IUAV University of Venice
Posted On 05-11-2018
Five students from IUAV were invited to the Tongji International Construction Festival by the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University (Shanghai).
Professor Li Zhenyum, director of Tongji University’s CAUP College of Architecture and Urban Planning in Shanghai, invited a team of five students from Iuav University of Architecture in Venice to attend Tongji International Construction Festival. The students – Carlo Colzani, Tiziano Deromedi, Arianna Gorin, Shenav Ragiy, Chiara Serafin – flew to Shanghai with prof. Emanuele Garbin.
This year, teams from 60 Universities competed to create a small livable pavilion that would bring visitors to reflect on the concept of “micro community.”
The students described their prize-winning entry to the competition with the following motto:
OUR SKY, OUR EYES, OUR HORIZONS: WE.
['LET'S GO TO SEE THE STARS TOGETHER']
The following is an excerpt from their description of their project to the judges:
The first community: I - while I'm speaking with myself.
The first community: I - while I reflect myself into your eyes.
I live in another country, I speak another language, I feel the desire of looking at the same sky together with you.
Two horizons: the natural horizon, and an inclinated horizon that comes deeper into the earth and goes up into the heaven..
The pavilion is essentially a place of reflection and meditation. The sight of its 'inhabitants', lying down or sitting side by side, is directed at the openings atop the two pyramids and pauses contemplating the image of a piece of sky.
A slot at eye level who stands in front of the back facade attracts the glance of those who pass and this crosses with the ones looking out from the inside.
The pavilion building is an opportunity for first year students to reflect on the meaning of architecture, which can not be reduced to a simple stylistic or formal fact.
Architecture, with its own means, speaks of the world and the life of men.
Architecture 'talk' is mainly made of questions. These questions are not limited to technical or stylistic matters. The most important and perennial questions are not about style or technique.
In the image: The IUAV Pavilion in Shanghai