Spaziale, the Italian Pavilion at Venice Atchitecture Biennale 2023 – Photos by Delfino Sisto Legnani, courtesy of © Fosbury Architecture.

Architecture – Titled Spaziale – Everyone Belongs to Everyone Else, the Italian Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale presents nine ongoing projects by architects under 40 who tackle some of our time’s most pressing issues with the collaborative approach of young professionals trained against a backdrop of permanent crisis. A generation well aware of architects facing pressing challenges and deeply committed to dealing with them through collaboration, sharing, and dialogue.

• RELATED STORIES: Read more about Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 on Archipanic.

“Our generation is Sustainable Native,” explains Fosbury Architecture, the studio founded by architects born between 1987 and 1899 that curates the pavilion. “The new century began with the 9/11 attack. We enrolled at university during the 2007–2008 financial crisis, and once we graduated, we started to look for work in the smoking ruins of the market. And then, over the past two years, like everyone else, we were largely confined to our own homes. Today is the energy and environmental crisis; this is only a partial representation of reality. To the Western malaise, we must add the humanitarian crisis surrounding us, the geopolitical crisis just around the corner, and all those other disasters that constantly catch us off guard”.

In Venice, Fosbury Architecture presents nine ongoing, inclusive, transdisciplinary projects involving highly revered figures from other creative fields, local communities, museums, festivals, and associations. “The selection showcases some of the best research in relation to specific territorial needs.” Fosbury Architecture told Archipanic.

Visitors are welcomed by a large video installation introducing the exhibition’s concept. A second room presents the selected projects with specially-commissioned installations. Archipanic’s Editor-in-Chief Enrico Zilli selected four projects on display.

In Taranto, Apulia, a city marred by a steel plant’s ecological disaster, Post Disaster temporarily occupied and transformed the rooftops of the Old City into stages for performances highlighting the cohabitation with the water, the sea, and all their polluting and toxic substances.

Post Disaster Rooftops @ Spaziale.

Studio Ossidiana presents Casa Tappeto – Carpet House -, an urban regeneration project created in the Librino district in Catania, Sicily. It consists of a massive carpet that can be folded and reconfigured to create tents, shelters, and communal spaces hosting social activities by local associations.

Studio Ossidiana @ Spaziale.

The facade of a church in the Venice mainland has been transformed by locals into an open-air gym for rock climbing. At the Biennale, the collective Parasite 2.0 with Elia Fornari addresses the issue of social inclusion by working on democratizing recreational activities.

Parasite 2.0 @ Spaziale.

The Italian-Slovenian border is the last stop of the infamous migrants’ Balkanic route to Western Europe. Giuditta Vendrame and Ana Shametaj created a light and sound installation – first in Trieste and now in Venice – reflecting on multicultural coexistence.

Giuditta Vendrame @ Spaziale.

The curators have construed the Italian Pavilion as an opportunity to implement the projects. Indeed, a substantial portion of the public funds allocated to the Pavilion were used to initiate new processes or to bolster existing projects by adding a new chapter.

All photos by Delfino Sisto Legnani, courtesy of ©Fosbury Architecture.