Constucting La Biennale
Data Art and Visualization / Visual Design / Typography / Code
Goal: Ideate wall for the year-by-year representation of Biennale participants’ networks, generate initial networks and create print-ready wall design
Result: Visual language for Biennale complex networks story, more than 40 versions of networks drafts that lay a foundation for the algorithmic visualization, print-ready wall-design with hand-picked colors
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Gephi, Cytoscape, Python
Duration: Jan 2024-April 2025
Constructing La Biennale is a 30-meter by 8-meter data art visualization of all the 12,000 architects who have participated in the Architectural Biennale over the decades.
It is a timeline of Biennale represented as a set of networks (for each year) of collaborators and their 3,800 projects.
FEBRUARY: Looking at the data
FEBRUARY, DRAFT 1: 1991
2006
1985
2014
FEBRUARY, DRAFT 2: 1985
FEBRUARY, DRAFT 2: 1985
“The editions of Biennale Architettura are crucial to architectural discourse, acting as platforms for debate, critique, and global exposure. Yet the ways in which ideas evolve within their complex ecologies are often overlooked and excluded from dominant narratives. This paradox highlights the challenge of understanding Biennales from a twofold perspective: as both cultural phenomena and complex systems. The installation Constructing la Biennale addresses this challenge by revealing the “behind the scenes” of the event.
Positioned in front of the Central Pavilion, currently under renovation, a layered faux-façade offers a critical interpretation of the historical evolution of la Biennale Architettura and the intricate curatorship of the 2025 edition. This effort brings together architectural design, network science, information design, data visualisation, and the ethnography of architecture —exploring the exhibition as a layered object and unveiling the question: what shapes a Biennale? By digitizing and analyzing data — such as team sizes and thematic focuses — the project visualizes la Biennale Architettura from a historical perspective, spanning 1975 to today.”
Venice Architectural Biennale
FEBRUARY-MARCH: Walls composition development
Wall organized by people who participated in several Biennales, thus are connectors.
MARCH-APRIL DRAFTS: Details
Barabasi Lab
Participants
Department of Architecture and Design – DAD, Politecnico di Torino
Michele Bonino (coordination)
Albena Yaneva
BarabasiLab, Northeastern University
Albert-László Barabási
Center for Design, Northeastern University
Paolo Ciuccarelli
Team:
DAD, Politecnico di Torino: Edoardo Bruno, Valeria Federighi, Camilla Forina, Monica
Naso (Architectural Design and Curatorial Coordination); Micol Rispoli (Ethnography of
Architecture)
Alp Arda with Noha Lentz, Zhenyi Chai (Architectural Design and Curatorial Coordination)
BarabasiLab: Csaba Both, Alice Grishchenko, Daria Koshkina (Data Visualization and Network Science)
Ábel Elekes, Rodrigo Dorantes Gilardi, Yixuan Liu, Marco Buongiorno Nardelli (Data Analysis and Network Science)
Center for Design: Todd Linkner, Matthew Blanco, Lindsey Henriques (Information Design and Data
Visualization)
University of Manchester: Benjamin Blackwell (Ethnography of Architecture)
Technical Collaborators:
SABO Studio
Multimedia Lab, DAD, Politecnico di Torino (filming and editing Riccardo Covino and
Pietro Merlo)
Geomatics for Cultural Heritage Lab, DAD PoliTo
Supporters:
Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo; Camera di Commercio di Torino; Department
of Network and Data Science – Central European University; Politecnico di Torino;
Northeastern University; SECAP S.p.A.; REPLY S.p.A.