AT THIS YEAR'S VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE, South African architects have had a spectacular showing. Not only is there a South African Pavilion – a spot in a building called the Arsenale, where it's had a national pavilion since 2012 – but another dozen or so of our architects and artists are included in the international exhibition too.
The theme for this year's biennale is “The Laboratory of the Future”, and for the first time, it's curated by an African woman, Lesley Lokko. She spent several years in SA: she set up the Graduate School of Architecture at UJ and ran it, so she knows the local architectural scene well. She was also on the panel that selected the South African practice Counterspace for the Serpentine Pavilion in 2021, and brought architect Sumayya Vally to global attention.
