{"id":56019,"date":"2010-08-25T15:06:09","date_gmt":"2010-08-25T15:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/programs\/americans-bring-their-can-do-approach-to-venice\/"},"modified":"2021-08-22T19:56:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-22T19:56:57","slug":"americans-bring-their-can-do-approach-to-venice","status":"publish","type":"metro_program","link":"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/programs\/americans-bring-their-can-do-approach-to-venice\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans bring their “can-do” approach to Venice"},"content":{"rendered":"
The form of Duck-and-Cover produces the big box logo from a Google-Earth point of view, and a verdant garden at street-level, image courtesy RSAUD<\/p>\n
Starting this Sunday, August 29, when the Venice Biennale<\/a> opens (and runs through November 21), there will be a lot of chatter about what feeds architecture and design thinking in 2010. Here, we\u2019re kicking off the discussion with a look behind the scenes at the U.S. Pavilion. Its curators, Jonathan D. Solomon and Michael Rooks named their show Workshopping: An American Model of Architectural Practice. The title, they say, is meant to evoke our \u201ccan-do mentality\u201d. Solomon, acting head of the department of architecture at the University of Hong Kong, for instance, starts his catalog essay by recalling the work of engineers who figured out how to save the Apollo 13 mission, urging architects to act as \u201cinitiators\u201d who collaborate with other professionals to create a \u201ccharged atmosphere of solution-finding\u201d. Could this be Horatio Alger meets Bob the Builder? No, it\u2019s more like a call to action to solve some fierce, global problems: flooding, sprawl, lack of housing, poor access to fresh food and clean air. I spoke to Solomon and Rooks, who is Wieland Family curator of modern and contemporary art at Atlanta\u2019s High Museum<\/a>, just as they were about to fly to Venice to mount the show.<\/p>\n How do you define \u201cworkshopping\u201d? How is that different from collaboration?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jonathan D. Solomon<\/strong> We use the word workshopping to define architect-initiated collaborations that advance in the spirit of problem-defining as well solution-finding. This way of working privileges research, social engagement, and private initiative for public benefit. It empowers architects to take on the needs of the city. While workshopping, like all architecture, requires collaboration between multiple disciplines, it sees architects as initiators and leaders of these collaborations.<\/p>\n Why did you choose the particular participants? What aspect of their work fit the exhibition?<\/strong><\/p>\n JDS<\/strong> We wanted this exhibition be a conversation, so we chose exhibitors who would be able to set off each other\u2019s differences rather than take refuge in their similarities. We gathered a geographically, ideologically, and generationally diverse group who represent seven very different approaches to practice in the American city.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Mobile Food Collective, Image courtesy Archeworks.<\/p>\n Michael Rooks<\/strong> ArcheWorks<\/a> is the alternative design school in Chicago, New York\u2019s Terreform<\/a> is the research NGO founded by Michael Sorkin, and cityLAB<\/a> is a UCLA think tank. They are examples of hybrid institutions that see the city as a territory for working out social and cultural problems of our day. The projects range in focus from resource management to social sustainability, from post-urban public space to affordable housing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n New York City (Steady) State, Terreform, New York, NY Michael Sorkin<\/p>\n Guy Nordenson\u2019s team of professionals and institutions from a variety of fields combines research, analysis, and design, which becomes the foundation for proposing solutions to rising sea levels in New York and New Orleans. Their collaboration, under the team\u2019s leadership, transcends any one purview.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mississippi Delta: Construction with Water: A collaboration between Princeton University and the Coastal Sustainability Studio at Louisiana State University Guy Nordenson and Associates, Catherine Seavitt Studio, Anthony Fontenot, and the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio.<\/p>\n John Portman & Associates<\/a> epitomize the model of a practice where the architect acts as designer and developer. By working in both public and private spheres the Portman office has been able produce truly transformative results like bringing their home city, Atlanta, into the 20th century. More importantly the model of space the firm invented in the 1960s\u2014the continuous private interior for public use\u2014has in this century become a model for development worldwide, especially in Asia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Peachtree Center, Atrium Interior Copyright 1985 Jaime Ardiles-Arce<\/p>\n