useFULL

The work of Rural Studio is committed to exploring the integration of architecture students and the local community, trying to be as rooted as possible, benefiting from the community thanks to the questions and needs that may guide architectural education and simultaneously serving the people of the place where they operate: it’s as if the head thinks where the feet stand.
Architecture students are not just a group of people to be taught, but an important source of talent and knowledge; with the right guidance and strategically identified community-oriented projects, they have the potential to build a bridge with society. Such projects, although modest in scale, can have a positive impact on the neediest.
The projects that are realized and fully implemented may be small-scale for society, but for architectural education around the world they are bigger than usual and seldom seen.
Working within the community to define solutions allows future architects to experience a precise relation with the client, with the budget, and in the efficiency of operations brought into play for each project. Based in one of the poorest regions of a rich country, they are capable of adapting the available means to achieve the final purpose they are aiming for.
Being loyal to the premise of “what should be built, rather than what can be built,” they tend to redefine the approach to each assignment. The leitmotiv of their work is utility, both for the performance and operation of the projects. In this exhibition, Rural Studio’s design philosophy is concerned with the afterlife of the materials. So, instead of trying to build something and then recycle it in the best possible way, they went for an even more radical approach: they identified a need around Venice, identified what element was needed to meet this need (steel tables and chairs), and built their installation with those elements, keeping them in their casing so that when the Biennale finishes, they can bring them to the final destination. It’s like the afterlife: the one that was really necessary was even more important than the first life as an architectural exhibition. The work of Rural Studio is a question about what our priorities should be, reminding us of the constant need to redefine sustainability.