By invitation of Director David Chipperfield, MVRDV and The Why Factory will participate in the 2012 Venice Biennale. The main contribution consists of the collaborative project ‘Freeland’ forming part of the single exhibition in the Central Pavilion at the Giardini. Further contribution is made by Winy Maas and The Why Factory with ‘Porous City’ to the EU CITY Program, initiated by the European Forum for Architectural Policies (EFAP) representing Europe for the first time at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
More details on the two exhibitions after the break.
The exhibit poses a simple question: What if you could start here and create your own world?
Freeland plunges visitors into the animated world of a city without the rules of urban planning. A multi-screen surround projection envelopes the audience and invites investigations into the legitimacy of classical centralized planning in today’s world and inspires the individuation and self-organization within cities. ”Freeland” is rooted in two projects: MVRDV ‘s Almere Oosterwold, on which ArchDaily reported earlier this year, and the research conducted in bottom up organization by the AnarCity studio led by The Why Factory. Both projects invite “do-it-yourself” thinking to development strategies for cities. Driven by need, individual desires, and community goals, “Freeland” explores a range of possibilities, none of which are strictly predictable.
MVRDV’s Almere Oosterwold steps away from government dictacted urban development and uses its inhabitants initiatives to build their own neighborhoods at such scales as a public green, energy supply, water management, waste management, urban agriculture and infrastructure.
The Why Factory’s AnarCity is a fantasy of radical liberated urbanization, carrying with it a slew if possibilities in different situations and contexts, including the fall of government, climate crises or voluntary anarchism. The movie takes the viewer on a time-travel back to the utopian Freeland. Successes, failures and surprises play out in a series of intriguing narratives and in all cases builds up to a autarkic lifestyle for its inhabitants.
“Porous City”, an exhibition that will take place at the Spazio Punch in Venice, is composed of 676 white LEGO towers at a scale of 1:000 that are formally complex and expressive. The exhibition will be opened on Sunday, August 26th at 18:00.
