Hasta La Ideas

Just in case you weren’t among the 129,323 people who made it to Venice last fall to visit the 11th Architecture Biennale, directed by Aaron Betsky and organised by La Biennale di Venezia, Parsons The New School for Design has brought part of it home. Opening today at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center is “Into the Open: Positioning Practice,” the official U.S. pavilion at the Architecture Biennale. And it’s not your grandfather’s architecture: curators William Menking, Aaron Levy, and Andrew Sturm focused the exhibition on the increasing interest in civic engagement in American architectural practice. On view through May 1, the exhibition examines how a new generation of architects is reclaiming a role in shaping community and the built environment. Translation: an in-depth look at the work of 16 architectural groups-cum-intellectual entrepreneurs, from the Alice Waters-helmed Edible Schoolyard to Detroit’s Heidelberg Project, which combats urban blight with outdoor art.

Come for the content, stay for the exhibit design! Exhibition and graphic designers Ken Saylor of Saylor + Sirola and Prem Krishnamurthy of Project Projects designed the exhibition’s stateside incarnation as a multi-layered installation of chalkboard painted walls (chalk-scrawled feedback is encouraged), large stenciled texts, informally-arranged images, multiple digital projections, text banners, and display furniture. After snatching a Hakurai turnip or two from the exhibition’s Yale Sustainable Food Project demo garden, impress your friends by pointing out that striking display typeface: it’s the sampler-ready CoolWool, inspired by clothing labels and care instructions.

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