The Brief
The studio will evaluate three locations in Venice which represent the three layers of the city: water, city and sky. Students will look at the site contexts and histories and define the opportunities and challenges they hold, whilst at the same time observing how being remote limits our physical experience, but also extends and accelerates our digital reach and capabilities.
The studio will introduce two of UNStudio’s Venice Biennale pavilions: ‘The Changing Room’ from 2008 and the unrealized ‘Living Within’ from 2021. Both installations record a historic moment: one just before the credit crunch turned the world upside down; the other, somewhere inside a global pandemic with all its uncertainty. The first project is about architecture as a visual art form, the second, about community within architecture. This change of message – in little more than a decade – is in itself worth further discussion.
To achieve the objectives of the studio we will use computational design and cross platform data manipulation to create a participatory model of collective design. We believe that gamification of the design process with its seemingly carnival like nature will open a new layer of creative capabilities.
| Project Programme | To be Decided Together with Students |
| Studio Times | 09:00 – 12.30 (GMT +2) Venice | 17:00 – 20.30 Melbourne | 15.00 – 18.30 China 5th – 16th July (exc. weekends) |
| Required Skills | Basic 3D Modelling (Rhino) Proficiency with Adobe Suite |
| Required Software | Required: Rhino, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop In Studio Tuition: Arkio, Grasshopper |
| Resources | None Specified |
| Project Sites |
1. San Giobbe, Venice |
In the Water
In the City
In the Sky
Studio Directors
Melinda Matuz
Melinda Matuz is a Senior Architect and Associate at UNStudio. Since joining the studio in 2016, Melinda has been working on and leading a wide range of projects from interior design to master planning. Melinda is an all-round architect specialized in narrative design and storytelling, with a special focus on design affecting people’s emotional engagement with architecture and perception of space. She received her Master of Science in Architecture Degree in 2005 from Budapest University of Technology, after that she has been researching the contradictions of social awareness in contemporary architecture at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. Among others currently, she is working on the new headquarters of JetBrains in Russia, The MGM Island in Dubai, a large scale hospitality development under construction and a new masterplan in Bruzzano, Milan. She also participated in the design of the extension of the Kutaisi Airport.
Alexander Kalachev
Alexander Kalachev is an Architect and Associate at UNStudio. He received his Master of Architecture degree from the Dessau International Architecture Graduate School (DIA) and worked at a number of international firms before joining UNStudio in 2014. Alexander has been an integral team member on many of UNStudio’s key cultural projects, including the Beethoven Concert Hall in Bonn, Germany and the Theatre on the Parade in Den Bosch, The Netherlands. In addition to Alexander’s role as an Architect on projects, he is also an active member of the Parameters Knowledge Platform concerned with computational design.
Caterina Micucci
Caterina Micucci is an Architect and Interior Architect at UNStudio. She graduated from the Architecture University of Venice (IUAV) in 2010 and received her Ph.D in 2015. Prior to joining UNStudio in 2018, Caterina has participated in a number of projects of varying scale and typology such as residential, cultural, retails, mixed use mainly focused in interior developments. She has extensive experience in office and residential projects, with a clear understanding of international branding and its translation to
architecture. At UNStudio, Caterina has been involved in many architectural design processes, and plays and intensive role on projects with a strong focus on interior design and branding.
Studio Guests
Johan Hanegraaf
Vice President and
Architect
Arkio, Amsterdam
Ben van Berkel
Founder / Principal Architect
UNStudio, Amsterdam
© Els Zweerink
Caroline Bos
Co-founder / Principal Urban Planner
UNStudio, Amsterdam
Pippo Ciorra
Senior Curator
MAXXI Architecture, Rome
© Flavia Rossi
Nicolò Piana
Senior Lead Architect
Atelier Brückner, Stuttgart
Venice Projects
The Changing Room
Venice Biennale of Architecture (2008)
The installation, for the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2008, explores the transformative potential of the material world. Just like clothes designers, architects offer alternate looks and identities, age and income-appropriate shells. These constructions consist of a miscellaneous package of endogenous and exogenous values; things and ideas that inherently belong to architecture and its traditions, and things and ideas that do not, but that nevertheless profoundly influence architecture.
How to deal with this? Can architecture still have autonomy? According to UNStudio the lesson is to ‘switch it on, switch it off’… to find autonomy in brief moments of liberation. On the inside of the structure, the visitor encounters a kaleidoscopic world of people posing, inviting voyeurism, and seeking transformation in their own conceptualizations.
Photography by Christian Richters
Living Within
(Brainport Smart District)
Venice Biennale of Architecture – unrealised (2021)
With explosive growth in cities around the globe; affordability, accessibility and health are under great pressure. UNStudio’s work at Brainport Smart District (BSD), sets out to respond to these critical issues and creates a new benchmark for innovative district plans. In collaboration with city officials and private-public partnerships, UNStudio is working to create a bold new district that celebrates a better quality of life in regards to health, circularity, mobility, energy, participation, data management and inclusivity – a community growing out of innovation even in such unprecedented times.
A key pillar of BSD is participation; the power of a community to live together and tackle modern-day challenges. The Biennale installation celebrates this concept in a visual and auditory immersive space, immediately transporting visitors from the Arsenale to the Netherlands. As you enter the installation, visitors instantly join the ‘Community of Innovators’ within the pixelated landscape, with the ability to experience communal resource schemes such as shared energy generation and land cultivation. Visitors can choose whether they stay as observers passing through or if they want to engage the landscape.
With digital technologies becoming increasingly woven into our living environments, the discussion about privacy and data ownership is becoming ever more relevant. The pixelated installation visualizes BSD’s conscious approach to data ownership, by simplifying layers of data networks. Once complete, the materials will be repurposed on the BSD site until their biodegradable materials become part of the landscape.
© UNStudio
UNStudio
UNStudio, founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, is an international architectural design network with six full-service international offices in Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Dubai and Melbourne. UNStudio specialises in architecture, interior architecture, product design, urban development and infrastructural projects.
Mercedes-Benz Museum
Stuttgart
© Eva Bloem
Möbius House
Het Gooi
© Eva Bloem
© Eva Bloem
Southbank by Beulah
Melbourne
© UNStudio