School Notes: School of Architecture
July/August 2014

Yale in Venice

Six associates of the School of Architecture are showing their work in the 14th international architecture exhibition of the Venice Biennale, which opened June 6 and runs through November 23. The Venice Biennale is one of the world’s most prestigious cultural events, and more than 300,000 visitors are expected to attend. The Yale exhibitors are Professors Keller Easterling (see the March/April School Notes) and Peter Eisenman, as well as alumni Louise Braverman ’77MArch, Michael Burch ’82MArch, Diane Wilk ’81MArch, and Carl Fredrik Svenstedt ’93MArch. In addition to these exhibitors, Michelle Addington, the Hines Professor of Sustainable Architectural Design, led the opening panel discussion at the US Pavilion.

The work of the office of Louise Braverman Architect is on view in two exhibitions at the Biennale: OFFICEUS at the US Pavilion and Time Space Existence. Based in two historic palaces, Time Space Existence explores philosophical and theoretical approaches to architecture. Braverman’s Centro De Artes Nadir Afonso, a recently completed art museum in Boticas, Portugal, is on view in the Palazzo Bembo.

Michael Burch Architects, a California firm led by Burch and Diane Wilk, is exhibiting I Get Around: Southern California Architecture Fundamentals—Mission to Modern, a multimedia presentation that explores the uniquely Southern California architectural narrative. 

Svenstedt’s contribution, Building for Sentient Beings, includes a church he designed in Stockholm that has fine lines on its double-glazed façade that create what he calls “a subtly vibrating, artificial mist.” He explains, “The varying transparency both hides and reveals the interior of the church, like a face its soul.” Svenstedt is also showing images of a stone vineyard building and designs for a proposed extension of the Louvre Museum.

Eisenman, the Charles Gwathmey Professor in Practice at Yale, is also exhibiting as part of Time Space Existence. Eisenman’s Yenikapi Transfer Point and Archaeological Park in Istanbul, which he designed with his firm Eisenman Architects and Aytaç Architects, is a historic site that includes a park, a transit building adjacent to a new underground rail hub, and an archaeological museum intended to exhibit important artifacts from the Roman and Neolithic eras uncovered during construction of the transportation facility.