In brief
A series of themed exhibitions selected by the Biennale curator Hashim Sarkis were housed inside the giant industrial hall of the Arsenale. Reflecting on this year’s curatorial theme ‘How will we live together’, various responses touched on the current climate crisis.
The section ‘Inhabiting New Techtonics’ was a showcase for high-tech architectural solutions, drawing from digital fabrication and computing. Exploring the potential of biological principles adopted to materials, the centrepiece installation, titled Maison Fiber, presented a new construction material with ecological potential made of glass fibre and carbon fibre composites.
An impressive surreal quality in the prototype model provided a contrast to the historic shipyard exhibition halls. As one of the major projects exploring new technologies at the Biennale, its material presence evolved as an outcome of a research team at Stuttgart University. It is about a radical formal innovation, enabled by robotic construction, and a pioneering method to explore future possibilities in architecture.