The need for a Biennale

Dragoș Ciolacu

Have we, as architects, become dependent on this form of public validation that is the Biennale? It would seem that yes, the Biennale of Architecture, at any level, is a reality, a phenomenon with many lights and shadows that should be clarified, why not even in a biennale. Public confrontation in local architecture has a long tradition, expressed through competitions, exhibitions and galas, and ever since it found its place in the Giardini in Venice, it is the biennale that inspires our competitive spirit and sets the worldly tone of the exhibition.

We now have biennales every year and even more often, which somewhat belies the name of the event, which implies a certain cyclicality. It's good that we architects still see each other, more or less the same, but it's bad that we waste ourselves in provincial aestheticism - and I don't use this term pejoratively, as I myself am not from the metropolis - but in the sense of fragmenting an already atomized field. Why so much divisi

Coperta revistei

Read more in the magazine

Arhitectura 1-2/2026 (721-722)
Student Architects - 142+9 Graduation projects and projects
issue summary | buy online →