The 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism will debut on September 16th with a series of exhibitions, events and conferences that reflect on the future of urban environments and the architectural and planning strategies that foster resilience. Titled “CROSSROADS, Building the Resilient City”, the third edition of SBAU curated by architect Dominique Perrault attempts to assert the importance of interactions and “cross-fertilization of expertise and approaches” to respond to the complexities that shape the built environment, all read through the timely issue of resiliency.
The opening events will be held online on September 16th and 17thon the SBAU 2021 Youtube channel and website, discussing the future of cities, the issue of urban resilience when confronting large-scale crises, as well as the contents of the exhibition and their line of inquiry. The six exhibitions unfolding across three venues in Seoul will bring together 200 contributions from architects, urban planners, landscape architects, designers and artists, as well as those of a hundred invited cities from around the world.
We imagined everything but, while we hoped to enjoy a lull in the spread of the virus, nothing happened as expected, preventing most of you to attend the Seoul Biennale event. However, despite the sanitary crisis and the Covid level restrictions in Korea, the 2021 edition of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism will still take place. Building the Resilient City means being anchored in the world, not the world of tomorrow but the world of today. In the resilient city, everything must be resilient, even the events. Our strength of imagination and conviction allows us to respond in real-time and adapt to all situations. We are resilient because we are constantly alert. -Dominique Perrault, curator of SBAU
The SBAU 2021 is structured under five subthemes, 5 “crossroads” that frame the vision of the city of tomorrow: Crossroad 1 on urbanism: ABOVE X BELOW, which explores issues of density and programmatic connections, Crossroad 2 on architecture: HERITAGE X MODERN, questioning the notions of construction and deconstruction, Crossroad 3 on design: CRAFT X DIGITAL, an exploration of production in urban environments, Crossroad 4 on landscape: NATURAL X ARTIFICIAL, highlighting the relationship between cities and nature and finally Crossroad 5 on the city: SAFE X RISK, which tackles issues of adaptability. The exhibitions are accompanied by a series of lectures and events unfolding throughout the Biennale.
The participants and curator who could not attend the opening ceremonies due to the health crisis will travel to South Korea for the closing events in October when the sanitary conditions might improve. The event will run until October 31st.
