Aileen Sage
Words by Amelia Holliday
Like many emerging practices Aileen Sage was drawn to the Institute’ s Expression of Interest (EOI) request for submissions for the Creative Director role at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016. The Venice Biennale is the world’s largest architectural festival, celebrating ideas, thinking and design. For us it presented a unique opportunity to be part of showcasing Australian architecture internationally, highlighting the country’s varied expertise and growing reputation for progressive architecture. Within this context, we were interested in how we could frame Australian architecture for an international audience. We were also aware that thousands of the world’s most influential architects, designers, urban planners, academics and critics will visit the Biennale exhibitions, and there is considerable discussion and commentary in the architectural press and general media as a direct result – a daunting prospect!
We recognised early on that in order to put together an engaging and memorable exhibition that could be appreciated on many levels by both architects and non architects alike we would need to collaborate with someone who brought a different insight to the project – someone outside of architecture but someone who had an innate architectural sensibility – someone who understood urban issues but who potentially worked at a different scale or mode to our small architectural practice. Michelle Tabet, an independent urban strategist with an international planning background fit the bill perfectly.
For us the Pool is not just about the typology of a pool (natural /manmade, inland /coastal, public /private) but also a pool of collaboration. The three creative directors and a number of our collaborators currently all share a studio space in the William Street Creative Hub – an affordable space for cultural and creative enterprise fostered by the City of Sydney and we see this as the pool that has made this project possible. We are particularly looking forward to collaborating with our extended team that has been drawn from varied fields including architecture, planning, art, science and design – all of whom excel within their fields and bring to this project an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience, adding depth and complexity to the concept.
Together we want to create an immersive and memorable experience that leaves a lasting impression and taps into the memories and stories of many. We also want to tell a story of a uniquely Australian place that resonates with the general public as much as with architects and would provide an opportunity to create a place of respite with in the busy and information-heavy Biennale experience.
At Aileen Sage we carefully select the consultant team for each design challenge we are engaged with and that includes both typical project commissions and extracurricular projects. We love working with people from different fields and backgrounds and we often include our clients in this process. In starting Aileen Sage we were motivated to work on projects of many different scales and also those outside a traditional architectural model.
The Pool
The Pool is a lens through which to explore Australian cultural identity. Be they natural or manmade, inland or coastal, temporary or permanent, the creative directors will invite visitors to the new DCM designed pavilion to explore the pools of Australia in all their forms. From pools of necessity to the pools of excess, the pool is a key architectural device, a memory and also a setting. It has the unique ability to evoke both the sacred and the profane. It also aptly represents a distinctively Australian democratic and social space – a great leveller of difference.
The exhibition will create a pool within the new exhibition space through an immersive multi sensory experience that will transport visitors poolside. In doing so it will bring to Venice a suggestion of a particular Australian architectural condition. This condition will be augmented and expanded through the use of light, scent, sound, reflection and perspective to create a series of perceptual illusions. Within this designed landscape, a series of Australia’s most remarkable pools will be profiled. Resource, celebration, community, commemoration, leisure and lifeblood, the exhibition content will reach deep within the Australian psyche.
Crowdsourcing
We are looking for the many inspirational pools of Australia.
These pools may take many forms and mean different things to different people – from coastal pools and rockpools to inner city pools, private backyard pools or the local municipal pool; commemorative pools or reservoirs, waterholes and billabongs – our landscape is made of both pools of necessity and pools of excess. Pools are an element of sport and survival, leisure and lifeblood, social spaces and places of quiet contemplation.
We are seeking to crowdsource a database of photographs and short narratives to inform our research for the exhibition. Please share with us what the pool means for you, what you love about that pool, your childhood or recent memories of it, or its impact on your everyday life.
Your contribution to our research will help us frame the exhibition and the stories we share with the world at Venice. See website for details
Deadline for submissions: 17th July 2015
