Articles by Christele Harrouk

Most biennales and architecture events, especially the recent ones, have influenced and shaped the dialogue of the ones that followed. In fact, during a conversation earlier this year with Lesley Lokko, the curator of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, she explained and affirmed that “all exhibitions […] take sustenance from those that came before”, further noting that “if I look back at the dozen or so Architecture Exhibitions over the past twenty years, each one has contributed in some way to the discourse of the next.”

The European Cultural Centre (ECC), a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering cultural exchanges on an international scale, showcased its sixth edition of the Time Space Existence architecture exhibition alongside this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale. The 2023 installment was centered on the theme of sustainability in its various forms, encompassing subjects related to migration, digital building technologies and material research, future urban developments, and housing, bringing together architects, designers, artists, academics, and photographers from 52 different countries.

For the second consecutive year, Vienna is the world’s most liveable city according to The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) 2023 Global Liveability Index. Topping the ranking for the fourth time in five years, Vienna has excelled in stability, culture and entertainment, and reliable infrastructure. Copenhagen in Denmark maintained its second position while Melbourne and Sydney came in third and fourth position, rising to the top 5 where they previously had a consistent presence among the leading positions, before the pandemic.

Successfully challenging the audience to think in a different and more empathetic way, Lesley Lokko’s biennale is an authentic portrayal of a highly intricate subject. Inaugurated on May 20, the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, titled The Laboratory of the Future, has already sparked worldwide discussions.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize presents The Role of Practice, the 2023 Laureate Lecture and Panel Discussion, today, Tuesday, May 23rd at 3:40 PM EEST, in partnership with the National Technical University of Athens, and with the participation of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Patras and the Technical University of Crete.

The Brazilian Pavilion titled “Terra” or Earth, curated by Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. Selected by a jury comprising Italian architect and curator Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli as president, Nora Akawi, Thelma Golden, Tau Tavengwa, and Izabela Wieczorek, the winning intervention at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale “proposes to rethink the past in order to design possible futures, bringing to the fore actors forgotten by the architectural canons, in dialogue with the curatorship of the edition, Laboratory of the Future”.

The Naomi Milgrom Foundation has revealed the design of its tenth MPavilion, designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Tadao Ando, set to open during Australian summer, on November 16, 2023. Reflecting the architect’s architectural approach, the design unveiled the “use of striking geometric interventions in nature and […] concrete.” Once ready, the intervention will become the architect’s first commission in Australia. Created as a new gathering place situated within Melbourne’s cultural and botanical garden precinct, MPavilion 10 responds directly to the park’s surroundings by emphasizing spatial purity and utilizing the geometric shapes of circles and squares.

The 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial (SAT) will take place from November 11th, 2023 to March 10th, 2024, under the theme “The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability“. Focusing on how scarcity in the Global South has led to a culture of re-use, re-appropriation, innovation, collaboration, and adaptation, the second edition of the architectural exhibition, curated by Tosin Oshinowo, aims to shift global conversations towards creating a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable future.

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) has selected an international architecture team to design its new performance home. Comprising BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), William Rawn Associates, and Nashville-based EOA Architects, the global architecture team will reimagine the 50-year-old performing arts non-profit on a different site from its original 1974 plot, part of the State-owned James K. Polk Cultural Center.

Deliberated by the Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia and upon recommendation by Curator Lesley Lokko, the International Jury of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, which will open on the 20th of May 2023, and will run until the 26th of November, 2023, has been selected. The 2023 jury will include Italian architect and curator Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli as president, Palestinian architect and curator, Nora Akawi, American director and curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, Thelma Golden, South-African founder and co-editor of Cityscapes Magazine, Tau Tavengwa; and Polish Izabela Wieczorek, architect in Spain and a researcher and educator based in London.