architecture biennale 2012 video from the awards ceremony

gold lion winners at the awards ceremony toyo ito and urban-think tank with justin mcguirk and iwan baan

the theme of the 13th international architecture biennale in venice is ‘common ground’, proposed by the biennale’s director david chipperfield to address the current identity crisis which architecture is facing, giving countries the opportunity to bring forth issues for discussion relevant to their nations and their research on how to resolve or change the impending state of urban planning worldwide.

within the biennale’s central pavilion at the giardini, along with the arsenale, 119 participants, architects, artists, critics, photographers and scholars alike, are showcasing their research and work through 69 diverse projects represented through mediums such as installation, sound and video projections and models. in addition, 55 national participants are represented within the giardini pavilions, as well as at the arsenale and throughout the city of venice.

of the exhibitions on show, the jury of la biennale award the top projects with the acknowledgement of the gold and silver lion awards. this year’s jury composed of wiel arets, kristin feireiss, robert a.m. stern, benedetta tagliabue and alan yentob has confered the 2012 awards as follows:

biennale architettura 2012 – awards ceremony video courtesy of la biennale channel

— golden lion for best national pavilion ‘architecture possible here? home-for-all’ naoya hatakeyama; kumiko inui; sou fujimoto; akihisa hirata (pavilion at giardini) commissioner: toyo ito. deputy commissioners: atsuko sato, tae mori

the golden lion for the best national participation, which captures the spirit of common ground, is awarded to the japanese pavilion in which leading international architect toyo ito collaborated with younger architects and with the local community to address in a practical and imaginative way the design of a new centre for a region devastated by a national disaster. the presentation and the storytelling in the pavilion are exceptional and highly accessible to a broad audience. the jury was impressed with the humanity of this project.

the japan pavilion by architects toyo ito, kumiko inui, sou fujimoto, akihisa hirata and photographer naoya hatakeyama golded lion award winner for best national pavilion image © designboom

see designboom’s coverage of the japan pavilion here.

left to right: kumiko inui, akihisa hirata, commissioner toyo ito and sou fujimoto image © designboom

— golden lion for the best project of the common ground exhibition ‘torre david / gran horizonte’, 2012 urban-think tank (alfredo brillembourg, hubert klumpner), justin mcguirk and iwan baan (exhibited at corderie, arsenale)

the golden lion for the best project embodying the theme of common ground goes to torre david / gran horizonte by urban-think tank (alfredo brillenbourg, hubert klumpner) and justin mcguirk and to the people of caracas and their families who created a new community and a home out of an abandoned and unfinished building. the jury praised the architects for recognizing the power of this transformational project. an informal community created a new home and a new identity by occupying torre david and did so with flair and conviction. this initiative can be seen as an inspirational model acknowledging the strength of informal societies.

‘torre david gran horizonte’ by urban-think tank, justin mcguirk and iwan baan golden lion award winner for the best project of the common ground exhibition image © designboom

see designboom’s coverage of urban-think tank, justin mcguirk and iwan baan’s project ‘torre david gran horizonte’.

photographic documentation of the vertical slum exhibited as part of ‘torre david gran horizonte’ were captured by iwan baan image © designboom

— silver lion for a promising practice of the international exhibition common ground grafton architects (yvonne farrell and shelley mcnamara) (ireland, exhibited at central pavilion, giardini) common ground, 2012

the silver lion of the international exhibition common ground is awarded to grafton architects (yvonne farrell and shelley mcnamara) as a promising and emerging practice. for their impressive presentation of a new university campus in lima, connecting to the ideas of paulo mendes da rocha. the jury believes that the conceptual and spatial qualities of this installation demonstrate the considerable potential of this architectural practice in reimagining the urban landscape.

‘paulo mendes da rocha’ by grafton architects silver lion award winner for most promising architecture practice image © designboom

installation view of ‘paulo mendes da rocha’ by grafton architects image © designboom

the jury has also decided to assign four special mentions: poland pavilion at the giardini ‘making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers’ katarzyna krakowiak (pavilion at giardini) commissioner: hanna wróblewska. curator: michal libera

see designboom’s coverage of the polish pavilion here.

the polish pavilion by katarzyna krakowiak, hanna wróblewska, michal libera special mention image © designboom

see designboom’s coverage of the polish pavilion here.

‘making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers’ video © designboom

— united states of america pavilion at the giardini ‘spontaneous interventions: design actions for the common good’ 596 acres; afhny studio; mouna andraos; ants of the prairie; architecture for humanity chicago; austin urban solutions & rosner studio; manuel ávila; baltimore development cooperative; barkow leibinger architects & kyle talbott; david benjamin and natalie jeremijenko; BK farmyards; brolab; brooklyn night bazaar; eduardo cachucho; center for urban pedagogy; candy chang; and civic center; cheng+snyder; chicago loop alliance; city repair; city fabric; cleveland urban design collaborative at kent state university; cmg landscape architecture; come out and play; commonstudio; graham coreil-allen; crookedworks; nicholas de monchaux; department of urban betterment; depave; design 99; design that moves you; do tank; dsgn agnc, ens_projects; envelope a+d; jason eppink; jason eppink and posterchild; free agents imbert and meijerink; free art and technology laboratory (f.a.t: lab); freecell; french 2design; futurefarmers; evan gant and alex tee; ghana thinktank; good; guerrilla grafters; habitatmap; fritz haeg; hellmuth; obata + kassabaum; hester street collaborative; HOK; howling mob society; ice-pops; institute for urban design; interboro partners; international design clinic; jackson heights green alliance; kingshighway vigilante transitions; la department of diy; la green grounds; lang architecture; make it right foundation; street plans collaborative; m12; macro sea, mas studio, mit media lab; molly dilworth studio; ken mori & jenny liang; eve mosher; myblocknyc; neighborland; no longer empty; normal projects; object orange; occupy wall street 8various, including inflatable general assembly and ows screenprinters’ guild; openplans; philadelphia horticultural society; planningcorps; popularise; public architecture; public laboratory for open technology and science; public media institute; alexandra pulver; rebar; rebuild foundation; red swing project; resource center; rockwell group; james rojas; sanfranstudios; sensemakers; shared spaces landscape architecture and ‘hood builders; slo architecture; stamen; streetfilms; syracuse university school of architecture; team better block; matt tomasulo/cityfabric; treekit; theuni project with howeler + yoon architecture; urban operations; urbano activo; urbanuxd; rob walker & ellen susan; dave winslow and loring sagan; ed woodham; workac; youarethecity; z-a studio commissioner/curator:cathy lang ho. curators: ned cramer, david van der leer. deputy curators: paola antonelli, anne guiney, zoe ryan, michael sorkin

see designboom’s coverage of the US pavilion here.

— russian pavilion at the giardini ‘i-city’ arep; speech tchoban/kuznetsov; david chipperfield architects; valode& pistre; mohsen mostafavi; oma; sanaa; herzog& de meuron; stefano boeri architetti; project meganom; mdp/michel desvigne paysagiste; bernaskoni architecture bureau commissioner: grigory revzin. curator: sergei tchoban.deputy curators: sergey kuznetsov, valeria kashirina