This year's Venice Architecture Biennale is examining the role of architects in shaping our world. With the theme "Reporting From The Front," its highlights range from a swimming pool to ambition plans to revive the U.S. city of Detroit.
With its swimming pool, the Australian Pavilion is proving a popular draw at this 15th edition of the Biennale.
Here, visitors are welcomed to dip their feet or even their entire body if they happen to have their swim togs with them.
The aim of the pool is to show how defining one piece of architecture can be in a society in good and bad times.
This year's Venice Architecture Biennale is examining the role of architects in shaping our world.
"This is an architecture biennale. We wanted to create a piece of architecture, a piece of public architecture, a space where people could enjoy and come and sit by the pool. And the information about the exhibition is purposely discrete in a way that you can engage with it as much or as little as you want or take it away. So there are many different levels or ways to engage with this exhibition," said Isabelle Toland, curator,"The Pool".
The Swiss Pavilion is also an attractive stop for all ages.
Its cloud-shaped installation, called 'Incidental Space', by architect Christian Kerez, is also an invitation to contemplate how we create and experience architecture today.
To that end, he employed a group of more than a hundred people for about a year to build the 9-ton concrete structure.
"I do believe, and I hope so too, that being inside gives you an even richer experience. It is quite photogenic at once, but it also legitimises the medium of the exhibition by being here, because you can only have the full experience if you are here and see the exhibition," said Sandra Oehry, curator of the Swiss pavilion.
The United States has opted for a down-to-earth approach this year, by offering solutions to save the city of Detroit.
For its exhibit entitled "The Architectural Imagination", 12 teams of architects were selected from more than 250 submissions to reinvent four sites in the city.
This year's Venice Architecture Biennale is examining the role of architects in shaping our world.
"We are hoping that the conversation these projects might initiate in Detroit by showing them in Venice first. We will also initiate conversations in Europe with an international audience and an international group of architects and critics about what you do in a post-industrial city. It's not just a matter of how you deal with vacant housing, or how you deal with vacant factories or vacant land where buildings have been razed, but what kinds of jobs, what kinds of infrastructure are going to be necessary to keep these cities stable," said Cynthia Davidson, co-curator, "The Architectural Imagination".
The Architecture Biennale runs until the 27th of November, 2016.
