Watch now on Dezeen— Experiments in New Spatial Contracts: The Garden of Privatised Delights in Partnership with the British Council
Who are the ones actually benefitting from the creation of public spaces in our current urban landscapes? The Garden of Privatised Delights, an exhibition curated by Madeleine Kessler and Manijeh Verghese for the British Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, inspired by Hieronymous Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, invites us to reconsider the negotiations taking place between public and private interests in the development of “new spatial contracts.”
The pavilion examined contemporary public space and its security in the face of increasing privatisation. In our societies today, we often fail to align these two, leaving us with exclusively one-sided developments. Responding to La Biennale's central theme, How will we live together?, made all the more pertinent in the wake of Covid-19, the panel discussion confronted the importance of creativity, collaboration, policy reform and technology in the conceptualisation and implementation of urban spaces for all.
Hosted by the British Council and Therme Art, the talk invited architects, designers and researchers, to propose solutions for the creation of more inclusive and accessible public spaces, in the midst of increasing, global privatisation.
In speaking of reimagining a future city, Jayden Ali, Founding Director of JA Projects stated: "I think it [the future city] is about challenging the idea of wholesale change and allowing for incremental speculation and an allowance for adjustment, but also from participation of cities and their diversity."
The needs of the public are often overlooked in favour of increased profit, and private stakeholders are typically not informed enough on the demands of the communities they affect; spaces which combine these needs were addressed:
What we're really interested in now is art spaces. We’re mainly known for social housing, but we’re also interested in places of culture where people come together, and dream dreams together and have ideas together," remarked David Ogunmuyiwa, Partner, Architecture Doing Place and Mayor of London’s Design Advocate.
Sarah Wilson, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at Courtauld Institute of Art expressed: "I want schools to allow children not only to go out and play and explore these spaces, but to understand their beauty, history, botany and architectural details, and to see how rich what they are looking at is."
Thus, the intervention at the British Pavilion takes up this complex relationship as inspiration for developing solutions that re-imagine the function of public and private architecture for the betterment of urban life.
"I think what COVID really showed us was the importance of opening up the green spaces in our city. There's been this real understanding of the importance of nature and access to green space, their importance on both our mental and physical health," exhibition Co-Curator Madeleine Kessler expressed during the talk.
Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council, Sevra Davis, added on spatial equanimity: "This isn't just access to space, but access as to who gets to be involved in the decision making about what spaces and places can be in the built environment that we live in today."
“I think it's a very pertinent topic right now, especially coming out of the pandemic and seeing how desperately collaboration is needed from different stakeholders with different motivations,” reinforced Artist and Curator Monilola Ilupeju.
Featuring: Jayden Ali (Founding Director, JA Projects), Sevra Davis (Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion, the British Council), Monilola Ilupeju (Artist and Curator), Madeleine Kessler (Unscene Architecture and Co-curator the British Pavilion), David Ogunmuyiwa (Partner, Architecture Doing Place and Mayor of London’s Design Advocate), Manijeh Verghese (Unscene Architecture and Co-curator the British Pavilion; Head of Public Programmes at the Architectural Association), Sarah Wilson (Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Courtauld Institute of Art),
Watch the full talk and read Dezeen’s review of the event here.
In case you missed it, watch Mutual Aid and Resurrecting the Sublime Wellbeing Culture Forum talks here.
The Wellbeing Culture Forum was founded in 2020 in response to the pandemic, as a framework for interdisciplinary exchange. Co-created and curated by Mikolaj Sekutowicz, each panel discussion is moderated in collaboration with various partners and partner institutions from the private and public sector.
