Wood Stories
Summer 2025
At the Venice Biennale
The theme the Biennale di Venezia di Archetectura this year is: "Intelligens: Natural, Artificial, Collective". I don't even know what that means!
For the Biennale, this porch was added onto the front of the neoclassical American Pavillion
Fortunately, the theme at the American pavilion was: "PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity". That, I can get my head around. And for us at the Makerspace, the greater fortune is that the pavilions that we designed and built for the Brightmoor neighborhood were selected to represent the best in American porch design.
This is our exhibit in the pavilion. It represents what I saw when I first arrive in Brightmoor 8 years ago: neglected, incomplete blocks of prairie and abandoned homes. This is where my students are growing up.
But having spent time getting to know the kids, their parents and the community, I discovered that there is indeed vibrant life here, as residents work together to provide thrift shops, food banks, soup kitchens and an urban farm to supply them. It is rewarding to know that our after school programs contribute to this life.
This short video accompanies the exhibition. The poem is written and read by Perseis Skipper
Here is a selection of some of the other exhibitions at the American pavilion:
Here are some images from me being important for 2 days:
Sailing home from the pre-opening reception at Peggy Guggenheim's house.
I was asked to contribute a monograph to the Biennale Library. This is a collection of my work that my brother, Joel and photographer, Marta Perez made for me. Many of you have our furniture projects represented here.
Opening reception was at the Monaco Grand Canal - certainly the poshest hotel I've ever visited.
This is a Design Dialogue on the pavilion porch. I participated in a similar one titled, "Porch as Community Building.
...and then some holiday snaps from just another tourist in Venice:
