The 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale which opened on May 20 is making headlines for providing a remarkable showcase of new voices and fresh architectural ideas, with a particular spotlight on Africa.
Scottish-Ghanaian architect and scholar Lesley Lokko curated this year’s event, titled “The Laboratory of the Future,” which runs until November 26. Notably, of the 89 invited participants, more than half are from Africa or the African Diaspora, the gender split is 50/50, and the average age is 43. Yet “central to all the projects is the primacy and potency of one tool: the imagination,” says Lokko. “It is impossible to build a better world if one cannot first imagine it.”
AAP architecture faculty and alumni are participating in this conversation, exploring this year’s twin themes of decolonization and decarbonization through exhibits and instructional roles. During an opening day ceremony, Olalekan Jeyifous (B.Arch. ’99) was awarded the Silver Lion in recognition of his eye-catching multimedia installation ACE/AAP, which imagines a departure lounge for a fictional African transportation system bathed in bright greens and yellows.