Commissioner: Paul Preissner
Curators: Paul Andersen, Paul Preissner
Exhibitors: Ania Jaworska, Norman/Kelley, Linda Robbennolt, Daniel Shea, Chris Strong, The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture
United States of America
American Framing
Album
Description
Reportedly originating in 1832 with George Washington Snow’s balloon-framed warehouse, softwood construction offered a solution to the need for a variety and large number of buildings during America’s westward expansion. The availability of the principal material, simplicity of construction, an ability to be built by low- or unskilled workers, and the growing economies and populations of the Midwest led to the proliferation of an architecture that has since dominated the American built landscape. The exhibition tells a story of an architectural project that is eager to choose economy over technical knowledge, and accepting of relaxed ideas towards craft. This desire plays out in a full-scale addition to the Pavilion building itself: completing the 1930s US Pavilion, with America’s ubiquitous domestic project, the wood-framed houses.
Biennale Sneak Peek
Biennale Sneak Peek
Image 1 – How will we live together?
War housing in Erie, Pennsylvania, 1941.
Photo: Al Palmer, courtesy Library of Congress
Image 2 – Sneak peek of the project
Photo: Untitled, Daniel Shea, 2020