Photo © Christian Richters
Photo © Christian Richters
Photo © Christian Richters

The Changing Room, Venice Biennale of Architecture

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Location
Biennale of Architecture , Venice, Italy
Year
2008
Client

Venice Biennale

UNStudio
Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos with Christian Veddeler and Hans-Peter Nuenning, Steffen Riegas

Advisors
Light design with: meso digital interiors, Frankfurt
Engineering and building: p&p gmbh, Fuerth/Odenwald

Subsidized by: The Architecture Fund, Rotterdam The Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, Amsterdam
Sponsored by: Arup, Amsterdam Caparol GmbH, Ober-Ramstadt G&S, Amsterdam Pieters Bouwtechniek, Amsterdam P&P GmbH, Fürth/ Odenwald Rendertaxi, Aachen Resopal GmbH, Gross-Umstadt Sorba, Winterswijk 

For this year's international architecture biennale in Venice UNStudio has produced ‘The Changing Room’ as part of the exhibition 'out there: architecture beyond building' curated by Aaron Betsky

The UNStudio installation in the Arsenale explores the transformative potential of the material world. Just like clothes designers, architects offer alternate looks and identities, age and income-appropriate shells. These constructions consist of a miscellaneous package of endogenous and exogenous values; things and ideas that inherently belong to architecture and its traditions, and things and ideas that do not, but that nevertheless profoundly influence architecture. How to deal with this? Can architecture still have autonomy? According to UNStudio the lesson is to ‘switch it on, switch it off’… to find autonomy in brief moments of liberation.

The installation structure shows an architecture that is as supple as textile, in which floors, walls and ceilings flow into each other. On the inside, the visitor encounters a kaleidoscopic world of people posing, inviting voyeurism, and seeking transformation in their own conceptualizations of the changing room.


Other Projects by UNStudio

Centre for Virtual Engineering ZVE Fraunhofer Institute
Stuttgart, Germany
The Scotts Tower
Singapore, Singapore
Ringroad
Den Bosch, USA
MY Lounge Chair
Salone del Mobile, Milano, Italy
Offices “La Defense”
Almere, Netherlands