Architects Announced for The US Pavilion at 2016 Venice Biennale

Architects Announced for The US Pavilion at 2016 Venice Biennale

A list of architecture offices has been announced for the US Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Curators of “The Architectural Imagination”, Cynthia Davidson, editor of Log journal, and Monica Ponce de Leon, current dean of Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and future dean at Princeton’s architecture school, have chosen twelve teams from over 250 submissions.

During this fall, architects will visit four sites in Detroit. Here they will meet with teachers and students of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. As curators mention, the 2016 US pavilion is set out on “an exhibition of new speculative architectural projects commissioned for specific sites in Detroit but with the far-reaching application for cities around the world”.

The Architectural Imagination / curated by Cynthia Davidson and Monica Ponce de Leon. The US Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu

Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, architecture director of the 2016 Venice Biennale, will follow the curatorial research proposed by Rem Koolhaas with ‘Fundamentals in 2014, with a different approach. “We would like to present cases that, despite the difficulties, instead of resignation or bitterness, propose and do something”, Aravena states. “The Architectural Imagination” will focus on Detroit as a case study for projects of international interest and resonance – a theme chosen through an open competition led by The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, official managers of the U.S.’s role at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

The list of participating architects:

1. a(n) Office (Detroit, Michigan)
   Marcelo López-Dinardi and V. Mitch McEwen
2. BairBalliet (Columbus, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois)
   Kelly Bair and Kristy Balliet
3. Greg Lynn FORM (Los Angeles, California)
   Greg Lynn
4. Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects (Atlanta, Georgia)
   Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam
5. MARSHALL BROWN PROJECTS (Chicago, Illinois)
   Marshall Brown
6. MOS Architects (New York, New York)
   Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith
7. Pita & Bloom (Los Angeles, California)
   Florencia Pita and Jackilin Hah Bloom
8. Present Future (Houston, Texas)
   Albert Pope and Jesús Vassallo
9. Preston Scott Cohen Inc. (Boston, Massachusetts)
   Preston Scott Cohen
10. SAA/Stan Allen Architect (New York, New York)
    Stan Allen
11. T+E+A+M (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
    Thom Moran, Ellie Abrons, Adam Fure, and Meredith Miller
12. Zago Architecture (Los Angeles, California)
    Andrew Zago and Laura Bouwman

By: Ana Cosma