Interactive and Emotional Spaces: The Kosovan Pavilion @ the 13th Venice International Architecture Biennale

Kosovo may be a new European country, but, while in recent years its people went through many political and social changes, its architecture, influenced by the design from the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Communist eras has remained untouched by the war. Yet, the recent building boom brought new developments such as apartment and office bulidings that also spawned new questions about styles and the future of architecture and debates over planning and creative effort.

The team behind the Kosovan Pavilion at the 13th Venice International Architecture Biennale therefore decided to look at how architecture affects identity and emotions, but also human conscious and unconscious behaviour.

The Pavilion, entitled “The Filigree Maker” and curated by Perparim Rama, offers people the chance to stop and think about how they feel about their surroundings, analysing one structure at the time, and pondering what may be lying ahead for Kosovan architecture and for its landscape.

The space around the pavilion is covered in digital images of specific buildings with answers to questions asked to Kosovans and to people from all over the world.

The buildings in this way generate emotional response, but the exhibition is also interactive as visitors can select images from a pre-selected library and link them to a feeling – from happiness to sadness, excitement or anger. Visitors can also choose pictures uploaded by other participants or add their own images with name and location to the library in the pavilion.

The interactive and emotional aspects of the installation are directly linked with the title of the installation that comes from the term “filigrani” in Albanian, indicating jewellery pieces made by twisting metal threads.

This word is used as a medium and a metaphor: while it is connected with the past, it also hints at the future and at creating a type of architecture that displays links with the country's history.

The threads connecting the images design a sort of filigree-like structure in which different colours represent different emotions (red for anger; blue for sadness; yellow for happiness; orange for excitement; green for freedom and purple for entrapment).

The six most voted buildings are projected on the floor screens with a different emotion for every hour. In this way the pavilion becomes interactive and emotional and constantly changes, while offering people the possibility to share a vision of the designs from their own countries and providing other visitors with a vision of what the future would be like if ordinary people could make their voices heard by urban planners.

Disappointed as you may not be able to share your opinion since you won't be in Venice while the Biennale is on? Fear not, you can make your voice heard and vote/upload your own architectural pictures on this site.