Australia’s Venice exhibition creative directors

A Perth-led team has won the bid to be creative directors of Australia’s pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. The Australian Institute of Architects announced the decision on 18 July at twin functions in Sydney and Melbourne. The winning proposal, Augmented Australia 1914–2014 from the team of felix._Giles_Anderson+Goad, will see visitors to Australia’s exhibition exploring unbuilt contemporary and historical projects in 3D walkthroughs using a smartphone app, such as Luminous, created by Felixlab for protoyping.

Multidisciplinary Perth practice Felix (Craig McCormack, Rene van Meeuwen, Matt Delroy-Carr and Romesh Goonewardene) join architects Sophie Giles (associate dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, University of Western Australia) and Professor Simon Anderson (dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, University of Western Australia) with assistance from Professor Philip Goad of the University of Melbourne.

Responding to Biennale curator Rem Koolhaas’s focus on historical importance and national identity, Australia’s exhibtion creative directors plan to bring twenty-one unrealized Australian projects to life through three-dimensional augmented models, images, voice-overs and animations. Ten of the projects will be unbuilt public buildings by contemporary architects, plus the new Australian Pavilion by Denton Corker Marshall (which will be underway during the 2014 Biennale). A further ten projects will be unbuilt historical designs of note, as selected by Professor Goad.

Top (L–R): Craig McCormack, Rene van Meeuwen and Matt Delroy-Carr of Felix. Bottom (L–R): Romesh Goonewardene (Felix), Sophie Giles (UWA) and Simon Anderson (UWA).

Top (L–R): Craig McCormack, Rene van Meeuwen and Matt Delroy-Carr of Felix. Bottom (L–R): Romesh Goonewardene (Felix), Sophie Giles (UWA) and Simon Anderson (UWA).

Professor Philip Goad of the University of Melbourne.

Professor Philip Goad of the University of Melbourne.

The ten contemporary works will be selected through an open call to architects with unbuilt public projects designed in the past twenty years for an Australian site. Entrants will need to define how their project relates to Rem Koolhaas’s curatorial theme generally, and in particular, his observation that “national identity has seemingly been sacrificed to modernity.”

Explaining his team’s approach, Felix’s Rene Van Meeuwen observed that, “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. These lost projects provide a wealth of insight into architecture for an Australian setting from the past 100 years, and are often more exciting than those that end up getting built.

Using a phone app, visitors can point their smart phone at trigger images to open a virtual walk-through and other catalogued information.

Using a phone app, visitors can point their smart phone at trigger images to open a virtual walk-through and other catalogued information.

Image: Australian Institute of Architects

“This cabinet of architectural curiosities is an opportunity to build a bridge between architecture and the public by demonstrating the process, the hours and alternatives behind significant public works and a chance to give this archived material new life. Visitors will be able to point their smart phone at the trigger images to open up a catalogue of virtual material allowing them to visualize each project via a walk-through. The trigger images will be contained in marker poles that will also signpost the exhibition site. These will be the portal into this virtual unrealized world, while the content will also be accessible online in a catalogue with 3D files available for people to print or order 3D replicas.” Read the full interview here.

A trigger image of the Nervi Cathedral (1958) by Pier Luigi Nervi in New Norcia, Western Australia. This image is part of  prototyping the augmented reality technology to be realised as part of Australia’s exhibition for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.

A trigger image of the Nervi Cathedral (1958) by Pier Luigi Nervi in New Norcia, Western Australia. This image is part of prototyping the augmented reality technology to be realised as part of Australia’s exhibition for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Image: Felix._Giles_Anderson+Goad

To test the virtual experience: download the Luminous app by Felixlab from the App Store (iPhones) or Google Play (androids). Point the phone camera (from within the app) at this trigger image of the Nervi Cathedral and wait for the augmented visual to appear, and then explore – but remember, it’s a prototype.

Submit unbuilt public projects for consideration here.

Other finalists for the 2014 curatorship were:

  • Between – FloodSlicer and Two4K (Vic)
  • Distinctions + Contradictions, At Home with Australian Architecture – associate professor Jay Younger, Lindy Johnson, Elizabeth Watson Brown, Jennifer Taylor (advisor), and Tony Gooley Design (Qld)
  • Flatpack Pavilion – Zanny Begg, Chris Fox, Helen Lochhead and John Choi (NSW)
  • Openings – Andrew Burns, Mark Gowing and Brett Boardman (NSW)
  • The Peephole Hoarding – The AU (Monica Earl, Daniel Fink, Tamara Frangelli, Nic Moore, Gabriele Ulacco) with Suzanne Boccalatte of Boccalatte (NSW).
  • Under Construction – Dr Elizabeth Farrelly, Grace Mortlock, David Neustein and Dan Hill with Other Architects and Fabrica (NSW)
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