October 2010, 1364. VOLUME CCXXVIII

Extolling ephemera, from the vernissage of Venice to the joy of pop-ups

‘Venice is like eating a box of chocolate liqueurs in one go,’ Truman Capote once remarked. He meant the place, but his comment could equally apply to the 12th Architecture Biennale and the aura of unreality that temporarily descends on the city during the press vernissage. There’s always far too much to absorb in far too short a time, but in this issue we distil the Biennale highlights, opening with a snatched prandial encounter with Rem Koolhaas – who was awarded this year’s Golden Lion for services to boundary pushing – moving on to look at the best installations and pavilions, and concluding with a snippet from the archive of Cedric Price.

Under the directorial aegis of Kazuyo Sejima, this was one of the better Biennales: more thoughtful, less flashy and a reaffirmation of the sometimes remarkable capacity of architects from places as diverse as Rwanda and Bahrain to see the world in a new way. Activities in Venice tend to mirror the fortunes of architecture around the world, so this current zeitgeist is perhaps an inevitable consequence of wider events.

Nonetheless, it demonstrates how what is essentially a fleeting carnival of architectural ideas can still attract heavy hitters, shape critical thinking and open up new possibilities. Along with the Venice Biennale, the joy of the temporary underpins this issue, with Carmody Groarke’s restaurant and Studio Anne Holtrop’s gallery, a pair of architectural mayflies that embody the ebullient spirit of summer and the increasing impermanence of our times.