Salonnière: Leïla el-Wakil  
Location: Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi, Dorsoduro 810, Vaporetto stop: Zattere

Leïla el-Wakil’s concept for the «Salon Suisse» will evolve around the question of how contemporary architecture can help bridging the expanding wealth gap between the rich and poor through the means of reflecting on fundamental ideas such “tradition as modernity”, “small is beautiful” and “reuse”, and how it can participate in creating adapted guidelines for architecture in the 21st century. Hence the clear link to Alejandro Aravena’s vision for this year’s Biennial, which is to focus on the "battles to be won" to improve quality of life within the built environment.

The «Salon Suisse» will offer a space for reflection on common sense in architecture, on a kind of Existenzminimum for all, at a time marked by the greediness of some. Swiss and foreign architects, researchers, and crafts(wo)men will be invited to share their knowledge and experience on the theme of architecture for all.

Please find more information about the Salon Suisse program in the official booklet.

The «Salon Suisse» 2016 will be exclusively accompanied and documented by Hochparterre, its official media partner. Hochparterre will provide background information with written articles, audiostatements, visuals and free live streaming of part of the «Salon Suisse» talks here.

Partner of the «Salon Suisse» is Laufen Bathrooms AG

Furniture sponsor: www.wbform.com
 

Swiss Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale

The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has nominated Christian Kerez, architect and professor at ETH Zürich, to exhibit at the Swiss Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia taking place from 28 May to 27 November 2016. The exhibition is entitled «Incidental Space» and curated by art historian Sandra Oehy. 

Image: Christian Kerez, Incidental Space, 2015, Section CT Scan, Scan by Stefan Horber © Christian Kerez
 

The exhibition «Incidental Space» curated by Sandra Oehy is part of the opening of the new Berlin office of Christian Kerez and shows works by Bas Princen und Kaufmann Gehring. More infor here

Bubbling Out Of Nothingness TRAILER from Kaufmann & Gehring on Vimeo.

The Venice Architecture Biennale is one of the most prominent platforms for architecture and urban planning worldwide. Its 16th edition is due to start in May 2018. For the first time, Pro Helvetia plans to choose the Swiss contribution by means of a competition. Eligible for participation are architects and interdisciplinary teams operating in the field of architecture. Members of a team must be Swiss citizens or else have a clear connection to Switzerland. 
The selection procedure is divided into two stages. In a first round, interested parties can submit a draft of their project via our application portal www.myprohelvetia.ch by 7 February 2017 at the latest. All contributions submitted will be publicly presented at a later date. Further information on criteria, the time schedule and conditions for participation as well as contact details for questions are available at www.myprohelvetia.ch.

Further details can be found in the regulations for the competition (PDF) which are available for download here

Island of Giudecca, 8 September 2016, 5.00-6.30pm

Appointment for the opening: Vaporetto stop Palanca on Giudecca, Thursday, 8 September at 4.45pm. ACTV Lines 2, 4.1, 4.2

The “Salon Suisse”, a Collateral Event of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, organized by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, is the delighted to invite you to the opening of the exhibition of a mural painting by renowned Egyptian painter Mohamed Abla. Come and enjoy a very special evening in the company of the artist, who will present his work in relation with the topic of this “Salon Suisse” Let’s build, which concentrates on the notions of self-built, “improvised” and spontaneous architecture.  Mohamed Abla conceived his work at a former shipyard  on the island of Giudecca.

Born in Mansoura, Mohamed Abla has exhibited works in his home country, all over Europe as well as in Cuba. He studied Fine Arts in Egypt and then graphics and sculpture in Zurich, Switzerland, before pursuing his studies in graphics in Austria. In 2007 he founded the Fayoum Art Center and in 2009 a caricature museum in Tunis (Fayoum), the first one of its kind in the Middle East. Mohamed Abla received many awards for his work. He is currently based on an island in the Nile, which provides him with a quiet source of inspiration. 

Address: “Consorzio Venezia Sviluppo, area ex-Lucchese”, Giudecca 604, Venezia

«Let’s rediscover»: You can read about the first Salon Suisse now also in English and French, thanks to Hochparterre, its official media partner!

Partner of the «Salon Suisse» is Laufen Bathrooms AG

Hochparterre's documentation of the Opening Event of the Salon Suisse 2016 is now also available in French and English!

Partner of the «Salon Suisse» is Laufen Bathrooms AG

Should you have missed the first Salon Suisse «Let’s rediscover» (16-18 June), check out Hochparterre's multimedia documentation of the three evenings here. This year's Salonnière Leïla el-Wakil and her guests talked about mud and more!  

Partner of the «Salon Suisse» is Laufen Bathrooms AG

Hochparterre, the official media partner of the Salon Suisse 2016, will be live-streaming the events of the first Salon Suisse entitled «Let’s rediscover» from Thrusday, 16 to Saturday, 18 June from 7 to 9 pm on www.periscope.tv/hochparterre.

Please find more information about the Salon Suisse program in the official booklet.

Partner of the «Salon Suisse» is Laufen Bathrooms AG

Laufen Symposion 2016 - Laufen Forum - Art Basel

"Architecture during Art" is a recurring night of thought-provoking conversations to coincide with Art Basel, established by Laufen Bathrooms AG. This year’s Symposion was developed in cooperation with the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Sandra Oehy, curator of the Swiss Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2016 and Anh-Linh Ngo, editor in chief of Arch+. Speakers include Benjamin Dillenburger, Christian Kerez and Ruy Othake. More info here.

RSVP required until Friday, June 10th
Contact: feedback@laufen.ch
Venue: Laufen Forum
Wahlenstrasse 46, CH - 4242 Laufen
Free shuttle transfer from/ to Basel SBB 17:30 / 21:00

The «Salon Suisse» 2016 will be exclusively accompanied and documented by Hochparterre, its official media partner. Hochparterre will provide background information with written articles, audiostatements and visuals of the «Salon Suisse» talks on www.hochparterre.ch/salonsuisse. Hochparterre will also offer live streaming of part of the «Salon Suisse» events on www.periscope.tv/hochparterre .

If you missed the Opening Ceremony on Thursday, 26 May, with a performance of the play THE HELL OF REINFORCED CONCRETE by Hassan Fathy, you can now read about it on Hochparterre.

Please find more information about the Salon Suisse program in the official

Partner of the «Salon Suisse» is Laufen Bathrooms AG
 

The ETH Zurich Master of Advanced Studies Program in Urban Design at the Chair of Marc Angélil and directed by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (with Something Fantastic and in collaboration with CLUSTER) will contribute to the exhibition REFRAMING BACK//IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS at the Egyptian Pavilion with the results of an investigation on Cairo’s urban mechanisms. In the larger context of the Egyptian capital, it appeared that informal growth and formal development are integrally part of the dynamics of the city. The research and design studio is exploring both phenomenons.

The work primarily focused on the so-called informal area of Ard-El-Lewa, looking into designs for affordable housing units in that neighborhood of Cairo. Architectural and urban analysis of existing typologies of buildings, their flexibility and qualities are displayed along selected students projects showing how rearranging existing building components can lead to new urban forms, and a betterment of the living conditions. 

Please find more information here.

Salonnière Leïla el-Wakil has invited Swiss and international architects, engineers, researchers, crafts- (wo)men, filmmakers and artists to participate and share their expertise and thoughts on the theme of ‘a better architecture for tomorrow’!

Join us at the Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi for an inspiring series of discussions and events along the five Salons of the 2016 Biennial. The full program is now availbale here.

A visit to the Palazzo Trevisan of some special guests from Liechtenstein: «New Schools of Thought», an intensive, ephemeral event exploring the borders of architectural education with short spoken inputs, critiques and performances by experts, is based on the international research project with the same name initiated at the University of Liechtenstein (www.uni.li/nest). The press release with more information now available here.

The project «Incidental Space» by the architect Christian Kerez is intended as fundamental research. As part of the Swiss contribution to the Biennale Architettura 2016, its aim is to investigate the possibilities — technically, as much as in our imagination — of how to think, build and experience architecture differently. At the beginning of this discussion, Kerez declared architectonic space as a postulate! Read more