Reporting From The Front is the title of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, curated by Alejandro Aravena. It will take place from May 28th to November 27th 2016. The challenge is to give the complexity of challenges that architecture has to respond to and demonstrate that architecture is a way to improve people’s quality of life.

The curator Alejandro Aravena explain the inspiration of the theme of 15th Biennale telling this story “In his trip to South America Bruce Chatwin encountered an old lady walking the desert carrying an aluminum ladder on her shoulder. It was German archeologist Maria Reiche studying the Nazca lines. Standing on the ground, the stones did not make any sense; they were just random gravel. But from the height of the stair those stones became a bird, a jaguar, a tree or a flower.
We would like the Biennale Architettura 2016 to offer a new point of view like the one Maria Reiche has on the ladder. Given the complexity and variety of challenges that architecture has to respond to. Reporting From The Front will be about listening to those that were able to gain some perspective and consequently are in the position to share some knowledge and experiences with those of us standing on the ground”.
Reporting From The Front will be about sharing with a broader audience, the work of people that are scrutinizing the horizon looking for new fields of action, facing issues like segregation, inequalities, peripheries, access to sanitation, natural disasters, housing shortage, migration, informality, crime, traffic, waste, pollution and participation of communities. And simultaneously will be about presenting examples where different dimensions are synthesized, integrating the pragmatic with the existential, pertinence and boldness, creativity and common sense.
There is a sign of optimism!
“We feel the need to highlight how positive outcomes have been achieved through the evolution of decision-making chains which link need – awareness – opportunity – choice – execution in a way that leads to a result where “architecture makes the difference”, as Aravena puts it.” quoted Paolo Baratta, president of Biennale, and add “We are not interested in architecture as the manifestation of a formal style, but rather as an instrument of self-government, of humanist civilisation, and as a demonstration of the ability of humans to become masters of their own destinies.”