The Forest of Venice
KS designs an exhibition at the Biennale Architettura 2016 in Venice
Urbanity, architecture, forest, wood and climate; are the focal points for Sweden’s contribution to the Venice Biennale 2016
The Forests of Venice, Collateral Event of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Serra dei Giardini.
The Swedish exhibition The Forests of Venice has been officially selected as a Collateral Event during the Venice International Architecture Exhibition. The initiative brings together some of Sweden’s most prominent architectural firms, highlighting wood as a building material and illustrates the interaction between nature and habitat for addressing climate change with limited resources.
The Forests of Venice is initiated and produced by Kjellander Sjöberg and Folkhem with the support of the Swedish Institute. The exhibition is curated by Jan Åman, and is supported by Swedish Wood, Sveaskog and Martinsons.
The exhibition is housed in Serra dei Giardini, a greenhouse built in 1894 and situated between the Biennale’s two main exhibition areas – Giardini and Arsenale. The exhibition takes the city of Venice’s origin and situation as a point of departure, drawing similarities to contemporary times when climate change and rising sea levels pose a global problem of flooding to threatened towns and densely populated coastal areas worldwide.
In dialogue with the Doge’s Palace; one of the city’s most public buildings and symbol of its representative government – Kjellander Sjöberg have created a pavilion installation of solid wood which sits alongside the greenhouse in the garden. The Forests of Venice continues inside the greenhouse where seven selected architectural firms – Architects without Borders-SE, Arrhov Frick, DinellJohansson, Horn.Uggla, In Praise of Shadows, Carmen Izquierdo and Urbio – speculate on how classical Venetian architecture and urban elements can be reformulated into strategies for our time using wood as the main building material.
The exhibition The Forests of Venice connecting to the Biennial theme Reporting from the Front, which explores the architect’s role in the struggle to improve the living conditions of people worldwide.
Our host for Serra dei Giardini is Microclima.
The Forests of Venice is open from May 28 until September 18, 2016.
Serra dei Giardini
1254 Castello, Venedig