The Venice Architecture Biennale is a global event. Here “clocks are checked” not only by architects, but by politicians and developers. Participants in the last exhibition reflected on poverty, migration and environmental crises. The 2018 review is focused by curators, the Irish Yvona Farrell and Shelly McNamara on the “free space” - Freespace. In focus - places not occupied by architecture.
By topic: Russia at the Venice Biennale 2018
The prestigious Golden Lions, the main prize of the Biennale, was won by young designers from Switzerland, Briton Kenneth Frampton and Portuguese master of slow-architecture, Eduardo Soutou de Moura.
Alain Berse, who was elected Swiss president in 2018, visited the country's pavilion. 1. Switzerland Pavilion. The Svizzera 240: House Tour exhibition is rated as “witty and pleasant,” but, above all, as an important attempt to “solve the problem of a critical scale in space.” Four students from the Zurich Polytechnic School showed typical real estate “for renting” - a spineless series of rooms with white walls, laminate floors and plastic windows. A disoriented visitor to the pavilion could feel himself both a liliput and a Brodngieg at the same time ... Only about 30% of Swiss people own their own property - most of them live in rented apartments. Should the banality of design continue to take the norm?
Images of São Lourenço do Barrocal, his project in Alentejo, demonstrated how minimal the author's intervention was when converting an old farm to a new hotel. 2. Portuguese Éduardo Soutu de Moura (b. 1952), winner of the Pritzekor Prize, won the "Lion", impressively jury aerial photographs, "which show the essential relationship between architecture, time and place."
Portuguese master of slow-architecture to Eduardo South de Moura. 3. Pavilion of Great Britain. The special mention of the jury deserves the British project: Adam Caruso, Peter St. John from the Caruso St John bureau and artist Marcus Taylor. The pavilion, wrapped in scaffolding, completely empty inside, with a viewing platform on the roof, was marked for courage in creating “free space for unofficial events”. The curators were inspired by Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, where the victims of the shipwreck fall on the island of the magician Prospero. Hints at Brexit, isolation, climate change and rising sea levels.
UK Pavilion. The project is called "Island". In addition to its own program (discussions and meetings), empty rooms are rented for events to other participating countries. 
UK Pavilion. Inside an empty concrete space - a movie about modernist architecture. 
Музей V&А выкупил секцию Robin Hood Gardens: фрагмент размером 8,8 х 5,6 м, смонтирован как смотровая площадка на биеннале. 4. V&А Музей Виктории и Альберта главный музей современной культуры Великобритании принимает участие в основной экспозиции биеннале третий год подряд. В 2018 V&А приготовил проект о будущем социального жилья, показывая кусок его прошлого — фрагмент жилого комплекса Robin Hood Gardens, спроектированного бруталистами Питером и Элисон Смитсонами в 1972 году. Несмотря на протесты историков и практиков, здания идут под снос.
Часовня испанцев Flores & Prats. Экспозиция Ватикана. 5. Vatican. For the first time in history, the Holy See takes part in the Biennale. 10 chapels among the beautiful trees on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore were built by architects from different countries, adherents of different schools and people of different faiths. Among the star designers who have accepted the offer of the Vatican are: Norman Foster, Francesco Cellini, Eduardo South de Moura and Sean Godsell. The decision to build exactly ten chapels refers to ten biblical commandments; Each pavilion contains two main liturgical elements: the pulpit and the altar.
The Foster + Partner Sanctuary Project with the support of Tecno. Resilience, ethics and craft. Architecten de vylder vinck taillieu Belgian trio from Gent: Jan de Wilder, Inge Wink, Joe Tailier received the Silver Lion for the ability to wait and creativity, which "inspires confidence, thanks to which the architecture is open to a future life."
Andra Matin deserved special mention of the jury of the Biennale for “an emotional installation that provokes reflections on the material and form of traditional folk structures”. Special mention of the jury deserved: Indonesian Andra Matin and the Indian bureau RMA Architects, which "touched on issues of intimacy and empathy, gently eroding social boundaries and hierarchies." The head of the studio from Bombay is Rahul Mehrota, not only a practitioner, but also an architectural theorist, professor of Cambridge and Harvard.
Kenneth Frampton (born 1930) was awarded the "Golden Lion" for his "lifetime achievement." Frampton has been teaching at Columbia University in New York for over 40 years. His ideas influenced several generations of architects. На биеннале можно встретить девять лауреатов Притцкера: Альваро Сиза, Петер Цумтор, Éduardo Soutu de Moura, Ван Шу, Казуо Седжима и Рю Нишизава, Тойо Ито, Алехандро Аравена и Пауло Мендес да Роша. В Арсенале и Центральном павильоне садов Жардини лидирует Великобритания — девять бюро из Лондона, включая Дэвида Чипперфильда. По пять бюро представляют Испанию, США и Швейцарию.
The Vatican State is not the only debutant of this biennale. Antigua and Barbuda, Saudi Arabia, Guatemala, Lebanon, Mongolia and Pakistan are participating for the first time.
