On Saturday, May 26th, a new exhibition will open in Venice featuring the work of the global architecture and engineering practice Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Presented at the European Cultural Centre, “Time Space Existence” is a collateral exhibition of the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture. The show includes work from leading architects, photographers, sculptors, and universities from around the world.
“Time Space Existence” invites participants to explore these three fundamental themes as they relate to the design of the built environment. By presenting architectural design projects together with photography and sculpture, the exhibition seeks to establish a dialogue between current and past projects, ideas, and thoughts in art and architecture. The wide-ranging exhibition includes models, concepts, and research, placing architectural installations in context with work by contemporary artists.
SOM’s contribution is an exhibit titled “Scale + Form” that investigates the intersection of urbanism, architecture, and structural design. Expanding on the firm’s research initiatives, the exhibit highlights ideas brought to life by SOM’s collaborative and integrated architecture, structural engineering, and urban design practices.
“Scale + Form” is spread across two rooms in the historic Palazzo Mora. It includes an immersive video installation that examines the firm’s interdisciplinary design methodology, with contributions from SOM’s design teams around the world. Projected on three walls of Palazzo Mora’s grand staircase, the video illuminates core values that inform each design project at SOM: simplicity, structural clarity, and sustainability.
In the second room, a lineup of structural models at 1:500 scale, juxtaposed with Venice’s historic architecture, puts SOM’s groundbreaking projects on display. The installation features some of SOM’s most innovative recent work in Europe, including JTI Headquarters, Karlatornet, and a proposed tower at Charenton-Bercy in Paris, alongside influential and pioneering projects designed throughout the firm’s history, including Inland Steel Building, Broadgate Exchange House, 875 North Michigan Avenue, Willis Tower, and Burj Khalifa. Selected for their continued influence in the realm of structural design, these buildings all responded to periods of rapid urban growth and represented the most advanced building technology of their respective eras.
SOM is also a presenting sponsor of the United States Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture, presented jointly by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago.
SOM: Scale + Form
Part of Time Space Existence
May 26 – November 25, 2018
Open daily 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; Closed on Tuesdays?
Palazzo Mora, European Cultural Centre
Strada Nova 3659
30121 Venezia VE
Italy
About Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (Europe) LLP
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (Europe) LLP (SOM) is one of the leading architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world. Since its founding more than 80 years ago, SOM has earned a reputation for design excellence with a portfolio that includes some of the most important architectural accomplishments of the 20th and 21st centuries, and has been a leader in the research and development of specialized technologies, new processes and innovative ideas, many of which have had a palpable and lasting impact on the design profession and the physical environment. The firm’s longstanding leadership in design and building technology has been honored with nearly 2,000 awards for quality, innovation, and management. The American Institute of Architects has recognized SOM twice with its highest honor, the Architecture Firm Award—in 1962 and again in 1996. The firm maintains offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai, and Mumbai.