The International call for applications has opened for the first-ever Biennale College Architettura, which will run from 25 June to 22 July 2023 in Venice, Italy, is open to 17 February 2023.
… encourages applicants from as wide a range of built environment disciplinary backgrounds as possible…
La Biennale di Venezia writes:
The College is open to graduate students, graduates under the age of 30, to early career academics (PhD candidates, researchers, assistant professors, tutors, teaching fellows, etc.) and emerging practitioners under the age of 35. In line with the general goals of all Biennale Colleges (cinema, dance, music, theatre, art), this first Biennale College Architettura will seek to complement and enrich the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, The Laboratory of the Future (20 May – 26 November, 2023) by exploring how to place the Exhibition’s central themes, decolonisation and decarbonisation, at the heart of architectural education.
The process will culminate in a documentary, which will be screened as part of the Exhibition.
The International call for the Biennale College Architettura will remain open from Monday, 9 January to Friday, 17 February 2023.
Biennale College Architettura encourages applicants from as wide a range of built environment disciplinary backgrounds as possible (such as landscape architecture, urban design, interior architecture, design engineering or similar built environment practices), following the overall ambition of The Laboratory of the Future to broaden our understanding of our discipline. Preference will be given to applicants with strong design skills and interests, whether expressed through visual, text-based or performance media.
Up to 50 eligible participants will be selected following the open call deadline by the Director of the Architecture Department of La Biennale di Venezia, Lesley Lokko, whose decision will be final. They will work alongside a global cast of renowned practitioners, academics and built environment professionals on a range of design projects at different scales that map out new possibilities for architectural education in the coming decades.
This educational experience will be thematically and physically situated amongst the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice. Those participating in the College will enjoy direct access to the exhibited work of the participants of the Biennale Architettura 2023. The Biennale College Architettura 2023 will operate through a series of experimental studios, seminars, lectures and public reviews, drawing on the rich history of radical and transformative pedagogies that have surfaced in architectural education over the past fifty years. The College will thus provide an explorative space for graduate students, early career practitioners, and emerging teachers and academics, to critically and creatively engage with each other, with experts and with the two most pressing concerns of our time: decolonisation and decarbonisation.
The President of La Biennale Roberto Cicutto has stated:
“The 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will be testing a College programme this year for the first time. We hope that the result will be equal to that achieved by the first College Arte held last year by Cecilia Alemani. The Biennale College Architettura thus completes a process that began with all the other disciplines of La Biennale di Venezia – Dance, Music, Theatre, Cinema, Art – to open a gateway towards the world to young architects. The challenge that Lesley Lokko has accepted is perhaps more complex than that of her colleagues. But it is precisely her experience in transforming the way we conceive, transmit and teach architecture that makes her the most suitable person to achieve this goal. And as we wish Lesley great success, we wish the same for all of us as we work to increasingly make La Biennale a laboratory and a stage for international debate for the young women and men who, thanks to this experience, will acquire even greater consciousness of the choice they have made.”
This introducing architecture as a new discipline for the Biennale College will be crucial for the Architecture Department of La Biennale.This programme of permanent activities, “beyond the Exhibition”, is thus configured in a new and original way, aimed at fostering the development of new critical thoughts and creative energies.
