Masters of architecture in Venice

Master of Architecture students from the University of Adelaide will share innovative designs and built projects with a global audience at a prestigious exhibition in Venice.

From 20 May, the students’ work will be featured alongside projects by an international collection of architects, designers, artists, academics, and photographers at Time Space Existence, an exhibition hosted by the European Cultural Centre in the heart of Venice. 

“These diverse projects by our Master of Architecture students are world-class; Venice is an ideal location to showcase our students’ outstanding abilities,” said Associate Professor Katharine Bartsch, discipline lead of architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Adelaide.

The featured projects include an urban monument which celebrates migration between Italy and Australia, designed by Master of Architecture students Nur Azmina Mohd Azli and Michael Robert List. Built in spite of the pandemic, the monument will be inaugurated in August 2023. 

The exhibit also includes capstone projects by our Master of Architecture students and rounds off with provocative designs by Xinyu Chen, Hugh Adare and Zihe Chen, who speculate on new realities and alternative forms of temporal, spatial and social organisation through computer generated renderings.

Hugh Adare’s concept, Dear John Deere, addresses the ‘right to repair’ in a high-tech agricultural world, with a floating weather farm that extracts CO2 from the atmosphere.

Guardian of the Shore by Xinyu Chen, conceives a moving building that collects plastic waste from beaches to produce high-protein foods.

“These diverse projects by our Master of Architecture students are world-class; Venice is an ideal location to showcase our students’ outstanding abilities.”Professor Katharine Bartsch

In To be Filled, Zihe Chen proposes a framework for rehabilitation of open-pit mines, aiming to re-establish diverse ecosystems by 3D printing specific habitats.

“The architecture studio at the University of Adelaide provides a place for progressive speculation and the creation of new realities. We encourage the students to interrogate cultural, economic, and technological practices for future modes of existence,” said the University of Adelaide’s Dr Urs Bette, Master of Architecture Program Director.   

The exhibit is a joint venture between staff members in the discipline of architecture and the award-winning architectural practice, Tectvs. 

“Showcasing the work of students and practitioners side-by-side highlights the intersections between education and practice which are critical to successful design education,” said Tectvs director and University of Adelaide Industry Professor Tony Giannone,

Professor Giannone has played a pivotal role in securing this opportunity as well as mentoring students in a number of projects which are on display. The exhibit is also supported by the Department of Infrastructure and Trade.

Tectvs also collaborated with University of Adelaide in six international architecture workshops focusing on urban revitalisation which united masters students from Tongji University, University of Adelaide and the Politecnico di Milano. 

Considered together, these projects are shaped by cross-cultural thinking, creative collaboration and intertwined narratives of migration.

These themes permeate the innovative work of Tectvs whose award-winning projects activate a sense of place in multi-cultural Australia. 

Time Space Existence runs concurrently with the 18^th International Biennale di Architettura, one of the oldest and most prestigious international exhibitions of architecture, showcasing contemporary design and architecture from around the world to a global audience.

The students’ work will be open to the public from 20 May until 26 November 2023 at Palazzo Bembo, Venice.

More information about the School of Architecture and Built Environment

About Time Space Existence

Time Space Existence is a recurring exhibition in Venice that features a wide range of projects from an international and eclectic group of architects, artists, academics, and creative professionals at diverse stages of their careers. Organised by the European Cultural Centre, the biennial exhibition has presented ongoing projects, revolutionary proposals, and utopian dreams of architectural expressions from internationally renowned figures such as Daniel Libeskind, Odile Decq, Peter Eisenman, Kengo Kuma, Fumihiko Maki, MVRDV, Toshiko Mori, Moshe Safdie and SOM.