ArchDaily is proud to present images from the 2012 Venice Biennale featuring the reconstruction of Anupama Kundoo’s Wall House. The installation is an opportunity for the architect to reassess intial strategies and continue to explore the experiments of the original construction in Auroville, India. The replica was built by Indian craftspeople and Italian builders. The original design for the house aimed to respond to the environment and culture in which it is situated, taking into consideration construction techniques, material applications, and site strategies. The reconstruction, though absent from a landscape, displays spatial innovation and a collaborative use of materials that evokes an excitement about the integration of culture and structural techniques.
Join us after the break for images from the 2012 Venice Biennale.
The earth tones and textures of the replica are immediately recognizable: brick, terracotta, wood and stone evoke associations with ancient building practices as it fits within the architecutre of the building’s context. The wall house provides an intimate setting, breaking up the heights of the spaces for various programs and creating a sense of incomplete brick partitions with opening for light and ventilation.
The interaction of brick and wood, although built simultaneously in this application, also evoke a sense of dating – the wood elements and the terracotta ceiling seem to fit within the context of the brick exterior, while the entire temporal structure fits within the space of the Arsenale, the former naval rope factory.
One of the largest installation at the Venice Biennale, the Wall House was built as an on-site installation and creates new conditions within the interior of the Arsenale that change the experience of the space. It is built around the existing columns and integrates them within the replica.
For more information, check out our previous coverage here.
