2012 Venice Biennale

Spontaneous Interventions

Curators' Statement: Spontaneous Interventions

Design Actions for the Common Good

U.S. Pavilion, 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale

Spontaneous Interventions #1 to #16

From 78th Street Play Street to Brooklyn Night Bazaar.

Spontaneous Interventions #17 to #31

From Bubbleware by Rebar to Day Labor Station by Public Architecture.

Spontaneous Interventions #32 to #46

From Depave to Greenaid Seedbomb Vending Machine by COMMONstudio.

Spontaneous Interventions #47 to #62

From Guerrilla Bike Lanes to LA Green Grounds.

Spontaneous Interventions #63 to #77

From Legal Waiting Zone by Ghana ThinkTank to No Longer Empty.

Spontaneous Interventions #78 to #92

From Occupy Wall Street to Place Pulse by MIT Media Lab.

Spontaneous Interventions #93 to #108

From Pop Up City to Serendipitor by Mark Shepard.

Spontaneous Interventions #109 to #124

From Skipping Only Zones by Design That Moves You to Yarnbombing.

the banners, designed by m-a-d and freecell. each intervention's team chose the percentages for the color scheme of their banner. the system of counterweights can be seen on the right.

Exhibition Design for the U.S. Pavilion at the Biennale

A look at the Spontaneous Interventions exhibition at the 2012 Venice Biennale.

Essays and Expositions

Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good

Curator Cathy Lang Ho talks about how interventionist urbanism celebrates those who act, who take the initiative to transform problematic urban situations into new opportunities, without waiting for clients or permission.
Do-It-Yourself Urban Design in the Help-Yourself City

Gordon Douglas writes about the context from which the current trend toward an informal, spontaneous, and do-it-yourself urbanism emerges? And what, in turn, this trend says about the American city.
American City Interrupted: What Spontaneous Interventions Can Teach Us About Taking Back the City

Toni L. Griffin on how the current conditions of legacy cities can be traced directly back to many of the urban policies of the last century—policies that allowed regional sprawl to decentralize the urban core.
A Very Short History of American Pop-Ups

D. Grahame Shane tells how the history of American urbanism can be understood as a history of pop-ups at different scales.
Spontaneous Interventions

Michael Sorkin discusses how the 124 projects that make up the U.S. Pavilion's exhibition are efforts to remake ourselves by remaking the city.
Stop Planning, Start Acting

Jason Roberts, one of the cofounders of Better Block, talks about guerrilla urbanism.
Urban Interventions and the Right to the City

UC Berkeley professor Margaret Crawford discusses the theory behind spontaneous urbanism.
Socially Engaged Art Is a Mess Worth Making

Creative Time curator Nato Thompson discusses socially engaged art.
Guerrilla Bike Lanes and Other Acts of Civic Improvement Through Civil Disobedience

Gordon Douglas talks about how small, informal urban actions are bold contributions to the fabric of the city.
Occupying Wall Street

Architect Michael Sorkin on how the choice of Zuccotti Park for the occupy protest was the right choice.
Green for a Day: Transitory Pastoralism in America

Syracuse University in Florence professor Richard Ingersoll talks about the growth of urban farming.
How-To: The Power of DIY Instructions

Mimi Zeiger describes how the informal urbanism movement is being guided by equally informal self-help manuals.
Notes on Minor Urbanism

U of Buffalo associate professor Mark Shepard on how the practice of parkour can guide our view of the city.
Between the Net and the Street

Brendan Crain looks at informal urbanism through the lens of Bruce Sterling's "An Essay on the New Aesthetic."
The Gentrification Dilemma

Hunter College professor Tom Angotti on how these informal acts of urbanism raise questions about gentrification.
Top-Down Meets Bottom-Up

University of Applied Art, Vienna, professor Liane Lefaivre examines the Amsterdam playgrounds of Aldo van Eyck.
Economic Development by Proxy

Architect Douglas Burnham talks about developing his firm's proxy project for the city of San Francisco.
From Spontaneous to Strategic: The Rise of Public Interest Design

PublicInterestDesign.org's John Cary discusses the growing amount of design for the public good.
Towards Decisiveness

Guggenheim assistant curator and Spontaneous Interventions co-curator David van der Leer discusses American interventions from the perspective of a recently arrived European.
Get Local

Mimi Zeiger examines the role of local projects in our global age.