Beyond the Biennale

The International Architecture Biennale in Venice – La Biennale – is a platform for engaging with and discussing architecture. As a temporary and recurrent exhibition of cultural translations and a place of transnational encounters, the world’s most prominent architectural exhibition reflects contemporary architectural practice. Starting out from Venice, offshoots of this format have been established around the world over the past decades.

In 2021, in view of the current pandemic, the Architecture Biennale is taking place in Venice under changed conditions – might this be a blueprint for the future? This book analyses the methods of exhibiting architecture today.

Beyond the Biennale looks at how the Biennale influences various countries’ national and regional cultural policy beyond its duration and geographical bounds. The aim is to illustrate the potentials and challenges of architecture based on projects and discussions with protagonists.

Their positions on the exhibition format and its possible development set out perspectives for the future of the Biennale. The project explores the possibilities and limitations of digital formats for exhibiting and negotiating architecture (not only) in view of the current pandemic.

With contributions by Alberto Alessi, Arno Brandlhuber, Anna-Lydia Capaul, Olaf Grawert Ludwig Engel, Peter Mörtenböck, Helge Mooshammer, Riklef Rambow, Lydia Schubert and an introduction by Martino Stierli, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Interviews with Christian Kerez, Elke Delugan Meisel, Andreas Ruby among others.

Bianca Anna Boeckle studied architecture in Copenhagen and Vaduz and is a research assistant and assistant lecturer at the University of Liechtenstein. She co-leads design studios at the Institute of Architecture and Planning. After several years as a collaborator in architectural firms in Austria and Switzerland, she has been working as an independent architect in Zürich since 2017.

Dr sc Celina Martinez-Cañavate studied architecture and engaged in research in spatial development and building culture in Madrid and London. In addition to her work as an architect in Zurich, she teaches and researches at the Institute of Architecture and Planning at the University of Liechtenstein.

Prof Peter A. Staub is an architect and director of the department of Architecture, Wood and Civil Engineering at Bern University of Applied Sciences. He was previously professor of Design and Theory, head of the Institute of Architecture and Planning and interim president of the University of Liechtenstein.