‘Common Ground’ provokes us to think about the physical expression of our collective aspirations and ideas of society. It reminds us of our shared history and encourages us to think about the collaborative nature of architecture and the extraordinary potential of its collective process.

History Over the past thirty years, the Biennale has given growing importance to the Architecture Exhibition, which is still a young component of the Biennale considering that its first exhibition was held in 1975. Today, the Venice Biennale captures a multitude of interest from around the globe and attracts over 370,000 international visitors.

1975: A proposito del Mulino Stucky, Vittorio Gregotti 1980: La presenza del passato / Paolo Portoghesi 1982: Architecture in Islamic Countries / Paolo Portoghesi 1985: Progetto Venezia / Aldo Rossi 1986: Hendrik Petrus Berlage. Disegni / Aldo Rossi 1991: Forty Architects for the 90s / Francesco Dal Co 1996: Sensori del futuro. L’architetto come sismografo / Hans Hollein 2000: Less Aesthetics, More Ethics / Massimiliano Fuksas 2002: Next / Deyan Sudjic 2004: Metamorph / Kurt W. Forster 2006: Cities. Architecture and society / Richard Burdett 2008: Out There: Architecture Beyond Building / Aaron Betsky 2010: People meet in architecture / Kazuyo Sejima 2012: Common Ground / David Chipperfield

Chipperfield “We have made two mistakes over the past 25 years: There has been too much concentration on individual architects and too much on individual buildings … For this Biennale I didn’t want projects. I wanted the architects that I invited to participate to answer the question: What have you contributed to architecture? And equally to investigate the issue of what we architects for all our differences have in common, hence my overall theme of the exhibition: ‘Common Ground.’ (And)… how architects relate to society, because architecture cannot operate in a vacuum. If it is to be successful it has to operate with society.”

Kiállítás! Kiállítás? Milyen kiállítás? W. Prix In truth it is all hollow, arduous, exhausting, bleak, and boring. It is no longer about lively discussion and criticism of topics in contemporary architecture, but rather about empty, conservative, and perhaps populist shells that are charged with feigned meaning. Kiürült, fárasztó, kimerítő, sivár és unalmas Üres, konzervatív és talán populista keretben erőltetett jelentés.

What a great Architecture Biennale it would have been had they established forums and put out themes which would have provided a chance to look behind the scenes at the decision-making, instead of boring exhibitions. Take, for example, the dispute about the train station in Stuttgart. Or the reasons for the cost explosion for prominent buildings such as the Elbe Philharmonic Hall. Or the political arguments about mosques and minarets – in other words, the disputes about the localization of an idea. Why the market for single-family homes in the U.S. has collapsed and how power politics is conducted through settlement architecture.

A Titanic zenészei? The architects are playing on a sinking gondola like the erstwhile orchestra on the Titanic playing their last song, while outside in the real world our leaky trade is sinking into powerlessness and irrelevance. This is because politicians and project managers, investors and bureaucrats have been deciding our built environment for a long time now. Not the architects.

The Venice Biennale of Architecture needs to be reorganized!

Ellenvélemény Prix hedged his bets that this Biennale, with its fluffy- sounding name, “Common Ground,” would be just like its precedents. Unluckily for Prix, it wasn’t. In fact, it was probably the most politically-engaged Biennale yet. But its Gold Lion winners, including an informal settlement and post-Tsunami shelters, have made some architects ponder what has never been pondered of a Biennale before.

Questions-without-answers? Sustainability, one of the big stories of the last decade, was virtually non-present. Re-marks on big themes were the flavor of this year’s exhibitions. Canada focused on re-housing in the context of migration, Germany on re-use of buildings, Holland on re-setting spaces, Zaha Hadid on re-interpretation of (Frei Otto’s) engineering, OMA on re-appreciating forgotten bureaucrats, Foster on re-grouping more or less all architecture. In themselves the majority of these exhibitions and pavilions were well made and intelligently put together, asking big and relevant questions (– but what about the answers?) http://www.archdaily.com/270620/architecture-biennale-venice-2012- questions-without-answers/

The impression arose that the architectural discourse is scared of looking for answers as these can have a biting political edge and produce risky design concepts. It is shifting towards a facilitating role, in which putting questions on the table is the main task. Such a self-important yet safe attitude can weaken the professional debate in the long run. It is the lack of answers that may have added to Wolf Prix’s irritation.

Díjak. A zsűri A díjakat holland Wiel Arets elnökletével összeült nemzetközi zsűri ítélte oda, amelyben Kristin Feireiss Németországot, Robert A.M. Stern az Amerikai Egyesült Államokat, Benedetta Tagliabue Olaszországot, Alan Yentob pedig Nagy-Britanniát képviselte

 “It is difficult to think of a contemporary architect who has maintained such a consistent presence within the profession as Álvaro Siza. That this presence is maintained by an architect that lives and works at the extreme Atlantic margin of Europe only serves to emphasise his authority and his status.” „Kevés olyan kortárs építész van, aki Alvaro Sizához hasonlóan ennyire következetes szakmai jelenlétet tudott fenntartani. S ezt egy olyan építész tartotta fenn, aki az Atlanti óceán extrém európai szélén él és dolgozik, és csak a tekintélyt és a státust szolgálja.” (?? – copyright by Építészfórum)

A legjobb nemzeti pavilonnak járó Arany Oroszlán-díjat idén Japán Architecture possible here? Home-for-All installációja kapta. A projektben Tojo Ito működött együtt fiatal építészekkel (Naoya Hatakeyama, Kumiko Inui, Sou Fujimoto, Hirata Akihisa) és Rikuzentakata város lakóival. Céljuk az volt, hogy gyakorlatias és egyben kreatív módon tervezzék újra a 2011-es cunami által teljesen elpusztított település központját.

Architecture. Possible here? Home-for-all / Japan Pavilion After the earthquake top-down plans for recovery stress only “safety and security,” ignoring the land’s memories and relying instead on modernist methods. Dismantling the relationships between people and the natural world and the heart-to-heart interpersonal connections that constitute the region’s historical legacy, they prefer to push plans heavily dependent on civil engineering technology. But those strong-willed individuals hoping to return to their original land and act as inheritors of the past are people who aspire to a future linked to the past, using those leftover foundations as their foothold. Are architects really able to assist them in their aims? Immediately post-quake I proposed a project known as Home-for-All: an attempt to provide places where those who’ve lost their homes in the tsunami can enjoy a little breathing space – a place to meet, talk, eat and drink together.

Arany Oroszlán-díjat a Torre David/Gran Horizonte című, az Arsenale területén található projekt kapta, amely a venezuelai Urban-Think Tank (Alfredo Brillembourg, Hubert Klumpner) és a brit Justin McGuirk nevéhez fűződik. Az építészek Caracas egyik elhagyott és befejezetlen épületében teremtettek otthont egy új közösség számára és mindezt különleges módon mutatták be.

A legígéretesebb fiatal építészstúdiónak járó Ezüst Oroszlán-díjat az ír Grafton Architects (Yvonne Farrell és Shelley McNamara) iroda kapta egy új limai egyetemi campus terveinek meggyőző prezentációjáért, amely a zsűri méltatása szerint Paulo Mendes da Rocha brazil építész szelleméhez és elképzeléseihez méltó.

http://www.archdaily.com/268489/venice-biennale-2012-architecture-as-new-geography-grafton-architects-silver-lion-award/

Lengyelország kiállítása - Making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers

Amerikai Egyesült Államok kiállítása - Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good megbízó: Cathy Lang Ho, kurátorok: Ned Cramer, David van der Leer

Oroszország kiállítása - i-city megbízó: Grigory Revzin, kurátor: Sergei Tchoban

Gateway, Norman Foster The spaces between the buildings are always more important than the buildings themselves.” http://www.archdaily.com/268890/venice-biennale-2012-gateway-norman-foster/

Public Works, Architecture by Civil Servants / OMA Germany Akademie der Künste, Berlin St. Agnes Kirche, Berlin Brücke Museum, Berlin France Centre Administratif à Pantin Hotel de Prefecture du Val-D’Oise MOZINOR- Montreuil Zone Industrielle Nord L’Ecole d’architecture de Nanterre Italy Chiesa di San Giovanni Bono, Milan UK Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall & Purcell Room Pimlico School County Hall Island Block Extension Michael Faraday Memorial The Netherlands Wibauthuis, Amsterdam Ministerie van Financiën, The Hague

Frampton Rick Joy Architects, Stanley Saitowitz / Natoma Architects, Patkau Architects, Steven Holl, and Shim Sutcliffe Architects http://www.archdaily.com/271006/venice-biennale-2012-five- north-american-architects-kenneth-frampton/

pasticcio Pasticcio, the exhibition curated by Caruso St John, invites a group of seven contemporary European architects from different countries and generations, whose practice in engaged with the language and the history of architecture, both recent and ancient. Their work tries to establish continuities with an architecture before modernism. The group is formed by BIQ stadsontwerp bv, Bovenbouw Architectuur, Hermann Czech, Hild und K, Knapkiewicz Fickert, and Märkli Architekt. Themes include a consideration of proportion, ornament, typology, and interest in making interiors, in colour and in working with existing buildings, but the works are linked in spirit rather than in form or programme. The intention is to show how potent and diverse a contemporary architecture grounded in continuity and a common culture can be. http://www.archdaily.com/267599/venice-biennale-2012-pasticcio- caruso-st-john/

Elbphilharmonie The history of the Elbphilharmonie is an almost incredible example of a bottom-up democratic project, informed with euphoric energy, driven by architectural beauty, cultural-political vision, and civic pride. This energy exhausted itself in the face of exploding building costs and seemingly endless prolonged construction, culminating in a temporary building stop in November 2011. The large-scale construction site increasingly mutated into a battlefield involving the three main players: the client (the City of Hamburg, and its representative ReGe), the general contractor, and the architect/general planner. Ideally, the construction site of every building project is a platform of interaction that engages these three main forces; in this case, it relentlessly exposed conflicting interests and requirements. The story of the Elbphilharmonie provides, as an example, an insight into the extremes that mark the reality of planning and building today.

Diener & Diener

“Possible Greenland” a dán pavilon “Possible Greenland” attempts to look optimistically at the climate changes that are causing ice melts throughout Greenland. The shifting planes result in the exposure of vast mineral resources that can kickstart new industries and allow new urban cultures to emerge. Danish Architects are investigating Greenland due to centuries-old cultural and political ties. Greenland holds tremendous experimental potential for investigating perspectives on coming up with global solutions.

Cultivating: Architects are mapping current debates in Greenland with the hope of initiating discussion of these topics at the Venice Biennale. Connecting: The exhibit will present Greenlandic Transport Commission’s recommendation to establish a transatlantic airport outside of Nuuk. The project proposes a scenario where the new airport is coupled with a new container harbor to facilitate future shipping demands when the passages north of Greenland will open. It also raises the debate of the future for the other three Greenlandic municipalities once the airport is moved to Nuuk. Inhabiting: The exhibit will explore arctic building practices based on traditions that link Danish and Greenlandic customs. Migrating: Greenland has the potential to welcome tourism, mining and mineral exploration. The exhibition will explore historic migrations and urban development as well as its potential future. Comparative Studies: Possible Greenland explores where Greenland fits within the context of the global agenda and how its stands out among current practices, traditions and solutions.

A FINNEK, Aalto pavilon.

Museum of Copying / FAT The exhibition, curated by FAT, uses a series of installations to explore the concept of copying in architecture. Historically, copying was the means by which architecture was disseminated – it was, in short, a common ground of the discipline. Yet the copy has also been considered the enemy of progress and an inauthentic dead end. The copy can therefore be schizophrenically characterized as architecture’s perfect, evil twin, at once fundamental to architecture’s mode of production and a source of its inspiration, yet also its nemesis. The installation comprises five projects that explore the significance and possibilities on the copy in architecture.

In Ines Weizman‘s installation Repeat Yourself: Loos, Law and the Culture of the Copy, the function of copyright in architecture is investigated through examining the ownership disputes surrounding Adolf Loo’s archive and through, ultimately, the author’s proposed real size copy of the Baker House.

Feeling at Home Sergison Bates explores the common spaces between the public city and the private room. It considers six recent social housing projects in six cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Geneva, Paris, Trondheim and Winterthur. The work, by six different practices, reveals an interconnected culture of thought and practice, a common ground of influence and affinities that extends back to past practitioners and typological precedent.

Grands & Ensembles / France Grands & Ensembles portrays a town with a population of 300,000 – 400,000: European, French, and part of the Paris region, but not found on any administrative map. The town, which stretches from Marne-la-Vallée to Aulnay-sous-Bois, is covered by the major mass transit system being set up in the Paris region to constitute a dense urban network. These large projects, which are undergoing wide-scale renovation, could trigger a radical transformation of the unloved area, and give it a major part to play in setting up the “Grand Paris.” To attract new resident populations, it will have to highlight its own strengths: its exceptional situation in the metropolis, and the potential of its environment, a location bordering on green fields, where links between urban development and natural environment can be reinvented, and architecture could combat the usual urban solutions

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle / German Pavilion Reduce/Reuse/Recycle stands for a successful shift in value from waste to reusable material. The three terms describe a waste hierarchy that gives the highest priority to the most efficient strategies of minimization: avoidance comes first followed by direct reuse and, in third place, recycling which changes the properties of the material. This same logic may be applied in setting up a new value system to address existing buildings: the fewer changes that are made and the less energy used, the better the process. http://www.archdaily.com/267151/venice-biennale-2012- reducereuserecycle-german-pavilion/

A probléma Dealing with existing infrastructure has become the most important task facing German architects today. The greatest, most problematic challenge that lies ahead is the downsizing and conversion of postwar buildings, erected from 1950s to the 1970s, which are described as “too unsuitable, too slipshod, too inefficient to serve as housing in the future”. A complete reevaluation of not only of the structures themselves but also the social and historical implications of their unbuilt energy and resources is necessary in order to improve the urban fabric and achieve climatic goals.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle beavatkozási módok Maintenance Addition Conversion Infill Redesign Subtraction Material recycling Gestalt recycling

A német pavillonban bemutatott 16 projekt - Der Blumenladen in Oberbarmen. Entwerfen in Wuppertal, Urs Füssler, Berlin / Jörg Leeser, Köln 2008–2009 - Kollegiengebäude I und II, Universität Stuttgart, Heinle, Wischer und Partner Stuttgart 2000–2009 - Antivilla Krampnitz, Brandlhuber+ Emde, Schneider Berlin 2012 - Stadterneuerung Europarei, Uithoorn, Atelier Kempe Thill Architects and Planners Rotterdam 2004–2010 - Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin, RobertneunTM Berlin 2006 - Kulturzentrum Alvéole 14, Saint-Nazaire LIN Architects Urbanists Berlin 2005–2007 - Hörsaalgebäude, Universität Erlangen- Nürnberg, Schulz & Schulz Leipzig 2010– 2011 - Brunnenstraße Berlin, Brandlhuber+ERA, Emde, Schneider Berlin 2007–2010 -Studentisches Wohnhochhaus München, knerer und lang Architekten Dresden 2010–2012 - Hochhaus C10, Hochschule Darmstadt, Staab Architekten Berlin 2009–2011 - Dornbuschkirche Frankfurt am Main, Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten Frankfurt am Main 2003–2005 - Wohnhaus Schreber Aachen, AMUNT Architekten Martenson und Nagel Theissen Aachen/Stuttgart 2010–2011 - Gebäuderecycling Status quo Deutschland 2012 - Wohnanlage Klostergarten Lehel München, Hild und K Architekten München 2007–2009 - Schutzhütte am Fichtelberg Tellerhäuser / Erzgebirge, AFF Architekten Berlin 2009–2010 - Ostflügel des Museums für Naturkunde Berlin, Diener & Diener Architekten Basel / Berlin 2008–2010

“Light Houses: On the Nordic Common Ground” To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Nordic Pavilion designed by Pritzker laureate Sverr Fehn in 1962, “Light Houses: On the Nordic Common Ground” invites 32 architects from Finland, Sweden and Norway born in that year to present a model of a conceptual house that reflects their philosophy. The models not only offer a visual proposal, but some also include smells, sounds or tactile experiences.

Noero Architects (south Africa) Noero spent six months hand drawing a 1:100 plan of the historic shack settlement in Port Elizabeth, known as the Red Location District, as a protest against contemporary architecture’s abandonment of the plan, which Noero describes as the common ground for all architects. Featured alongside the 9m-long drawing is the artwork Keiskamma Guernica, a tapestry made by fifty women from the Hamburg Women’s Co-operative from the Eastern Cape that reinterprets Picasso’s Guernica to illustrate their anger towards AIDS/HIV’s impact on South Africa.

http://www.archdaily.com/271162/venice-biennale-2012-different-worlds-noero-wolff-architects/

“difference between good and bad work lies in an understanding of that which is shared and common and the ability to transform these ideas into forms and spaces which are both useful and satisfying within the community in which the work is located.”

USA Curated and commissioned by Cathy Lang Ho, along with David Van Der Leer and Ned Cramer, the exhibition presents 124 socially-minded urban interventions that have brought immediate improvements to the public realm. Each project is presented on suspended banner and graphically represented by a colorful bar code. The width of each stripe represents the prevalence of the following categories in regards to each project: information (blue), accessibility (orange), community (pink), economy (light green), sustainability (dark green) and pleasure (blue).

As visitors pull down each banner to learn the specifics of a project, a black square counterweight, etched with an urban issue, lifts along the wall and reveals a solution to the problem. Additionally, M-A-D developed an integrated infographic that covers the floor and provides a historical timeline to the American city and urban activism, while a video directed by Kelly Lourdenberg reveals the aspirations of each participant.

Fordított kolonializmus? A brit pavilon Explorers and their destinations: Aberrant Architecture – Brazil Laura Allen, Geoff Manaugh, Mark Smout – USA Ross Anderson and Anna Gibb – Russia Darryl Chen – China dRMM – The Netherlands Forum for Alternative Belfast – Germany public works and Urban Projects Bureau – USA and Thailand Elias Redstone – Argentina Liam Ross – Nigeria Toh Shimazaki – JapanBackground on Venice Takeaway

4 projekt amely különböző eszközökkel megvalósítja kiírás céljait Common Ground 4 projekt amely különböző eszközökkel megvalósítja kiírás céljait 69

Olgiati - Pictographs Olgiati - Pictographs 70

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Heneghan Peng (IRL) – Shifting Ground 73

Toshiko Mori – Dialogue in details All architecture must inevitably contend with history and gravity. These two forces are both fundamental and universal; to confront them is accordingly not only to take the crucial step in any attempt to reinvent the contemporary language of architect but to connect to a vast lineage of historical precedents, creating a platform for developing the discipline’s future as well as reflecting on its past. In Toshiko Mori’s case a series of dialogues with five American masters transpired from projects that required her to work next to, in addition to, or in reference to their creations. Toshiko Mori – Dialogue in details 74

MEX - culture under construction | the collectivity of cultural space 75

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Spacemaker 560 hallgatói modell nemzetközi pályázat alapján - Kurátorok: Bachmann Bálint és Markó Balázs

„SPACE MAKER – TÉR ALKOTÓ” NEMZETKÖZI HALLGATÓI PÁLYÁZAT LÉGY TE AZ EGYIK KIÁLLÍTÓJA A 13. VELENCEI ÉPÍTÉSZETI BIENNÁLE MAGYAR PAVILONJÁNAK! A pályázaton résztvevők egyénileg vagy legfeljebb 5 fős csoportban indulhatnak. A pályázaton egy darab, maximálisan 21x21x21 cm befoglaló méretű, tetszőleges( a velencei klímának - magas hőmérséklet és magas páratartalom - ellenálló ) anyagú modellel lehet részt venni, igény szerint 3D plotteres technikával is. A pályamű súlyára valamint színére vonatkozóan a következő megkötések vonatkoznak: súlya: max. 3 kg színe: kötelezően fehér A modellpályázat három kategóriája: - plasztika - vázlattervi modell - kész terv modell

Alternatívák? CommON_Épített Közösség – kiállítás terve a Velencei Biennáléra http://epiteszforum.hu/node/209 88

GAZDAGSÁG és EGYSZERŰSÉG – Kortárs szakrális építészet Magyarországon Makovecz Imre – Csíkszereda, Paks Csete György – Debrecen- Tégláskert Török Ferenc – Budapest- Lágymányos, Nyársapát Balázs Mihály – Kazincbarcika Fejérdy Péter – Csepel Benczúr László – Budapest- Kékgolyó Krähling János – Budaőrs Nagy Tamás – Balatonboglár Basa Péter – Budakeszi Finta József – Százhalombatta Egyszerűség Czigány Tamás – Pannonhalma Nagy Tamás – Gödöllő Kruppa Gábor – Budapest-Újpalota Pazár Béla – Budapest-Békásmegyer Lengyel István – Debrecen-Tócoskert Kocsis József – Szentendre Gereben Gábor – Szászberek Balázs Mihály – Győr-Kismegyer Ferencz István – Miskolc-Avas Golda János – Szeged Simon Viktória – Encs Kálmán Ernő – Budapest-KálvinJános

A kiállítás szakmai koncepciója Bujdosó Ildikó - Csanády Pál - Katona Vilmos - Vesztergom Ádám Vukoszávlyev Zorán Kortárs építészetünk önértékelő időszakhoz érkezett. Elemzésünk tárgya egy jól lehatárolható építészeti emlékegyüttes, melynek funkciója a nemzetközi és hazai figyelem központjában van. Módszerünk szerint egy magas minőséget képviselő épülettípus mentén adunk objektív értékelést, mely teljes diverzitását megmutatja a mai magyar építészetnek. Szándékunk egy szubjektív érték-térkép létrehozása, a véleménynyilvánítás lehetőségének biztosítása. Célunk egy önértékelési folyamat lenyomatát adni és szélesebb nemzetközi közegben visszacsatolást kapni.