Judging from today’s award ceremony, the jury for the Golden Lions at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale was clearly intent on awarding the ideas behind exhibits as much as the exhibits themselves. Kazuyo Sejima, co-founder of the firm SANAA and president of the international jury, awarded the best pavilion to the United Arab Emirates for Wetland (curated by former RECORD Vanguards Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto), declaring it “a bold experiment which encourages us to think about the relationship between waste and production, and opens new construction possibilities between craft and high technology.”
It was perhaps a surprising choice, given that the more formal gestures of other national contributions, such as Belgium and the U.S. had attracted plaudits. The UAE’s pavilion, however, showcased a promising technology: an innovative cement made of recycled industrial salt water. The jury was clearly taken with this technology’s potential to reduce the carbon output of the construction industry as opposed to its current aesthetic qualities: a noble approach from the architects, even if the exhibit itself resembles an upturned bowl of All Bran cereal.
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