the role that architects can play in conceiving new urban cartographies with the contribution of scientists and the public sector, while also proposing new working methodologies that use big data from the city.
Cantieri Navali, Castello, 40 (calle Quintavalle)
May 22nd – July 31st: 11 am - 7 pm
August 1st – November 21st: 10 am -6 pm
closed on Monday (except Monday May 24th, September 6th and November 1st)
Organizing Institution: Institut Ramon Llull
www.llull.cat.
www.air.llull.cat.

“Charlotte Perriand and I”. Converging designs by Frank Gehry and Charlotte Perriand
Over the past century, developments in technology have increased the frequency with which we have reimagined the home. Technological advancements and changing social values enabled architects to invent new solutions for the way we live. Today, amidst an ecological crisis of our own making, we are attempting to house an unprecedented global population within boundaries that are in flux. Through specific projects, Charlotte Perriand and Frank Gehry responded to the ideas of mobility, prefabrication, and efficiency and put forth ideas that redefined the home. In this new exhibition for Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia, selected works of Perriand and Gehry – some exhibited for the first time – are presented as both historical references and as viable solutions for the issues confronting architecture today.
Espace Louis Vuitton, San Marco, 1353 (calle del Ridotto)
10.30 am – 6.30 pm daily
Organizing Institution: Fondation Louis Vuitton
www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr.

Connectivities: Living beyond the boundaries - Macao and the Greater Bay Area
Macao is currently dealing with several challenges, including its integration into the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong–Hong Kong– Macao (GBA). It is, therefore, in the connectivities among and between the domains mentioned above at various levels, in space and time, that architecture and urbanism can be seen as a pretext to reflect on the community and the individual’s life, the community’s collective memories, future demographics, shared spaces and architectural archetypes, and, most importantly, what we want for our daily lives. The young team of Macao’s architects: Chan Ka Tat, Che Chi Hong, Ho Ting Fong and Lao Man Si. They are deeply aware that Macao is an old city with a very rich history of almost five centuries and, at the present, faces tremendous regional challenges.
Arsenale, Castello, 2126/A (campo della Tana)
May 22nd – July 31st: 11 am - 7 pm (last entry 6.45 pm)
August 1st – November 21st: 10 am - 6 pm (last entry 5.45 pm)
Organizing Institution: The Macao Museum of Art
www.mam.gov.mo
www.artecommunications.com/en/book-your-visit.html

Hakka Earthen Houses on variation-Co-operative Living, Art and Migration Architecture in China
Immigration has become a cultural and political issue of common concern to people the world over, and the conflicts, games, exchanges, and integration between ethnic traditions and migratory environments are the challenges and necessary prerequisites for the development of multiculturalism today. The Chinese Hakka Round Houses and their settlements may bring different inspiration to the solution of this problem. This exhibition will search for the possibility of a positive interaction between people settling in different areas through the creation of construction, the organisation of community, the reconstruction of space, and research and reflection on the history of suffering.
Forte Marghera, Padiglione 30
June 22nd – November 21st, 2 pm - 8 pm, closed on Monday
Organizing Institution: Galaxy Guofeng Art
http://chnguofeng.com

Lianghekou
The renovation of the village of Lianghekou is part of a general masterplan for the entire Tujia valley, crossed by the ancient Salt Road. In the upcoming tourism development of the valley, Lianghekou village is expected to resume its commercial and public function and to be revitalised as a gathering place for locals and tourists. The project makes full use of the variability, flexibility and adaptability of the Gan-Lan wooden houses, typical of the Tujia people. Through the transformation of the physical construction system, the ancient street is switched among different programmes with topological deformations of public space from daily retailing to local market, and festival celebration.
Palazzo Zen, Cannaregio, 4924 (fondamenta di Santa Caterina)
2 pm – 7 pm, closed on Tuesday
Organizing Institution: Fondazione EMGdotART
www.emgdotart.org

Mutualities
Mutualities highlights the interactions between people, common spaces, nature, and digital technology. Along specific themes, the exhibition shows scenes (videos) of human activities in common spaces that are central in their experience when spaces become smarter, more autonomous, and more self-learning. Mutualities builds on neurourbanism, the psychological and neuroscientific urban research to envision the city as it might be. All scenes represent projections of spaces that do not yet exist and are spatial constructs for a time to come. The exhibition encourages a wider understanding of emerging human values, by mediating future-oriented challenges, architecture, and spatial experiences.
Spazio Ravà, San Polo, 1100 (riva del Vin)
2 pm – 6 pm, closed on Tuesday
Organizing Institution: Interdisciplinary Forum Neurourbanism
www.neurourbanism.org
www.mutualities.org

Not Vital. SCARCH
Not Vital is a Swiss artist who has travelled and exhibited widely since the 1970s. Central to his practice is an exploration of the spatial and sociocultural backdrop of his multiple homes and workplaces. The centrepiece of Vital’s exhibition is an iteration of his global House to Watch the Sunset project that he initiated in 2005 with the aim of building a structure for the sole purpose of contemplating the sunset on each continent. To give a name to such artworks that bridge sculpture and architecture, Vital coined the term ‘SCARCH’. The buildings Vital subsumes under his neologism are formalistic and exist primarily to fill one single – usually poetic and transcendental – purpose, such as contemplating the sunset or hiding from wind and sandstorms.
Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore
10 am – 6 pm, closed on Monday
Organizing Institution: Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore - Benedicti Claustra Onlus
www.abbaziasangiorgio.it 

Primitive Migration from/to Taiwan
In a world that values efficacy above all else, globalisation has caused myriad environmental problems through the overconsumption of resources. How will architecture deal with this multicultural, vernacular environment? What role will architecture play in facing the contradictions between a highly developed civilisation and Mother Nature? What draws people and architecture to keep coming back to Mother Nature? In the age of information, architecture must respond to the needs of the environment, the senses, perception, and the experiences of modern humanity. This year, the 17th International Architecture Exhibition raises the vital question of How will we live together?, which itself encompasses the subtopics of Ask, Working Together, and Influence Each Other.
Palazzo delle Prigioni, Castello, 4209 (San Marco)
10 am – 6 pm, closed on Monday (except Monday May 24th, September 6th and November 1st)
Organizing Institution: National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA)
www.ntmofa.gov.tw
www.facebook.com/105020041092031/posts/302000151394018/?d=n

Redistribution: Land, People & Environment
We propose solutions to people-centric urbanism for enhanced liveability and sustainability, through the redistribution of land, people and environment. Exhibits are created through collaboration among corporations, architects, artists and academics, which intensifies the search for the meaning of living together. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, digitalised environments have become prominent alternatives: that conceptualise ‘our new normal’ and the curators embrace this in the discourse of How will we live together? With augmented reality, the exhibition enables experience sharing through the redistribution of the physical and digital environment. It demonstrates Hong Kong’s ingenuity of redistributing land, people, and environment for a safer and smarter city.
Arsenale, Castello, 2126 (campo della Tana)
May 22nd – July 31st:  11 am - 7 pm (last entry 6.45 pm)
August 1st – November 21st:  10 am - 6 pm (last entry 5.45 pm)
closed on Monday (except Monday May 24th, September 6th and November 1st)
Organizing Institutions: The Hong Kong Institute of Architects Biennale Foundation; the Hong Kong Arts Development Council
www.hkia.net
www.hkadc.org.hk
http://2021.vbexhibitions.hk
www.artecommunications.com/en/book-your-visit.html.

Revive the Spirit of Mosul
On 16 November, 2020, UNESCO launched an open international design competition with a view to rebuilding the Al-Nouri Mosque Complex, which was destroyed during the battle to liberate Mosul, Iraq, in 2017. This exhibition presents the top five entries in this competition and showcases UNESCO’s work and its approach to supporting the recovery of the Old City of Mosul. To launch the exhibition, UNESCO is also hosting a high-level panel on recovery and reconstruction in post-conflict, post-disaster, and transition contexts, with experts from the fields of architecture, urban heritage conservation, culture, development, and cultural diplomacy.
UNESCO’s Regional Office for South Europe in Venice, Palazzo Zorzi, Castello, 4390
May 22nd – July 31st: 11 am - 7 pm
August 1st – November 21st: 10 am - 6 pm
closed on Monday and Tuesday
Organizing Institution: UNESCO
https://en.unesco.org
https://bit.ly/3y5nits

Salon Suisse 2021: Bodily Encounters
The Salon Suisse offers a series of lectures, talks, performances, and cultural events supplementing the exhibition at the Swiss pavilion. Bodily Encounters revolves around the fundamental relationships between body and architecture: the built environment touches all our senses, influences our psyche, and condenses our memories. At the same time, architecture creates the stage on which human beings interact and cement social norms. Following the tradition of the Salon and its claim of reigniting a culture of stimulating debate in an agreeable ambience, the manifold encounters between human beings and architecture are examined by considering a multitude of topics: transhumanism, fluid spaces, medical anthropology, psychoanalysis, mood-sensitive houses, and many more.
Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi, Dorsoduro, 810 (campo Sant’ Agnese)
September 23rd – 25th; October 21st – 23rd; November 18th – 20th
Organizing Institution: Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia
www.prohelvetia.ch
www.biennials.ch

Skirting The Center: Svetlana Kana Radević on the Periphery of Postwar Architecture
Both in her built work and in the geopolitical circumstances of her professional life, Svetlana Kana Radević (1937–2000) posited the figure of the architect as a regionally, nationally, and internationally mediating force across societal registers. Among the most prominent architects in socialist Yugoslavia, Radević designed anti-fascist memorials, hotels, and residential projects but remains almost completely unknown internationally. This exhibition shows original drawings, photographs, and correspondences from her personal archive, a trove of newly discovered materials that make it possible to contextualise and historicise an exceptional, overlooked figure.
Palazzo Malvasia Palumbo Fossati, San Marco, 2597
10 am – 6 pm, closed on Monday
Organizing Institution: APSS Institut
www.kotorapss.me
www.kanaradevic.me.

The Majlis
Caravane Foundation has brought the Majlis - a meeting place – to a garden designed by Todd Longstaffe Gowan, at the Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore, in collaboration with the Benedictine community. Inspired by nomadic architecture and designed by renewable materials pioneers Simon Velez and Stefana Simic, the Majlis is made from bamboo and wrapped in textiles handwoven in the Atlas Mountains. Traditionally, a majlis is a place where people come together, in this case, to reflect on the Exhibition’s theme How will we live together? This intervention explores careful sourcing of materials and ethical processes of production; the accompanying exhibition contextualises the Majlis with precious loans from international museums.
Garden of the Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore
10 am – 6 pm, closed on Monday
Organizing Institution: Caravane Earth Foundation
http://caravane.earth

Tropicalia – Architecture, Materials, Innovative Systems
Cities are fast growing and changing and air quality is increasingly impacted as we experience the effects of climate change. The balance between hardscape and softscape becomes difficult to manage. Facts and figures are becoming a new source of anxiety, as data continually enter our lives unwillingly. In anthropology, the domus was a unique and unprecedented phenomenon, consisting of an ensemble of tilled fields, seed and grain stores, people, and domestic animals, all coevolving with effects no one could possibly have foreseen. The exhibition questions the impact of manmade structures in our daily lives and opens a discussion on the impact and experience of the question ‘Where does architecture stand today?’
Squero Castello, Castello, 369 (salizada Streta)
10 am – 1 pm and 2 pm – 6 pm, closed on Monday
Organizing Institution: Zuecca Projects
www.zueccaprojects.org/project/tropicalia-biennale-architettura-2021/

Without Land / Pomerium
The project consists of an upside-down boat, supported on top by its own oars, therefore the boat becomes a shelter from bad weather and a place to meditate, for any kind of castaway. The fact that it’s only a hull-shaped roof, just like those that can be found on community architectures today, such as churches and civil buildings, denotes the memory of a common past that has been erected as if it were a monument, an eternal memory for the ages. To find the origins, is to return to the original historic community that symbolises a unity akin to the entire human race, without any distinction.
Isola di San Servolo
8 am – 12 noon and 1 pm – 4 pm, daily
Organizing Institution: A.I.A.P. (Associazione Internazionale Arti Plastiche)
www.facebook.com/AiapAssintArtiPlastiche/

Young European Architects
CA’ASI is hosting the Young European Architects exhibition as part of the Biennale Architettura 2021. This exhibition underlines the important role played by European architects today, as seen throughout its contemporary architecture. CA’ASI promotes dialogue between contemporary architecture and art and between architects and artists of different generations and nationalities in order to question urban planning and architecture topics. This year, CA’ASI is particularly sensitive to emerging topics such as energy transition, participatory habitation, the digital revolution, the circular economy, and imagination as responses to the rarefaction of resources.
CA'ASI, Palazzo Santa Maria Nova, Cannaregio, 6024 (campiello Santa Maria Nova)
Organizing Institution: CA'ASI Association 1901
www.ca-asi.com

Young Talent Architecture Award 2020. Educating together
The Young Talent Architecture Award (YTAA) aims to support the talent of recently graduated architects, urban planners, and landscape architects who will be responsible for transforming our environment in the future. YTAA emerged from curiosity about and interest in the initial stages in these students’ development and a desire to support their talent as they enter the professional world. YTAA has thus become a platform to exchange knowledge on how we all learn architecture, and the exhibition speaks to how education in architecture can be undertaken together. The fact that many and very different architecture schools over the world participate makes it possible to organise an event with young architects and also other stakeholders and to discuss How will we live together?
Palazzo Mora, Cannaregio, 3659 (Strada Nova): exhibition; Palazzo Michiel, Cannaregio, 4391 (Strada Nova, campo Santi Apostoli): round table and awards ceremony
10 am – 6 pm, closed on Tuesday
Organizing Institution: Fundació Mies van der Rohe
www.miesbcn.com
www.miesarch.com
www.ytaaward.com
https://ecc-italy.booked4.us/public/

Meetings on Architecture

The Meetings on Architecture will complement the curatorial program for Biennale Architettura 2021 through a series of lectures and symposia that will bring together architects and scholars from around the world in order to address the question How will we live together? The specific themes of the panels run across the five scales of the exhibition. These include:

- Climate Change and Architecture

- Architecture Beyond the Anthropocene

- The Architectures of Reconstruction

- The Spaces of Listening

- The Architecture of Sports

- Architectural Education

Arsenale, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale July 16th – 17th , 2021

Performance

Adam Kaasa (Canada, UK, 1982)

Thandi Loewenson (Zimbabwe, 1989)

David Burns (USA, 1972)

Fiction Feeling Frame (UK), at School of Architecture, Royal College of Art (UK)

The meetings will also include a special weekend celebrating the city of Venice.

These events will be mostly scheduled over weekends. A more detailed calendar of events will be announced soon on the Biennale's website. All the events will be streamlined live.

You can watch the Biennale events on its Youtube channel. 

Top image: Giardini, image © Andrea Avezzù, courtesy of Venice Architecture Biennale

> via Venice Architecture Biennale