BELGIUM. Intérieurs. Notes et Figures

10/06/2014. Venice Biennale 2014. [VEN] Italy
metalocus, SARA REBOLLO

Intérieurs. Notes et Figures, carried out by the Belgian Pavilion's curatorship team, looks into domestic spaces that result from different processes of transformation. The study is based on interior images of homes throughout Belgium taken over five months and reveals the attitudes that, beyond pure form, allow us to define a culture that is specific to certain transformations.

BELGIUM. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia.

BELGIUM. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia.

BELGIUM. IBELGIUM. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia.ntérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia. Click above to see larger image.

BELGIUM. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia.

Detached house, owner, Lommel, 1983. BÉLGICA. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Maxime Delvaux. Courtesy of Belgian Pavilion.

Detached house, owner, LommDetached house, owner, Lommel, 1983. BÉLGICA. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Maxime Delvaux. Courtesy of Belgian Pavilion. el, 1983. BÉLGICA. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Maxime Delvaux. Courtesy of Belgian Pavilion. Click above to see larger image.

Row house, tenant, Habay, 1971. BÉLGICA. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Maxime Delvaux. Courtesy of Belgian Pavilion.

Semi-detached house, owner, La Hulpe, 1973. BÉLGICA. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Maxime Delvaux. Courtesy of Belgian Pavilion.

Apartment, tenant, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode / Sint-Joost-ten-Node, 1930. BÉLGICA. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Maxime Delvaux. Courtesy of Belgian Pavilion.

Apartment, owner, Auderghem / Oudergem, 1965. BÉLGICA. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Maxime Delvaux. Courtesy of Belgian Pavilion.

Row house, owner, Namur, 1930. BÉLGICA. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Maxime Delvaux. Courtesy of Belgian Pavilion.

BELGIUM. Intérieurs, notes et figures. 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Fundamentals, la Biennale di Venezia. Photo © Maxime Delvaux. Courtesy of Belgian Pavilion

The concept of the interior is fundamental in architectural design. Yet there are very few studies that approach it as a separate field of inquiry. Behind the permanence of buildings’ façades, all sorts of transformations, adjustments and modifications are carried out. From this perspective, a study of our interiors provides valuable information about the new challenges to which architectural practice must rise. Obliging us to counter the notion of modernity as an all-consuming phenomenon, it reveals a vernacular architecture in which modernity itself is being consumed and absorbed.

Focusing on the home, Interiors. Notes and Figures records and analyzes the domestic landscapes that result from this process of transformation. The curatorial team spent five months taking thousands of photographs of home interiors throughout Belgium. The study attempts to devise a vocabulary and to reveal the attitudes that, beyond pure form, allow us to define a culture that is specific to these transformations. The photos, notes and figures have been collated in a catalogue, resembling a manual, that will be published at the opening of the pavilion.

An interpretation of the research findings will be presented inside the Belgian Pavilion. It presents significant themes from the study in the form of architectural interventions, scale models and surface treatment. Generating both new spatial organizations and visual relationships, these play on the disparity between architecture and its different forms of appropriation, creating a tension between the real and the possible.

Curators.- Sébastien Martinez Barat, Bernard Dubois, Sarah Levy, Judith Wielander.
Collaborators.- Benjamin Lafore, Sophie Dars, Mathieu Berger.
Graphic design.- Gregory Dapra, Laure Giletti.

An initiative of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Architecture Unit.
In collaboration with Wallonia-Brussels International.
With the support of Atenor Group et Reynaers Aluminium.

Dates.- 07 June 2014 - 23 November 2014.
Venue.- Pavilions at Giardini. Venice, Italy.