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| Poster for Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2021 / Courtesy of SBAU |
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (SBAU) 2021, which kicks off Thursday, looks into the cityscape and urban planning and how the pandemic has changed those, under the direction of French architect Dominique Perrault.
Themed "CROSSROADS: Building the Resilient City," this year's biennale will focus on the complex relationships that shape a city and humanity's effort to make cities more sustainable, featuring some 130 urban projects by 190 artists and 41 universities.
"Directed by the French architect Dominque Perrault, the third edition of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism will highlight the importance of architecture in shaping our vision of future urban development. Around a hundred innovative projects have been selected to illustrate how our cities could become more resilient," French Ambassador to Korea Philippe Lefort told The Korea Times.
At the biennale, France will be represented through the participation of 15 architectural firms, showcasing a range of both established and emerging architects in the main Thematic Exhibition as well as Cities and Guest Cities Exhibitions.
"We look forward to the opening of the biennale and we offer our best wishes of success to this edition," Lefort said.
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| Dominique Perrault, general director of SBAU 2021 / Courtesy of SBAU |
Perrault, this year's general director, is a French architect who designed the National Library of France in Paris as well as the Olympic Velodrome and Swimming Pool in Berlin, the Olympic Tennis Stadium in Madrid and the DC 1 Tower in Vienna.
In Korea, Perrault is best known for his 2008 design of the Ewha Campus Complex, a campus building of Ewha Womans University, which gave him the first prize of the Seoul Metropolitan Architecture Award that year.
Perrault also took part in and won architectural competitions in Seoul such as "The Blade" towers for the canceled Yongsan International Business District and "Lightwalk" for the Gangnam Intermodal Transit Center, continuing his ties with the city.
Perrault has also chaired the UNESCO-UIA (International Union of Architects) Joint Committee since 2019.
"We imagined the biennale at the beginning on the theme of 'crossroads' ― the idea of crossing territories, talents and cultures. And then we explored this idea in a more important dimension as we started to talk about resilience. It is a biennale that brings together what we have sought and multiplies all the links and relationships that exist in a city, a metropolis," Perrault said of the concept of SBAU 2021.
The biennale explores the concept of the city as a collective invention and ways for more sustainable urban growth under five sub-themes ― Above / Below; Heritage / Modern; Craft / Digital; Natural / Artificial; and Safe / Risk.
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| 'The Art of Metropolitan Trails' by the Pavillon de l'Arsenal in Paris will be presented at the SBAU 2021's Guest Cities Exhibition. Courtesy of Pavillon de l'Arsenal |
The Guest Cities section, curated by Seoul National University architecture professor Choon Choi, sheds light on urban policy and public projects around the world and three French projects are introduced here.
"The Guest Cities Exhibition welcomes, with the support of our embassy, three exhibitions from major French institutions: the FRAC Centre-Val de Loire in Orleans, the Pavillon de l'Arsenal in Paris, and arc en reve center in Bordeaux. The director of arc en reve, Fabrizio Gallanti, will also speak during the Resilient Cities Forum," Ambassador Lefort said.
The FRAC Centre-Val de Loire will share its exhibition "The City, Faraway," which looked into the diversity of urban life from the intimacy of a street corner to the vastness of cityscapes.
"The Art of Metropolitan Trails" by the Pavillon de l'Arsenal looks into new creative spaces in metropolis under the context of urban planning, art, tourism and environmentalism.
The arc en reve center of architecture will present its effort to promote cultural awareness on architecture to children and youth.
The biennale will run through Oct. 31 at select locations in Seoul including Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul Hall of Urbanism and Architecture and Sewoon Plaza.
