Pavilion of Turkey to present "Architecture as measure" at la Biennale di Venezia

Curated by Neyran Turan and coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the Pavilion of Turkey will present Architecture as Measure at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia titled How Will We Live Together? and taking place from 22 May to 21 November 2021. Co-sponsored by Schüco Turkey and VitrA, the Pavilion of Turkey is located at Sale d’Armi, Arsenale, one of the main venues of the Biennale.

By focusing on the relationship between the quotidian and the planetary, Architecture as Measure suggests another route for architecture’s relationship to the world, in which it is more of an agent than a mere respondent.

In light of the current climate crisis, what can architecture contribute towards a new planetary imagination of our contemporary environment beyond environmentalism and technological determinism? Rather than limiting the role of design simply to a solution to the problem of climate change, can we speculate on architecture as a measure through which the environment might be reimagined? Architecture as Measure positions climate change as a cultural and political idea that requires a renewed architectural environmental imagination. 

Taking Neyran Turan’s recently published book Architecture as Measure (New York and Barcelona: ACTAR Publishers, 2020) as a theoretical preamble, the exhibition defines the planetary as the vast geo-temporal scales through which climate emergency accelerates. But instead of seeing the concept of planetary imagination purely as preserving nature, or as technological management or visualization, it is important, at this moment, for architecture to consider the potential of planetary imagination from within its inner workings. Accordingly, architecture needs to see the larger questions around planetary imagination and the everyday aspects of its own making as one and the same thing.

Presented through an installation, a website and storytelling, the Pavilion of Turkey focuses on the politics and nuances of the seemingly mundane aspects and sites of architectural construction from material extraction to supply chains, maintenance and care in Turkey and beyond.