MIT at the Venice Biennale
At the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, opening Saturday, architects and designers have responded to a charge to “report from the front” on major challenges and issues facing humanity around the globe. In installations throughout Venice — from the historic venues of the Arsenale and Giardini on the island’s eastern tip, to repurposed palazzos and churches across the city — MIT faculty, alumni, and students are among the contributors offering varied and potent responses. Their efforts, considered alongside numerous others displayed in scores of exhibitions and pavilions, may signal a paradigm shift for architecture, participants say. Considered one of the foremost global forums for architecture and the built environment, and drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world, the Architecture Biennale takes place every two years in Venice. The 2016 curator, Chilean architect and Pritzker Prize winner Alejandro Aravena, chose as his theme “reporting from the front,” focusing on architecture’s capacity...