According the official curator of Austrian Pavilion, Verena Konrad, the three invited teams – Henke Schreieck Architekten, LAAC, and Sagmeister & Walsh – address urban spaces and architecture as built landscape. The teams will develop an interdependent spatial installation in three parts. In doing this they will refer directly to the theme “Freespace” and address the significance of free spaces for urban contexts.
“In this contribution to the Biennale Architettura 2018 we are focussing on the significance of public spaces for the city. The role of architects is essential here because design happens far too often without creating added value for public life. Architecture is not a service activity. It is a profession which must be practised with responsibility, intellectual effort and aesthetic sensitivity. And it also involves a plea for form because architecture is not the art of fitting in; it is not better, the less visible it is. We want to celebrate architecture as form and architecture as content in equal measure.”
Cities are largely defined by their public spaces. It is here that a range of user expectations come together. The aim of urban design is to find a balance, to act with an eye to the future and Cities are largely defined by their public spaces. It is here that a range of user expectations come together. The aim of urban design is to find a balance, to act with an eye to the future and to increase the attention given to public space. Public space is social space. And this is precisely why design is so important. In terms of architectural language, the quality of public space is defined by the balance between space and place, by convincing materials and by major urban design signals as much as by spontaneous and informal gestures. And, always, by high aesthetic aspirations.
The three invited teams – Henke Schreieck Architekten, LAAC, and Sagmeister & Walsh – address urban spaces and architecture as built landscape. ... A common feature of their work is that their interventions – whether these are architectural, urban or emerge from the logic of the design – are built not in the city but as extensions of it. This approach also enables the notion of the common good to emerge in the shape of a focus on the public interest that is playing an increasingly important role in the current architectural debate.
For the Austrian Contribution to the Architecture Biennale the three conceptual teams will develop an interdependent spatial installation in three parts. In doing this we will refer directly to the theme “Freespace” and address the significance of free spaces for urban contexts. While not alluding to real architectures, we will be working with real spaces – spaces which should enable us to recognise the qualities that these architects and designers are seeking to create with their work: the convergence of outside and inside, vertical and horizontal connections, the historical pavilion and the language of contemporary architecture and design.
“We see the invitation to participate in the Architecture Biennale as a mark of considerable appreciation for our previous work. We are particularly delighted to have been selected by Verena Konrad to make a contribution to the Austrian Pavilion on the subject of “Freespace”, the motto of the Biennale Archittetura 2018, because this motto reflects the proposition of our work to date in which urbanity, scale, context and space are always paramount. In all our projects we attempt to offer differentiated spaces that neither appear in any list of spatial requirements nor have any clear function, spaces with a special atmosphere and mood, feel-good spaces that appeal to all the senses. It is also important to us that every project enriches its surroundings. As architects we have an obligation not only to our clients but also to society as a whole. We are not service providers but, rather, the shapers of our environment. This is why it is essential that we constantly search for qualities that reach beyond the specific building task.”
Dieter Henke and Marta Schreieck
“The Biennale Architettura is more than an exhibition of contemporary architecture. It functions as a platform that communicates our architectural thinking process. It is a strong voice of an independent architecture scene, mobilising its creativity and intelligence, its innovative and critical faculties. The theme of this year’s Architecture Biennale offers us the opportunity to reflect upon our understanding of free space in the context of a multiplicity of architectural approaches. It literally enables us to enjoy the free space to re-establish the relationship between ideas, form and material, free from the distractions of everyday life. With the sentence “We see the Earth as Client” the Biennale Architettura is encouraging us to examine the relationship between places and people from a new perspective. We understand free space as both a spatial and a spiritual construct, as a complex dynamic system and a domain capable of change, characterised by coexistence and diversity. We believe that it is the responsibility of architecture to embody this spatial freedom.” Kathrin
Aste and Frank Ludin
