The 17th Venice Architecture Biennale is currently unfolding, and its 60 national pavilions reveal a wide range of answers to the question "How will we live together". This year's edition restates the Biennale's role as a platform for inquiry, prompting a collective re-evaluation of pressing issues such as migration, inequality, climate change or the role of technology. While in Venice, Archdaily met virtually within the Korean pavilion with curator Hae-Won Shin, as the pandemic prevented the exhibition's creators to be present at the Biennale. The conversation explored the thinking behind "Future School" and how it creates a framework for collective learning and exploration.
The Korean Pavilion is imagined as a catalyst for discussion around the urgent global challenges, coagulating a collective of experts from various disciplines and proposing workshops, roundtables, installations and screenings with the aim of establishing new networks of cooperation. Initially meant as a gathering space nurturing conversations, the pavilion became the placeholder of a virtual school, with a dense program unfolding throughout the Biennale. As defined by Hae-Won Shin, the curatorial project aims to create the framework for investigating the future and the means for shaping a better society.
The ideas incubator proposed by the Korean Pavilion unfolds within a flexible space, an almost domestic setting that includes a kitchen space, a circular lounge and a retreat room, echoing the characteristics of traditional Korean houses. The spatial configuration provides the informal environment that nurtures exchanges and inquiry. The curatorial project strives to minimise its environmental impact; therefore, the exhibition was created with reused materials whenever possible, which would create the least amount of waste at the end of the Biennale. The explorations taking place during the Biennale will be further explored in Seoul as part of Future School's first academic cycle.
We invite you to check out ArchDaily's comprehensive coverage of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, and watch our official playlist on Youtube featuring exclusive interviews with architects and curators of the Biennale.
