The president of La Biennale di Venezia, Paolo Baratta, and the curators of next year’s biennale, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Dublin-based Grafton Architects, have announced that the theme of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition will be ‘Freespace’.
The curators describe Freespace as a concept bringing together themes such as ‘generosity of spirit’, ‘nature’s free gifts of light, natural and manmade resources’, ‘democratic space’ and ‘freedom to imagine’.
In a statement, the curators said: ‘We believe that everyone has the right to benefit from architecture. The role of architecture is to give shelter to our bodies and to lift our spirits…It is examples of generosity and thoughtfulness in architecture throughout the world that will be celebrated in the 16th International Architecture Exhibition. We believe these qualities sustain the fundamental capacity of architecture to nurture and support meaningful contact between people and place. We focus our attention on these qualities because we consider that intrinsic to them are optimism and continuity’.
The Biennale will take place from 26 May – 25 November 2018.
12 June 2017
