Australian Pavilion Will Make A Splash

One of Australia’s great cultural symbols will be explored in the Australian Exhibition at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

The Pool by architecture practice Aileen Sage and urban strategist Michelle Tabet will use light, mirror, sound and smell to create an immersive, highly sensorial experience that will transport visitors poolside. A series of Australia’s most remarkable pools will also be featured. Be they natural or manmade, inland or coastal, temporary or permanent, the creative directors will survey these archetypal pools which have become symbols of Australian culture.

The installation will be the first architecture exhibition to be held in the Denton Corker Marshall-designed pavilion recently built in Venice. Designed by Melbourne-based practice, the pavilion replaces Philip Cox’s 1988 structure and blurs the lines between architecture and sculptural object. Balancing out over the canal, the dark box is penetrated by operable panels that can be opened or closed depending on the exhibitions within. The new pavilion, which opens in May 2015, will attract attention not only for its design but for the fact that it is the first pavilion to be built in Venice in the 21st century.