Creative Directors Announced for 2014 Venice Biennale of Architecture

Augmented Australia 1914-2014 by Perth team felix._Giles_Anderson+Goad has been chosen as Australia’s contribution to the international celebration of architecture, with their concept of a vault full of unique architectural also-rans which will be created for the very first time for Australia’s exhibition.

The announcement was made last Thursday night at an evening function hosted by Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull at their Point Piper residence.

Keeping in line with Rem Koolhaas’s focus on historical importance and national identity, the team will bring 21 unrealised Australian projects to life through three-dimensional augmented models, images, voiceovers and animations; ten historical designs, ten unbuilt public buildings by contemporary architects and the new Australian Pavilion by Denton Corker Marshall which will then be under construction in Venice.

‘For every finished building there are countless designs that for whatever reason don’t eventuate and these masterpieces often remain hidden to the outside world,’ said Director of felix., Rene Van Meeuwen.

Architectural historian Philip Goad will assist the team in selecting the noteworthy unrealised historical projects. Meanwhile, the ten contemporary works will be selected through an open call to architects with unbuilt public projects designed in the last twenty years for an Australian site. Rem Koolhaas has observed that ‘national identity has seemingly been sacrificed to modernity’. felix._Giles_Anderson+Goad are interested in this global trend and also in its rebuttal; entrants will need to define how their project relates to this, as well as to Koolhaas’s theme more generally. Submissions for unbuilt public projects can be made at architecture.com.au/venicebiennale.

Photography: Alexander Mayes Photography
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