Announcement of Hong Kong Exhibition at the 12th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition – “衣食住行Quotidian Architectures”
The Venice Architecture Biennale is the most prestigious architecture exhibition in the world. The Hong Kong Institute of Architects is pleased to announce the collaboration with Hong Kong Arts Development Council for continued participation in the Venice Biennale International Architectural Exhibition. The Institute hereby announces the theme of the 2010 Hong Kong Exhibition, “衣食住行Quotidian Architectures”, proposed by the Curator, Juan Du and her Curatorial Team, Mary Chan, Margherita Errante, Giulia Foscari and Chad McKee.
衣食住行 Quotidian Architectures architetture quotidiane
CURATOR
Juan Du
CURATORIAL TEAM
Mary Chan
Margherita Errante
Giulia Foscari
Chad McKee
In her curatorial statement for the 12th Venice Biennale of Architecture- “People Meet in Architecture”, Kazuyo Sejima asks the question: “Can architecture clarify new values and new lifestyles of the XXI century?” According to her explanation, this year’s Venice Biennale aspires to be “an experience of architecture possibilities, to understand how architecture expresses new ways of living, about an architecture created by different values and approaches.”
The 2010 Hong Kong Exhibition 'Quotidian Architectures' intends to present collaborative projects from a number of creative fields in Hong Kong. The curatorial ambition for the exhibition is to demonstrate the potential of collaborative design to make socially and environmentally responsible architectures for everyday life. Inspired from the Chinese colloquial phrase “Yi-Shi-Zhu-Xing,” we ask architects and designers to creatively re-imagine and expand the simple choices behind what we wear, what we eat, where we live, and how we travel. The daily decisions we make as individuals collectively contribute to the overall environment and lasting well-being of the city.
The ‘Quotidian Architectures’ exhibition intends to expand conventional architectural design and sustainable development by understanding the urban environment as a complex eco-system comprised not simply of natural resources, but also social communities, economic operations, and cultural identities. Projects that demonstrate the creative potential of design to engage the environment from all levels and aspects of daily life will represent the design fields of Hong Kong in this year’s Venice Biennale. The ‘Quotidian Architectures’ exhibition creates an active platform of collaboration between sustainable/community development practitioners and architectural professionals in Hong Kong. Six categories derived from the Chinese colloquial phrase for the basic needs of everyday life: Clothing, Food, Dwelling, Transportation, Education and Leisure form the core of the exhibition. In each category, an architectural professional/organization should collaborate with a sustainability-oriented practitioner/community to create an installation demonstrating the creative potential and necessity of collaborative design thinking.
Hong Kong is a fascinatingly diverse and livable city whose complex urban form has inspired many creative architectural solutions to the basic needs of everyday life. The ‘Quotidian Architectures’ exhibition offers a platform to demonstrate Hong Kong’s unique design solutions for dense urban settlements around the world. The three stages of presentation for the ‘Quotidian Architectures’ exhibition: International (12th Venice Biennale), Regional (Traveling Exhibitions), and Local (Hong Kong Response Exhibition), each present opportunities to explore and share the many positive contributions that collaborative design can and should bring to those building and living within the architectures of our city. After all, people meet in architecture.