The work and research of Rozana Montiel reflects the values we sought to exhibit at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition. The work is highly sophisticated, free of indulgence, with a palpable determination to build a form of architecture that she describes as “social construction”.
The work ranges from private houses, low cost social housing, playgrounds, a circle sanctuary forming part of a pilgrim path, to prototypical designs for incinerating stations and water harvesting domes. This rootedness in the belief that architecture must respond to what are extreme needs in Mexico, is driven by the belief that architecture always has to provide “more”. Montiel asks: “How do we communicate and convey the necessity of beauty as the tool in the production of the contemporary city? Beauty is not a luxury but a basic service”.
This exhibit communicates the values of the practice, the desire to “change barriers into boundaries” to open up new horizons, giving a sense that this section of the Corderie wall is removed and replaced by bringing the life of the outside world of Venice into the assigned space. What is so engaging about this work is the refusal to separate beauty from need and function, and to continue to create and promote the “oneiric” dreamlike possibilities of architecture.
YF+SMcN
Stand Ground changes barriers into boundaries. The wall becomes a floor, the backdrop reconnects to the foreground. By deconstructing the wall, the public realm integrates with the private sphere. Barriers, transformed into a horizontal structure, support horizons. A wall is also opening, a passageway, a door, a window. Our piece evinces the integration of different territories on both sides of a barrier.
We free the space through a shift of perception: the wall is re-enacted as connective infrastructure. FREESPACE translates in Spanish as a play on words: it means “set space free” (“libera espacio”), and “leeway for action” (“espacio libre”). For our studio, FREESPACE is both an imperative to act and a space for action inherent with the potential development of a place. Places are the pavestone for resilience and equity.
We stand by the belief that architecture is also a social construction. Our design process activates places through interaction. Placemaking frees space from preconceptions. It is a process that integrates users not as consumers of space but as placemakers. By seeking the common good in the margins, empowering communication and community placemaking builds common ground experiences that build and reshape community relationships.
We believe in a design approach that supports places and in turn delivers spaces of awareness, change and exchange.
Rozana Montiel Estudio de Arquitectura
La Biennale di Venezia
16th International Architecture Exhibition FREESPACE
OPENING TIMES AND VENUES
Venezia, Giardini – Arsenale
26 May - 25 November 2018
Closed on Mondays (except May 28th, August 13th, September 3rd, November 19th )
GIARDINI
Opening times: 10 am - 6 pm
Ticket Office: 10 am - 5:30 pm
Last admission: 5:45 pm
ARSENALE
Opening times: 10 am - 6 pm
Ticket Office (Campo della Tana): 10 am - 5:30 pm
Last admission: 5:45 pm
Opening times on Fridays and Saturdays until September 29th: 10 am - 8 pm
Ticket Office: 10 am - 7:30 pm
Last admission: 7:45
LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
Contact us
Tel. +39 041 5218711
Fax +39 041 2728329
E-mail info@labiennale.org
PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA
Art. 136 and subsequents of Codice in materia di protezione dei dati personali, Finalità giornalistiche e altre manifestazioni del pensiero (D.Lgs. 196/2003):
www.garanteprivacy.it/web/guest/home/docweb/-/docweb-display/docweb/1311248