From sofas that swallow you to a 3D-printed coral reef, the Triennale explores architecture beyond building. But is it all a bit too irreverent?
Financial crisis has an interesting effect on the perception of architecture. When the economy falters, buildings are among the first things to be put on hold, and architects among the first put out of work. The conclusion drawn by some is that buildings are simply not enough: to avoid extinction, architecture must claim renewed relevance by being more than a service for the production of walls, roofs and floors.
What often follows this reasoning is a kind of discipline envy, a desire for architects to be artists and philosophers, anthropologists and politicians, performers and cartographers – anything but people engaged in the tedious irrelevance of bricks and mortar.
“It is the most irreverent of the three Triennales so far,” says Graça Fonseca, Lisbon's Deputy Mayor for Economy and Innovation – following the 2007 show on urban voids and 2010 on housing. “And sometimes cities need irreverence.”