The Australian Institute of Architects has made the decision to withdraw from the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale. The event, which is still scheduled to go ahead in August, is a key date in the global architecture calendar. However, the rapidly changing and escalating situation regarding COVID-19 has made it impossible for us to plan for the exhibition, as the health and safety of our staff, members, partners and volunteers is our main priority.
We know that COVID-19 is presenting architects with significant financial and economic challenges. Therefore we are going to reallocate our resources to fund initiatives to help support our members as they navigate through this crisis.
We thank our Creative Directors Tristan Wong and Jefa Greenaway, and the entire creative team, for their hard work and commitment to the project. They have come up with a truly inspiring response to the theme of ‘how will we live together?’ and we look forward to working with them to showcase this work in other ways when it is safe to do so.
