Moroccan Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale Showcases Earth as a Sustainable Building Material

The Kingdom of Morocco's exhibition at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia highlights Moroccan earth architecture and traditional construction techniques. The exhibition, titled Materiae Palimpsest, was curated by architects Khalil Morad El Ghilali and El Mehdi Belyasmine. In an exploration that blends ancient techniques with digital technologies, the exhibit features textile works by architect and artist Soumyia Jalal, along with holograms of artisans and tactile installations. The narrative presents earth as a renewable resource and sustainable material, and earth construction as a key to both preserving architectural heritage and addressing contemporary ecological and social challenges. Materiae Palimpsest offers an invitation to rethink architecture's current relationship with building materials, opening the way to locally rooted construction methods.

The Korean Hanok: Exploring Traditional Architecture's Environmental Principles

Vernacular architecture often utilizes locally sourced materials and construction practices honed over centuries. This approach raises questions about its potential relevance for contemporary design challenges. The prevalence of high-rise developments globally, often relying on sealed envelopes and mechanical climate control, contrasts with historical architectural practices. Traditionally, regional architectures emerged from local communities, fostering distinct cultural identities and integrating passive systems for ventilation, cooling, and heating, often utilizing natural elements. The Hanok, traditional Korean houses, serve as a case study. Beyond their current role in tourism, they are also an example of how vernacular knowledge can provide passive climate-response strategies that align with the current principles of creating environmentally friendly buildings.

Abby Kortrijk / BAROZZI VEIGA

The project for Abby Kortrijk extends and transforms the historically significant complex of Groeninge Abbey into an arts space for site-specific temporary exhibitions and public events. Abby Kortrijk is a new kind of museum: a place for everyone, open and versatile, an urban living space in the wonderful setting of Begijnhof Park in the centre of Kortrijk.

ReclaYm House / Luigi Rosselli Architects

Residing in good company, situated as it is in close proximity to a cluster of other Luigi Rosselli Architects designed homes, and built in the late 1930s, internally this house holds a number of desirable Art Deco features; externally, however, its original façade was an austere pastiche of Scotland sur Med. Located on a hilltop, the home commands eagle's nest views of both the city and Sydney Harbour, but the trade-off for such blessed vistas is the steep sloping site the house is built on; an aspect that sadly became too difficult for the previous owner – a wine merchant and widower – who moved out in favour of somewhere with fewer stairs and gentler gradients.

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