The biennale of Architecture in Venice started 5 weeks ago
already! The grand opening was a great event to attend of course and, now that
we’re back, we can present you more in details our “concrete” installation for
the exhibition "Traces of centuries and future steps" held at Palazzo
Bembo.
This project started as a dialog about the perception of
concrete of four individuals from the same generation but with different
backgrounds - Ema Bozin, Csaba Szekely (bozin szekely architects), Adina Socol
and Sophie Klein (Lab'process). We found concrete to be an “emotionally loaded
material” when it comes to individual perceptions influenced by social,
political and historical events. Two different major perceptions mainly
emerged: the one of a material generally seen as a cold, ugly, unfinished, and
unfriendly due to the association with different symbols of urban brutalism and
the one of a material with incredible qualities such as texture, colour,
malleability, strong presence, stability, sincerity.
Concrete, indeed, can be everything and anything. Concrete
has no predetermined texture, colour or shape. It can be qualified as chameleon
material that can take an infinite number of appearances. The aesthetic and
creative strengths of this material make it a constant source of inspiration
for designers and architects.
Our project aims to tell a 3d story based on the observation
of how the cultural background and the personal perception can change the view
upon a material, and how this perception, filtered through the architect’s or
the designer’s mind can influence and change the image of a product made of a
specific material. Our installation seeks to represent architectural and design
concepts in a new way, through 3d models (containing 3d sections, plans and
facades) with pure, basic shapes. Each concrete volume can easily explain an
entire architectural project or a design item.
Opus caementitium (Roman concrete in Latin) refers to
‘Opus’: artwork (our objects), tries to explain architecture and design, as
some sort of sculptures or complex objects; and ‘caementitium’: concrete, as
the basic constructive, pure material…
Opus caementitium is to be discovered at Palazzo Bembo till
November 25th!
bozin szekely architects & Lab' process © all rights reserved
