This year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, which kicks off in just a few days, will display an illuminated
archway designed by biennale director, Rem Koolhaas, and created in
collaboration with Swarovski.
Luminaire is installed at the entrance to the Monditalia exhibition, where Koolhaas tells the history of Italy
through its relationship to architecture. The wooden structure (some 20 feet
high and nearly 65 feet long) was built by a family of craftsmen in Puglia and references
the grand Renaissance façades of the city’s famed palazzi. The arch is decorated
with over 30 pounds of tiny crystals that sparkle against thousands of colorful
glass lights.
A brief video
from the biennale’s set-up (oddly set to music that sounds like Sweet Home
Alabama) gives a glimpse of the arch’s installation, and perhaps new meaning to
Koolhaas’ famous quote, “Infrastructure is much more important that
architecture.”
The 14th
International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia runs from June
7 to November 23, 2014.