The Tbilisi Architecture Biennial was established in 2017 by Tinatin Gurgenidze, Natia Kalandarishvili, Otar Nemsadze and Gigi Shukakidze. TAB aims to bring together professionals from diverse disciplines united under one topic on a biannual basis.
Policy makers, local public and other stakeholders will present during the event, initiating and broadening existing critical discourse on architectural and urban issues in Tbilisi and beyond.
Title
Tbilisi Architecture BiennialType
Festival / BiennialWebsite
Organizers
From
October 26, 2018 12:20 PMUntil
November 03, 2018 12:20 PMVenue
Tbilisi, Georgia, Architecture, Architectural Informalities, Planning, Designs, Intervention, Lived Space, Biult Environment, Biennial, Post Soviet, Micro Rayon, Micro District, GldaniAddress
The TAB platform will join forces to generate exhibitions, new architectural installations, spatial experiments, symposiums and other activities related to the theme of the event. The topic, location as well as a curator will change for each event.
HISTORY
In November 1988 Tbilisi hosted a New Architectural Biennale. Featuring work from the USA, France, Switzerland and the rest of the Soviet Union, and a jury made up of notable international architects including Massimiliano Fuksas, the week long event was the first and only architectural biennial to be held in the Soviet Union, reflecting Tbilisi’s role as an island of relative artistic freedom within the authoritarian state, and it’s receptiveness to new ideas within a closed society. The collapse of the Soviet Union and accompanying political instability meant that the event did not continue. The 2018 Tbilisi Architecture Biennial will be the first to take place since Georgia regained its independence in 1991.
TOPIC
Tbilisi Architecture Biennial 2018 will explore the informality of the built and lived spaces of residential settlements in Tbilisi and beyond. Under the name “Buildings Are Not Enough” the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial will study the transformational processes and newly reinvented patterns of city dwellers. We would like to emphasize the alterations and adjustment made to architecture and the built environment that have been undertaken by inhabitants to suit their changing needs.
"BUILDINGS ARE NOT ENOUGH"
Tbilisi is in the midst of a construction boom. Increasingly, the city is being exploited by developers rapidly erecting high-rise residential blocks. In this process of rapid, chaotic urbanization, the significance of the human being and the living culture of the city is forgotten. It is important to understand if these new residential developments can meet the housing and societal needs of city dwellers. To deepen our understanding of these needs, it is essential to study the ideas behind the self-made structures, informal housing and urban responses that shape the current urban landscape of Tbilisi.
Tbilisi’ self-made structures were developed as part of the chaotic architectural process that accompanied the post-Soviet transformation. These structures shape the urban landscape of Tbilisi to a great extent, and carry within them the ideas and specific content that still characterizes the city.
Tbilisi Architecture Biennial 2018 will explore the informality of the built and lived spaces of residential settlements in Tbilisi and beyond. Under the name “Buildings Are Not Enough”, Tbilisi Architecture Biennial will study the transformational processes and newly reinvented living patterns of city dwellers. We would like to emphasize that the alterations and adjustment made to architecture and the built environment have been undertaken by inhabitants to suit their changing needs: buildings have been transformed as the lives of those who dwell within them have been transformed.
Our research focuses on the transformational processes taking place within Soviet modernist mass housing neighborhoods – so-called micro-districts. This opens up a whole spectrum of questions, which we will address during the 2018 Tbilisi Biennial. As we go beyond the parochial background of “Soviet”, we discuss why “Buildings Are Not Enough” within an international context, we will explore periphery, monotony, informal architecture, living forms, social practices, and housing issues.
Soviet micro-districts were designed and constructed according to Soviet rules and regulations to give form to the idealistic dream of accommodating every single family in the former Soviet Union within a single urban and architectural form. Today, these places have established themselves in a new system, which reflects Tbilisi ́s recent history.
“Buildings Are Not Enough” illustrates the outbreak of chaotic construction in Tbilisi that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Today, the processes of the previous 25 years shape the cityscape of Tbilisi, as well as many other post-socialist cities. On the one hand, this phenomenon can be discussed globally: it is the response of ordinary city dweller to an absolute architecture, a solution to their constrained situation. On the other hand, “Buildings Are Not Enough” is a demonstration of the existing socio-economic disorder.
More details about the event and program.
Symposium Participants:
- Ruben Arevshatyan – International Institute of Art Critics / Armenia
- Levan Asabashvili – Urban Reactor
- Merve Bedir – A-Formal Academy
- David Bostanashvili
- Martin Braathen – Oslo Architecture Triennale
- Alexander Brodsky
- Ayham Dalal (Ifpo / TU Berlin)
- Reinier De Graaf – OMA / AMO
- Johan De Wachter
- Milan Dinevski – Future Architecture Platform
- Martin Duplantier – Martin Duplantier Architectes
- Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius – Raumlabor / Floating University
- Michael Gentile – University of Oslo
- Lubomir Ivanov Georgiev – Vision Sofia 2050
- Tinatin Gurgenidze – Tbilisi Architecture Biennial
- Thomas Ibrahim – Tbilisi Architecture Biennial
- Jorge Jáuregui – Jorge Mario Jáuregui Architects
- Levan Kalandarishvili
- Tamta Khalvashi – Ilia State University
- Ia Kupatadze – Ilia State University
- Charlotte Malterre-Barthes – ETH Zurich
- Nutsa Nadareishvili – Urban Experiment Group
- Natalia Nebieridze – Tbilisi Architecture Biennial
- Otar Nemsadze – Tbilisi Architecture Biennial
- Sarhat Petrosyan – UrbanLab Armenia
- Ana Ramazashvili – Anthropologist
- Nina Rappaport – Vertical Urban Factory
- Lela Rekhviashvili – Marshrutka Project
- Stefan Rusu
- Dubravka Sekulić– Graz University of Technology
- Wladimir Sgibnev – Marshutka Project
- Kuba Snopek
- Olga Tenisheva – Strelka Institute
- Wato Tsereteli – Center of Contemporary Art Tbilisi
- Jesse Vogler – Free University of Tbilisi / Tbilisi Architecture Biennial
- Nano Zazanashvili – Urban Policy and Research Division at the Tbilisi Department of Urban Development