Peruvian architectural firm leonmarcial arquitectos has been invited to take part of the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale with an installation at the Arsenale as part of the “As New Households” exhibition space. Titled Interwoven, the installation encourages the action of sharing and celebrates the exchange between homes and their environments through architecture.

Under the theme “How Will We Live Together?” the 17th International Architecture Exhibition opened its doors on May 22 (remaining open to the public until November 21), with the participation of 46 countries from different parts of the globe. The United Arab Emirates was awarded with the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, with its contribution Wetland curated by Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto. Selected by a jury that consists of Kazuyo Sejima (president-Japan), Sandra Barclay (Peru), Lamia Joreige (Lebanon), Lesley Lokko (Ghana-Scotland), and Luca Molinari (Italy), the winning contribution at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale explores the local geography of the United Arab Emirates to find alternatives to cement, one of the key emitters of the world’s carbon dioxide.

Interwoven is the result of a collective dialogue between public and private environmental institutions, Amazonian families who control and manage the Peruvian rainforests on a daily basis, artisans, carpenters, and architects. The installation poses the question of how can we interweave and integrate social transitions and interactions by dissolving the boundaries between exterior-interior, between public and private?

A fabric made of 2000 mobile Panguana blocks and metal poles converses with the scale of the building, establishing a new dialogue with the context of the Arsenale. Interwoven changes and adapts through the rotation of its blocks creating a new model of spatial contract, reshaping the way we interact and coexist. The installation encourages visitors to touch and play with its blocks to create new configurations and perhaps envision new and more equitable possibilities for community life in the future.

– leonmarcial arquitectos: Alexia León and Lucho Marcial.
– In collaboration with: Alex Cuadra & Gustavo Reyna with Luis Falen, Sandro Casanova, Alberto Bautista, Henry Villalta, Marisol Michilot y Arturo Pereda; GCAQ engineers: Carlos Casabonne; Arquitecma Peru: Fernando Flores Peña, David Flores Santillán and Fernando Flores Santillán with the carpenter team: Fidencio Flores Chipana, Luis Guardia Lozano, Aurelio Pacheco Mariano, Santiago Benito Coscco, Gian Marcos Romero Romero, José Enero Aquino and the metal working team: José Alcalde Carrera and Gilberto Borja Calderón. Our gratitude to the Amazonian textile weaver Charo Rodriguez and mestizo and native families of Lamas, San Martín for sharing their household-forestry management knowledge. Interwoven was in part made possible with the additional support of Rafael Osterling, Arquitecma Peru, Thermia Barcelona and Illusione.