Venice Architecture Biennale: The Right To Space

Khalid Al Tamimi. courtesy of Khaled Al Tamimi

For our final blog from this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, we hear from Khaled Al Tamimi, who was recently one of the winning team of this year’s Christo and Jeanne-Claude award for his architectural design. He was so impressed by the Danish Pavilion in Venice, that he wrote us this report.

‘The Right to Space’ – ‘Art of Many’ - These are the two phrases that welcome the visitors of the Danish Pavilion at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale. With an entry hall open from both sides, a wall at each entry point features both phrases. In each, one of the phrases is written in reverse, only for you to read it on the mirror facing the wall. The entry hall alone reflects the idea of the curators, architect Boris Brorman Jensen and philosopher Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss, which is to establish a dialogue.

It is divided into two spatial installations: The Right to Space - a video installation and The Art of Many – a “wunderkammer” or Cabinet of Curiosities. It is best to first view the video installation, which touches upon the agendas established by the curators.

The dialogue being highlighted is that between the people, the city dwellers and the decision makers are architects and urban planners who design the city. This dialogue is presented in the video by discussing the issue that has plagued the modern day metropolis: the automobile. Architect and Professor Jan Gehl, featured as the speaker in the 14-minute video, discusses the history of car design. Married to a psychologist and taught to design “individual buildings, not cities”, he talks about the problems of such a planning strategy. He came to learn, along with many others, that we know very little about people resulting in the creation of cities for cars not for people. With this realisation, which was brought forward as early as 1964 by architecture journalist and activist Jane Jacobs, a major shift is currently taking place, which is claiming the city back for the people. Copenhagen is at the forefront of this movement. Highlighting how his granddaughter (aged 7) was able to walk to school completely on pedestrian designated areas illustrates what the city is focusing on - paying attention to people’s needs. Further exemplifying his thoughts is the case of Times Square in New York City, where 90% of the square was designated for cars, leaving a mere 10% for people to walk. Now the square is a pedestrian only zone and is still one of the busiest spots in NYC.

“People should be able to cross whenever they need to, not when there’s a pedestrian crossing,” says Gehl. It is central to the strategy in the planning of Copenhagen city, which he says is aiming to be “the greatest city for people in the world”. It is a city where people have a say in what happens to it, where they have a voice because strong communities make great cities.

With all these ideas being established, the second installation, shows 130 carefully selected cultural, communal, educational and medical architecture projects in the form of models from Danish firms. A white hall with a skylight is dominated by a scaffolding turned multilevel walkable space and shelving system, which allows for an engaging experience for the general public. This system could potentially resemble accessibility to the realm since scaffolds are commonly used in the construction field. While it could also be symbolic to the right for people to have a say in new developments in their city. The models, which are placed on the shelves as well as hung on the walls allow viewers to see what architects do and, in turn, make them part of the process. One of these models was that of BIG’s Mountain Dwellings that features stepped terraces enabling the residents to have a garden for their apartments. The building thus becomes an extension of the ground level. These models are all people oriented “prototypes” that focus on improving the quality of life which people have the right to claim.

* Khalid Al Tamimi recently attained his bachelor’s degree in architecture from the American University of Sharjah. Follow the Venice interns on @veniceinterns and hashtags #uaeinvenice and #veniceinterns. Follow Khalid on Instagram on @khalidtam