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Zaha Hadid Reveals a Pleated Vision for the Venice Biennale

Zaha Hadid Reveals a Pleated Vision for the Venice Biennale

Before the 2012 Venice Biennale opens on August 29, Zaha Hadid Architects has released its own preview of the firm’s pavilion to be displayed at the Giardini and the Arsenale in Venice. The pavilion will be one of 66 projects in the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Biennale, entitled Common Ground.

The purpose of theme, stated exhibition director David Chipperfield, is to “reassert the existence of an architectural culture, made up not just of singular talents but a rich continuity of diverse ideas united in a common history, common ambitions, and common predicaments and ideals.” The work of Zaha Hadid Architects, a pleated metal canopy which the firm refers to as the Arum shell, reacts to this theme in plan and presentation. In a statement, the firm acknowledged within a lineage of work including that of Frei Otto in the instillation on display at the Biennale—a lineage which will be on display alongside the Arum shell.  The installation will also be a progression on the firm’s own work on tensile structure and lightweight shells as elements of each form are developed together in the finished product.

The firm has also released a concept animation, detailing the development of the canopy’s design, a process described as elaborating on Frei Otto’s work on combining material and structure with the firm’s own addition of “environmental as well as structural logistics.”

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