Timber Construction (also available as English Edition 1/2009)

What exactly is architecture? Aaron Betsky poses this profound question as curator of this year’s 11th Architecture Biennale in Venice. Under the motto “Out There: Architecture Beyond Building” he attempts to show that there is more to architecture than keeping the rain out or concocting floor plans. Betsky has his sights set on the “fabulous spaces (…) we can see in film and art”. He explained to the assembled members of the press that architecture is not so much about buildings as about the way we think and talk about them. “Architecture”, he continued, “(is about) offering critical alternatives to the human-made environment.” It embodies “the desire to make another world, a better world, and a world open to possibilities beyond the everyday”.