The dream of a void space mastered by a pure interplay of light and shade

Exhibition | May 26 – November 25,  2018

16th International Architecture Exhibition

The differentiated handling of light is increasingly focussed by many architects. Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, both curating the architecture Biennale in Venice this year, explicitly invite participants: „to emphasise nature’s free gifts of light – sunlight and moonlight, air, gravity, materials – natural and man-made resources.“

Kazuyo Sejima und Ryue Nishizawa made light to their subject in a magnificent way by constructing an almost invisible spiral. Only a thin transparent material, shiny acrylic occupies the space. It reflects the light – as the famous Toccata and Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach it is here the sunlight, which is reflected in exuberant polyphony.

The two Japanese received the Pritzker Price in 2010 with the justification: „ They explore like few others the phenomenal properties of continuous space, lightness, transparency, and materiality to create a subtle synthesis. Sejima and Nishizawa’s architecture stands in direct contrast with the bombastic and rhetorical.“

Find the complete article in the latest ArtLight issue.

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captions:

Dorte Mandrup A/S | Dorte Mandrup; Frants Nielsen |CONDITIONS |16. Mostra Internazionale di Architettura – La Biennale di Venezia, FREESPACE | Foto: Andrea Avezzù | Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia

Dorte Mandrup | Icefjord Center_Expidition | © Dorte Mandrup | Foto: MIR

Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa| Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA | guruguru, 2018 | installation, acrylic | 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, FREESPACE | Photo: Andrea Avezzù | Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia