The Future of Architectural History in Venice

Every two years, architects descend on this breathtaking island city to track important developments in the field. From May through November of 2018, PennDesign is represented at two pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Graham Chair Professor of Architecture Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, co-founder and principal of acclaimed New York firm WEISS/MANFREDI, were invited to participate based on the reciprocal exchange between architecture, landscape and infrastructure in their work. Recognizing the alignment between PennDesign’s multidisciplinary orientation and their own approach, Weiss enlisted the students in her spring studio in the Department of Architecture to collaborate.

“The exhibition illuminates the rich and enduring impact of historic and contemporary hybrid projects that have inspired us,” says Weiss. A series of sectional models and drawings reveal the legacy of these projects and enduring cultural relevance.

With support from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, Associate Professor of Practice Ferda Kolatan and graduate architecture students are exhibiting, for the second time, at the Egyptian Pavilion at the Biennale. Their designs for the Maspero Triangle in Cairo’s city center, an area that has been the site of intensive redevelopment efforts, challenge conventional approaches to urban poverty. “Real Fictions Cairo” earned the 2017 AIA Studio Prize and was published on the cover of ARCHITECT magazine.