The Board of la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, has met on July 18th 2015 and appointed Alejandro Aravena as Director of the Architecture Sector, with the specific responsibility for curating the15th International Architecture Exhibition to be held from May 28th to November 27th 2016 (vernissage May 26th and 27th).  

On the occasion of his nomination, Alejandro Aravena declared:

There are several battles that need to be won and several frontiers that need to be expanded in order to improve the quality of the built environment and consequently people’s quality of life. This is what we would like people to come and see at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition: success stories worth to be told and exemplary cases worth to be shared where architecture did, is and will make a difference in those battles and frontiers.

The 15th International Architecture Exhibition will be about focusing and learning from architectures that through intelligence, intuition or both of them at the same time, are able to escape the status quo. We would like to present cases that, despite the difficulties, instead of resignation or bitterness, propose and do something. We would like to show that in the permanent debate about the quality of the built environment, there is not only need but also room for action.

On his part, the President of la Biennale, Paolo Baratta, stated:

After the important experimental Biennale developed by Rem Koolhaas, dedicated entirely to the curator’s research, it is our belief that we must follow up with a Biennale that convenes the architects, and is dedicated to the exploration of the new frontier that demonstrate the vitality of architecture, a frontier that spans across various parts of the world and shows architecture engaged in providing specific responses to specific demands. This Biennale intends to react once again to the gap between architecture and civil society, which in recent decades has transformed architecture into spectacle on the one hand, yet made it dispensable on the other. Among architects of the new generation, Alejandro Aravena is, in our opinion, the one who can best describe this reality and highlight its vitality.

As for the duration of the Exhibition, Baratta confirms that after many years in which the Architecture Biennale has continued to grow, we may now consolidate the decision to make it last six months, given the steady increment in the attendance of architecture schools from all over the world who come to participate in the Biennale Sessions project, and have made the Architecture Biennale a pilgrimage destination for students and teachers from the universities of many countries, from the United States to China.

Alejandro Aravena was  born in 1967. Graduated in architecture from Universidad Católica de Chile in 1992. Studied history and theory at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, 1992–93. Has worked independently since 1994. Executive Director of ELEMENTAL S.A. since 2006.

In Oris 58 we published an article about his work of social housing Quinta Monroy in Chile. The article can be found here.