17th International Architecture Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia

Image: Wetland, National Pavilion of the UAE at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of
La Biennale di Venezia.

ARCHITECTURE

United Arab Emirates

Golden Lion for Best National Participation

The National Pavilion of the UAE was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at La Biennale di Venezia 2021. Curated by Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto, Wetland, was selected by the jury for being "a bold experiment that encourages us to think about the relationship between waste and production on a local and global scale, and opens us to new construction possibilities between craft and high-technology", said Kazuyo Sejima, President of this year’s jury. Wetland presents a large-scale prototype structure created from an innovative, environmentally friendly cement made of recycled industrial waste brine which could reduce the climate impact of the construction industry.

Image: Instances of urban practice, installation by raumlaborberlin, 2021, Venezia, Italy. © Andrea Avezzù

ARCHITECTURE

raumlaborberlin

Golden Lion for the best participant in the 17th International Architecture Exhibition

Other than the contribution of national participations, La Biennale di Venezia invites architects and researchers to exhibit their work, seeking to answer this year general theme, "How will we live together?", set by curator Hashim Sarkis. raumlaborberlin won the Golden Lion for the best participant with the installation Instances of urban practice. The installation presents two environments, the Floating University and Haus der Statistik. Both are examples of collaborative approaches to create common spaces of experimentation and exploration. Responding to the question "How will we live together?" … in emerging communities, raumlaborberlin believes it is through extending architecture as a discipline into fields of contemporary societal struggles.

About the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia




Cooper Hewitt
National Design Awards 2021

Image: James I. Swenson Civil Engineering Building, Duluth, Minnesota by Ross Barney Architects.

ARCHITECTURE | INTERIOR DESIGN

Ross Barney Architects

National Design Award for Architecture and Interior Design

The American National Design Awards, established in 2000, are funded and awarded by Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Ross Barney Architects is a Chicago-based architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture studio. The honor acknowledges the studio’s forty-year commitment to design excellence, community, and the environment. The studio’s approach is a holistic process of co-creation between client, user, and community; allowing a project to grow out of it’s place, history, and function.

Image: Can the subaltern speak? by Behnaz Farahi, 2020.

DIGITAL DESIGN

Behnaz Farahi

National Design Award for Digital Design

Based in Los Angeles, Behnaz Farahi is an award-winning designer whose work is situated at the intersection of digital design, architecture, fashion, and interactive design, ranging from the scale of wearables to architectural installations. Trained as an architect, she explores the potential of interactive environments and their relationship to the human body. Her work addresses critical issues such as feminism, emotion, bodily perception and social interaction.

Image: JOY RUN, Chromat by Becca McCharen-Tran. © Lia Clay

FASHION DESIGN

Becca McCharen-Tran

National Design Award for Fashion Design

Becca McCharen-Tran is a fashion designer, cultural worker, and the founder of future-forward bodywear line Chromat. In her design practice, Becca McCharen-Tran interrogates the cultural hegemony around representation and inclusion. A Forbes 30 Under 30 pick for "People Who Are Reinventing the World," McCharen-Tran is creating a world that empowers women, femmes, and nonbinary people in fashion and beyond. McCharen-Tran delivered a TED Talk on the urgency of racial, gender, and disability justice in fashion.

About the Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards




Minimalist Photography Awards 2021

Image: Allen Koppe, On Route. © Allen Koppe

PHOTOGRAPHY

Allen Koppe

Minimalist Photographer of the Year

For the third edition the Australian photographer, Allen Koppe, won the title of Minimalist Photographer of the Year 2021 with her series On Route. Minimalist Photography Awards is a non profit association, powered by Black & White Minimalism magazine and founded by Milad Safabakhsh, which aims to recognize, reward and expose talented photographers all around the world and introduce them to the professional photography industry. "For my series On Route I wanted to try something new, something different. I wanted to challenge myself and discover a technique that had been sitting in the back of my mind for several years. I wanted to move forward and take what had merely been a concept, an idea, a thought process and make it into a visual reality." said Allen Koppe.

About the Minimalist Photography Awards