From Belongings to Belonging, ELEMENTAL's contribution to the “Collective” section of Intelligens, the 19th International Architecture Exhibition (Photo: John Hill/World-Architects)
ELEMENTAL Builds at the Biennale
John Hill
From Belongings to Belonging, ELEMENTAL's contribution to the “Collective” section of Intelligens, the 19th International Architecture Exhibition (Photo: John Hill/World-Architects)
The three pieces are united by one question: “To build or not to build?” It is spelled out in the Arsenale's Corderie building, on a sign embedded within a carefully balanced construction made from crowd control barriers (image above), while a more traditional exhibit at ECC's Palazzo Mora explicitly asks the same question with its wall text. Elsewhere, at Giardini della Marinaressa, the question is implied in a full-size variation of one of ELEMENTAL's Basic Services Units (USB)—aka incremental housing, in which dwellings are half-built and residents complete them over time based on their needs, budget, abilities, and other factors. The prototype in the garden stands out for its patterned, porous concrete walls:
The pavilion by ELEMENTAL and Holcim is in the same spot where the Essential Homes Research Project, devised by the Norman Foster Foundation and covered with rollable concrete sheets from Holcim, was displayed in 2023. (Photo: John Hill/World-Architects)
The prototype consists of a 20-m2 (215-sf) “half a house” and a concrete slab with a floor plan diagram indicating how the house could be “completed.” (Photo: John Hill/World-Architects)
The novel construction is the first application of Biochar, Holcim's carbon-sink technology that converts CO2 into a charcoal-like material called biochar. The entire construction is made from Biochar and 100% recycled aggregates. (Photo: John Hill/World-Architects)
The ELEMENTAL and Holcim collaboration is described in a short 90-second film:
ELEMENTAL and Holcim's room at the Time Space Existence exhibition at Palazzo Mora consists of models showing Aravena's incremental housing built with the Biochar panels:
“To build or not to build? That is the question.” The answer appears to be: “Build half of it out of Biochar and half of it, later, out of conventional construction.” (Photo: John Hill/World-Architects)
The model resembles other USB projects by ELEMENTAL, such as Villa Verde Housing, where the arrangement of the rowhouses defines communal outdoor spaces. (Photo: John Hill/World-Architects)
The display also has a table with the materials that go into the Biochar panels. (Photo: John Hill/World-Architects)
Back at the Arsenale, ELEMENTAL's From Belongings to Belonging is strange by comparison: chaotic instead of ordered, referencing “Narcos” rather than cement companies, and asking visitors to make dramatic mental leaps to envision what housing in the future would actually look like:
