Dongziguan Affordable Housing, 2016. ©Yao Li
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hen the Biennale Architettura opened in Venice this year, it sought to address some of the most important questions of our age: How can societies overcome political divisions and economic inequalities? How can we bring people together, and how can architects and others working in public space contribute to this? The exhibition, which was postponed due to COVID-19, runs from 22nd May to 21st November 2021 under the theme “How will we live together?” The exhibition is curated by Hashim Sarkis of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Sarkis has written on similar themes for decades, and has directed multiple architecture projects in Lebanon, the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates.
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LIFESTYLE & TRADITIONS
«The question, “How will we live together?” is as much a social and political question as a spatial one,» he said. «Aristotle asked it when he was defining politics, and he came back to propose the model of the city. Every generation asks it and answers it differently. More recently rapidly changing social norms, growing political polarisation, climate change, and vast global inequalities are making us ask this question more urgently and at different scales than before. In parallel, the weakness of the political models being proposed today compels us to put space first and perhaps, like Aristotle, look at the way architecture shapes inhabitation for potential models for how we could live together.» Professor Sarkis said that participants
Segmento Issue XXIII • June-August 2021
