Call for Expressions of Interest

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Curators Davidson and Ponce de Leon will select twelve participants to design new speculative projects for four sites in Detroit (three projects per site), to be determined in consultation with a committee of advisors deeply familiar with the city – including planners, historians, community organizers, and government officials. The twelve projects will be exhibited in the pavilion and documented in an exhibition cataLog, a special issue of the journal Log. The selection process will be conducted in one stage. To be considered, architecture practices and teams of architects formed for the purpose of participating in The Architectural Imagination are invited to submit an Expression of Interest. The curators are looking for design excellence, innovative speculative thinking, and architectural expertise in built and/or unbuilt work.

TIMELINE

  • August 13, 2015: Deadline for architects submitting an Expression Of Interest.
  • September 24, 2015–October 16, 2015: Architects travel to Michigan for site visits, tours, and community meetings in Detroit, and one round-table discussion per site at Taubman College.
  • October 2015: Launch of "My Detroit" Photo Competition
  • December 31, 2015: Deadline for "My Detroit" Photo Competition
  • January 2015: Jury for "My Detroit" Photo Competition will select twenty winners which will be printed into postcards 
  • September 1, 2015–January 31, 2016: Design and fabrication of projects.
  • May, 26 2016: Publication of cataLog (Log 37).
  • May 28, 2016–November 27, 2016: 15th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (Vernissage on May 26–27, 2016).

ELIGIBILITY

Any firm or team composed of individuals with permanent resident status must include a US citizen to be legally eligible; individual architects must be US citizens. Teams must include at least one practicing architect or architectural designer. Current architecture students are not eligible to participate. An architect may participate in only one EOI submission, whether as an individual, with a firm, or on team of individuals.

Cynthia Davidson and Monica Ponce de Leon to Curate the U.S. Pavilion Exhibition in the 15th International Architecture Biennale in Venice

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The U.S. Department of State has selected the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan to organize the exhibition of the United States Pavilion in the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. The exhibition, “The Architectural Imagination,” will present new architectural ideas produced for sites in Detroit but with far-reaching application for cities around the world. The project’s curators, Cynthia Davidson and Monica Ponce de Leon, will recalibrate the importance of the architectural imagination by calling for projects that demonstrate the creativity and resourcefulness of architectural teams challenged to address urban and environmental issues in the 21st-century city.

Davidson is executive director of the nonprofit Anyone Corporation, based in New York City, and editor of the international architecture journal, Log. Ponce de Leon is the dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan and principal of MPdL Studio.

The International Architecture Biennale is one of the most important events on the international contemporary architecture calendar to showcase American architectural ingenuity. Held in Venice, Italy, every other year, the Biennale presents new ideas and projects by architects from around the world.