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Where the grass seems greener: Australia floats sustainability at Architecture Biennale
As far as the eye can see, thousands of plants form a sea of green. Among them are 65 species of grasses, all Indigenous to Western Victoria.
But this is not Australia - this is Venice, Italy, on the cusp of the Mediterranean summer.
The Australia Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale.Credit: Rory Gardiner
Repair is Australia’s entry in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, one of the biggest showcases of its kind in the world.
The exhibit's creators, architects Mauro Baracco and Louise Wright, in collaboration with artist Linda Tegg, sourced 10,000 rare Indigenous plant seeds for the project.
Left and right, architects Mauro Baracco and Louise Wright of Baracco+Wright Architects; centre, artist Linda Tegg, in Venice.Credit: Rory Gardiner
Wright says Australia's biodiverse grassland ecologies are often overlooked because they are “just” grass.
“By putting it inside a cultural institution, you’re asking people to look at it again, to revalue it, to reconsider,” she says.
“What we wanted to do was present the land that we occupy [in Australia] in a way that will make people look at it in a different way.”
The exhibit is engineered for immersion.Credit: Rory Gardiner
Australia is one of the most ecologically diverse countries in the world but high rates of deforestation - especially in Queensland - continue, with land clearing rates the highest in the developed world.
Only 1 per cent of the natural habitat where the grasses at the Australia Pavilion come from remains. You can’t generally buy these plants at your local nursery. The team instead worked with local seed banks, some of which collect seeds from areas cleared for urban development before construction begins.
The seeds were grown in Italy over the last eight months with the help of an agricultural school in Sanremo. They need daily attention in the pavilion to stay healthy.
A sapling in the grass.Credit: Rory Gardiner
There’s an irony that these native plants travelled all the way to Europe to make a point, but the message is a universal one.
“Architects have a role - among many people - in land use, and we can act in a way that’s reparative rather than destructive [to the environment],” says Wright.
Inside the pavilion itself, greenery spills majestically over the gallery floor like a verdant cloud. The plants are kept alive with artificial lighting.
“What we’re keen to reveal is the effort to artificially sustain life,” says Wright. “We very quickly and easily remove these things [from their natural environment] but to recreate them and keep them alive is actually very difficult.”
Inside the pavilon.Credit: Rory Gardiner
Sustainability has been a buzz word in design circles for a while, but Wright says we can go one step further.
“Sustainability is about the status quo, about keeping things in balance,” she says. “It’s not about repairing and making good; it’s not an active thing.
"I think we actually need to repair things, not just keep them okay.”
A final part of the exhibit, a video work, showcases 15 real-life Australian projects - including by Indigenous Australians - that demonstrate the infinite ways architecture can be used for "repair".
“What they all do is a lot more than just the building itself," says Wright.
A video component explores the concept of repair through 15 Australian architectural works.Credit: Rory Gardiner
"They all engage with the natural environment, or a culture, or a street - sometimes a river.
“They act beyond the boundary of the [architectural] object … [but] they’re not attempting to be instructive or didactic - they’re a provocation. There are many ways to do this [repair].”
The 16th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale opens this weekend and is on until November 25.