Revitalisation by Reconciliation

Collateral Event of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

Revitalisation by Reconciliation is more than an exhibition. It is a platform/ meeting point in the core of Venice for international exchanges, workshops, and documentation, connected to different regions in Europe. It invites politicians, intellectuals, stakeholders, students to explore how spatial design could be a weapon to fight the multiple fronts determined by vacancy, living and health care, leisure and employment, mobility, energy transition, spatial democracy, crossing national borders? Beyond a collection of operational knowledge, it processes as a laboratory for strategic intervention, to design a method for a new urban fluidity, social cohesion and renewed civic pride.

Curator Joe Coenen considers that, in the Biennale Architettura 2016, reporting from the front is the right way to discuss how a shrinking and fragmented former mining Region in Netherlands tries to reconcile the different urban components and creates a meaningful context.

IBA Parkstad in Netherlands is based on an IBA method (Internationale Bau Ausstellung) where it originated as an exhibition for modern architecture. It is experimenting for the first time outside of Germany, a powerful creative model that provides a significant impetus with Regions aiming at transition or transformation, and cross border potential.

From historical models to immersive and interactive installation in the Carlo Scarpa Spaces at Querini Stampalia, visitors will be embarked into a process. Roundtables workshops and conferences with renowned speakers will focus on relevant experiences and cross-border regional strategies. They will explore new ways to address the urgent need of democracy in spatial design, urban transformation in Europe, sustainability, and the potential of cross-border cooperation.

Revitalisation by Reconciliation, a collaboration between IBA Parkstad and the other IBAs in Europe, will result in final conclusions presented to numerous experts, policy makers and stakeholders in Brussels at this moment that European Community is eager to set up an efficient model of European urban development.