Australian landscape architect Richard Weller is exhibiting in the “As One Planet” section of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. Weller is professor and chair of the landscape architecture department and co-executive director of The Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Weller’s installation steps back from the question of how will “we” live together and begins instead with the declaration of “what we can’t live without.” His contribution comprises three bodies of work which respond to the broader exhibition themes of making worlds, presenting designs for climate change and connecting the earth with outer space, at different scales. “Biodiversity is an issue that cuts across local, regional and global scales of reference,” said Weller.
The Hotspot Cities Project identifies the places where the growth of urbanization is in direct conflict with the world’s most biodiverse regions
Image: Francesco Galli
World Park envisions a global network of territories protecting endangered species
Image: Francesco Galli
The Hotspot Cities Project identifies the places where the growth of urbanization is in direct conflict with the world’s most biodiverse regions and the species under threat and the World Park envisions a global network of territories protecting endangered species that also encourages people to not only “walk the world” through the expanded collection of walking trails, but be part of the process of landscape restoration. Weller’s third project in the exhibition, Not the Blue Marble, re-imagines the view of Earth seen by the Apollo 11 astronauts in the wake of environmental collapse.
As One Planet is taking place in the Central Pavilion of the biennale, which runs until 21 November 2021.
