Architecture Biennale 2023

With Lesley Lokko as curator, the Architecture Biennale in Venice has taken on new momentum. Africa and its diaspora are the focus of the main exhibition, which demonstrates many different reflections.  

Architecture Biennale 2023 – national pavilions

Decolonization and decarbonization are the guiding themes determined by Biennale director Lesley Lokko. The 64 national pavilions present rather humble self-portraits and timid approaches. Outside the green Giardini, the future of urbanization is being renegotiated: in the desert of Saudi Arabia.    

Architecture Biennale 2023

The retrospective Kengo Kuma: Onomatopoeia Architecture, which is taking place at the Palazzo Cavallli-Franchetti in Venice, is showing around 22 models of some of the Japanese architect’s most significant buildings. The exhibition focuses on the dialogue between people and materials, as well as Kuma’s preoccupation with onomatopoeia, or the formation of words by imitating sounds.

Architecture Biennale 2023

On Saturday, 20 May, the 18th International Architecture Biennale will open in Venice. Under the motto The Laboratory of the Future, this year’s exhibition will focus on the African continent.  

Architecture Biennale 2023

Essential Homes is a joint research project by the Norman Foster Foundation and Holcim. The concept for living space will offer refugees security, comfort and a sense of well-being.

Facades have always had many roles to play. They give buildings a face, protect them from the elements, and convey meaning. The examples presented in this issue highlight the merits of thoughtful facades.  

We selected exciting projects for our September issue, focussing on mixed use concepts. They include residential and office spaces, sports halls and gastronomic functions and many more within their complex programs.

Space is a type of resource we bring to light in this summer edition of Detail. Our Documentation section features innovative structures that make clever use of limited space.

Anyone asking the inevitable question about climate protection in architecture today will receive not one but many answers.

Now the top view, i.e. the roof, is often the first impression we have of buildings.

Debates about building materials in architecture inevitably mention the term “truth to materials” (known in German as “Materialgerechtigkeit”).

Few sectors of the economy were so battered during the corona years as the hotel industry.

Not only in Germany and Europe but also worldwide, building in existing structures is currently gaining in acceptance and relevance.

While compiling our personal favourites of the year in the Detail editorial office, I was surprised at the vast scope of projects my colleagues had experienced in 2022. For this issue’s review of the year, they describe their architectural observations in places like Jerusalem, Berlin, and Montagnana, Italy.

If the aim is net zero, demolition and landfill disposal must be avoided at all costs. Today, a progressive architecture is one that takes part in the circular economy and reuses building materials.

Our October issue is all about light and interiors. PPAG’s school in Vienna brings daylight into deep cluster spaces to foster daily well-being.

In 1997, the Guggenheim Museum opened in Bilbao, and Frank Gehry’s eccentric new building transformed the Basque city into an overnight hotspot for international tourism.

Especially in big dense cities, roofs and facades are the only places left to make things greener.

“Doing away with everything superfluous creates the potential for an architectural quality all of its own,” says Florian Nagler about “simple building” in an interview with Frank Kaltenbach.

Naturstein und Hochlochziegel, Ortbeton und Stampflehm in vorproduzierten Elementen: Für die Massivbauweise kommen viele unterschiedliche Materialien in Frage, und oft ist ihre Anwendung regional motiviert.

Natural stone and perforated bricks, cast-in-place concrete, and rammed earth in prefabricated ele­ments – these are just a few of the diverse materials used in solid construction, and their use is often regionally motivated.

“A villa in the countryside with a large terrace, in front of you the Baltic Sea, Friedrichstrasse behind you …”. Thus begins Kurt Tucholsky’s 1927 poem, “The Ideal”. While Tucholsky’s ideal of urban life might be unattainable in Berlin, there are cities where it has become a reality.