Press release

4 June 2012

Crimson Architectural Historians is proud to announce that it will be present at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia, directed by David Chipperfield. The Biennale is titled "Common Ground" and takes place from 29th August - 25th November 2012.

The exhibition curated by Crimson Architectural Historians is titled "The Banality of Good: can we build New Cities that reflect our values?" and will be presented in the exhibition venue The Giardini. It will display a series of 6 exemplary cities that were planned and built in the post war period until the present day. The selected cities are Almere (Netherlands), Stevenage (UK), Songjiang (China), King Abdullah Economic City (Saudi Arabia), Tema (Ghana) and Alphaville-Tamboré (Brasil). 

diagram-e.gifThe ‘stories’ of these cities will be showcased through large individual allegorical representations in the shape of huge triptychs. Together these will form an immersive, evocation of the cities and their underlying ideals, set off against a diagrammatic notation of their underlying organization. The exhibition will culminate in a loud call to order, directed at the architectural community to re-enter the intimidating world of urban policies. Crimson invites the architect to think about what each city should minimally provide, what each city should at least mean for its inhabitants, and which contribution architecture could make to any city. We want architecture to re-engage with the banality of urban planning, as a force for the good.[modula id="2051"]


Crimson Architectural Historians is Ewout Dorman, Annuska Pronkhorst, Michelle Provoost, Simone Rots, Wouter Vanstiphout and Cassandra Wilkins. Crimson designs for the city, researches it, writes texts and books about it, shows it in exhibitions and works of art, teaches about it, gives advice on it and makes policies for it. More info on the Biennale di Venezia: www.labiennale.org/en/architecture More info on Crimson Architectural Historians: www.crimsonweb.org
menu