Curatorial team announced for British Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia

See also Home Economics - Venice Biennale 2016.

On 22 October 2015 the British Council announced that Shumi Bose, Jack Self and Finn Williams had been selected as the winners for the British Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. Ref British Council Winning proposal for British Pavilion.

The British Council has been responsible for the British Pavilion in Venice since 1938, showing British artists at the longest-running, most prestigious international art Biennial in the world. The British Pavilion has been home to architecture exhibitions in the alternate years to the art Biennale.

The Biennale will take place from 28 May to 27 November 2016 (vernissage 26 – 27 May) in the Giardini and the Arsenale and various other venues around Venice. The title of the 2016 Biennale is ‘Reporting From The Front’ and national pavilions have been asked to respond to the theme by ‘learning from architectures that through intelligence, intuition or both of them at the same, are able to escape the status quo’.

Following an open call for proposals that ‘…contribute an acute observation of contemporary British architecture’, the winning curatorial team, were chosen from a shortlist and invited to present their proposals to the selection committee. Their exhibition, ‘Home Economics’, will explore the future of the home through a series of full-scale domestic interiors.

Shumi Bose, Jack Self and Finn Williams said: “’Home Economics’ addresses the frontline of British architecture: the family home. The exhibition will ask urgent questions about the future of housing. Social and technological changes are collapsing the patterns of domestic life - but the design of the home hasn't caught up. Can the house ever escape its economic status as an asset? Should our homes still be considered private spaces? How do new types of families and households produce new spatial needs? What are the models of ownership, finance and work that make these conditions possible?

“’Home Economics’ will convert the British Pavilion into a series of full scale domestic spaces. We will invite a multi-disciplinary team of architects, artists, designers and developers to produce immersive 1:1 environments, which challenge the status quo and propose new futures for the British home. Life is changing; we must design for it.”

Vicky Richardson, Director Architecture, Design, Fashion at the British Council, said: “We look forward to working with Shumi, Jack and Finn on ‘Home Economics’, which will grapple with how architecture can respond to the changing ways that people live today. It will make an exciting exhibition which we hope will highlight the relevance of the ideas presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale to public audiences; as well as continuing the recent tradition of using the British Pavilion as a space for research and debate.”