On the 14th edition (2014) – for the first time in the history of the International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia – a general theme was given to the national pavilions. Volume went to Venice to read and review the pavilions messages, and makes the case for building a nation.
They were to be historical shows, focused on the impact of modernity on a country’s architecture. What it produced was not just a global survey of twentieth century construction, but also heroic stories of nation-building. Yes, architecture can build nations. Today, we seem far from that notion. The nation-state is either giving up on itself, or exploited through tyrannical regimes. Meanwhile architects are hardly taking up the cause.
