With the Venice Architecture Biennale now open to the public, attendees have given their verdict on the first major cultural event to take place since the pandemic began.
"It was interesting and very courageous," architect Stefano Boeri told Dezeen. "And how important it is for Venice to say that the biennale is still alive. It was so, so great to see the public there."
Biennale theme fits into current "fragility"
Curated by Hashim Sarkis, the theme of this year's biennale is "How will we live together""
"The title was decided before [the pandemic] but it was perfectly fitting in the fragility that we see nowadays," Boeri added.
"It's a very peculiar biennale, where sometimes the perspective is coming from other disciplines such as psychology, anthropology and environmental sciences, instead of a typical disciplinary point of view." "But why not" I like it."
Top and above: the Arsenale at Venice Architecture Biennale 2021
Sarkis has used the biennale to explore ideas for "a new social contract" that will allow people to live together in future.
"I believe very strongly that the central questions of politics are no longer in politics, and that they have migrated or have always been implicitly somewhere else," he said in an interview with Dezeen ahead of the opening.
"So therefore I'm hoping that we can find answers to this question through architecture."
Aim for more...