This year at the Venice Architecture Biennale, 71 architects from all over the world made responses to the Manifesto by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, in order to reveal, to lay bare, the ‘freespace’ ingredient embedded in their work. Marina Tabassum from Bangladesh is among the 71 invited.
Working along the overall theme for this exhibition FREESPACE, Marina Tabassum aptly embraces the most evident ‘free space’ of Bengal—the vernacular courtyards of the Ganges delta of Bangladesh, and the lives that surround it.
[Photo © Marina Tabassum]
When it comes to designing for the fluid landscape of Ganges delta, there is more to it than the typical work of architecture. This landscape requires understanding and embracing informality. Quite often it becomes a search for innovative and creative ways of defining life that goes beyond space-making.
Marina Tabassum and her team, curated various elements of the vernacular life of the delta to recreate and expose their traditional wisdom and beauty for the world to appreciate. The elements displayed in the Biennale are unique to their location, sourced over a period of time. These utilitarian objects, used, bruised with the mark of lived life are tested through time, representing culture and wisdom of the delta dwellers.
Read more about it in this booklet about the exhibits:
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© MTA | Marina Tabassum Architects
Watch the live-streaming archive of a panel discussion at the Biennale around the theme “What is #Freespace?” moderated by the Curators Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell; Marina Tabassum starts at 28:41:
Short link to this page for easy sharing: http://bit.ly/MTAVenice
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