Eero Lundén, Another Generosity – Nordic Pavilion | 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

“Another Generosity” – Nordic Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, installation view; photos © Inexhibit

Another Generosity – the Nordic Countries Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale

Similarly to that presented at the 2016 edition, the 2018 Nordic Countries Pavilion, entitled  Another Generosity, has been conceived as a meeting and debate space at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale.
Curated by Finland’s Eero Lundén – who also designed the exhibition together with his Lundén Architecture Company design studio – Another Generosity responds to the theme proposed by the Biennale’s curators by investigating a new type of generosity: not only that between human beings but also that between humans and natural environment.

The fundamental concept, not totally new yet always interesting, is that in the Anthropocene period, we are living in – dominated by human actions that cause the major landscape, structural and climatic changes on our planet – architecture can be a means by which to establish a fruitful relationship between human activities and nature, aimed to create a symbiotic environment instead than an anthropocentric one.

Conceived as an occasion to explore the relationship between nature and the built environment, Another Generosity invites the public to participate actively in the Nordic Counties Pavilion’s program of debates and seminars, but also in a more playful and “sensory” way through an interactive installation of great visual impact, composed of large translucent, milky “cells” scattered throughout the pavilion.

The cells, inflatable bubbles which contain air and water – the key elements on which our planet’s life is based –, react to external stimuli and atmospheric changes, and “mediate” between humans and the natural realm; this way suggesting a new paradigm in which architecture is not a “machine” anymore but has evolved into a sensitive organism.

“Another Generosity” – Nordic Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, installation views; photos © Inexhibit, May 2018