11th São Paulo Architecture Biennial

The title of the 11th São Paulo Architecture Biennial—In Project—proposes to discuss the place of architecture and the place of the Architecture Biennial per se. It suggests a collaborative event, under construction, in process. This edition—an investigation, an archive and a set of actions—materializes as an Observatory, an Exhibition and a continuous Program.

The 11th Biennial challenges architecture to approximate with other knowledge and forms of co-production of the city that transform the understanding of what urban design and planning can be. The proposal of the Biennial aims at the expansion of the architect’s actions towards collectivity.

The Biennial wants to talk about its territory. For this the Biennial goes to the territory, from the center to its edges and from the edges to the center, suggesting a flux that is both complementary and equally relevant regarding the social production of space. That rationale seeks to acknowledge different agents based on their own productions and to highlight the attitudes of architects who experiment with new forms of action, reflection and design practices. Through its Observatory, a large file in process—which originated in the studio of the 11th Biennial and was complemented by four Open Calls—an inventory has been compiled, revealing ways to represent, to map, to qualify, to build, to edit, to use and to occupy the city.

The Observatory is the conceptual and material basis of the Biennial exhibition, which materializes as a large archive in different formats in each exhibition space, including audiovisual, photography enlargement, archives and a series of collections showed at the Biennial’s Library.

The exhibition takes place in a network of oficial spaces, in which there is a fixed schedule; partner venues that receive timely schedules; and in satellite modules, which articulate and give visibility to the actions of the Biennial, atomized by the city, guaranteeing support for interaction, conviviality and dialogue.

The 11th Biennial, in addition to an exhibition, is a process of research and exchange fostered by a continuous program of actions throughout the city that allows the e ective experience of processes regarding the production of space.

We think of the outcome of this process as a legacy in two formats: an archive—an inventory of contemporary forms of architecture—and an articulated network of actions that promotes material and immaterial results. The 11th Biennial therefore constitutes a constellation of situations that privilege the experience, promoted by its activities, and fosters a process of exchange of knowledge and experiences among people in the city.

We live times of transformation. In this context, architecture seeks other ways of collaborating and coexisting, approaching means of making and being, broadening its field of action.