La Ville Radiese - La Biennale di Venezia

7th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice, Italy, 2000

These two projects for the Venice Biennale are intended as a critical commentary on the post-industrial era of architecture. United under the general title of "La Ville Radieuse," both proposals have been inspired by Le Corbusier’s visionary city and his C.I.A.M. declarations of the 1930’s. The commentary level is based on his failure to foresee the consequences of fossil fuel consumption, urban/suburban expansion, and toxic waste pollution. Looking at "La Ville Radieuse" from a revised perspective, the first concept utilizes an existing cargo crane in the city’s Arsenale property to mount a critique of the world’s dependence on fossil fuel and people’s physical entrapment in the contemporary city. A cargo net, hanging from the crane, is filled with black, oil-soaked mannequins, causing petroleum to drip slowly onto the mirror surface of an oil basin at the base of the crane. The dark silhouette of this cargo net serves as a kind of "Ville Radieuse redux" - a reminder of the ominous legacy of resource abuse and human congestion. The second project provides a more optimistic view of the sun theme - in this case, a celebration of urban agriculture. In Venice it seemed appropriate to create a moving garden that can travel throughout the canal system. The project is realized by filling a vaporetto boat with soil and a variety of indigenous plants and crops.