TOWARDS A RESILIENT CITY: SEOUL BIENNALE OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 2021
On the 31st of October, the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2021 (SBAU 2021), celebrating its third anniversary, concluded its 46-day-long journey. Following ‘Imminent Commons’ (2017) and ‘Collective City’ (2019), the theme of 2021 is ‘CROSSROADS Building the Resilient City’. By crossing five pairs of contrasting concepts – Above and Below, Heritage and Modern, Craft and Digital, Natural and Artificial, and Safe and Risk – it sought explications of the complex relationships that form our modern cities and answers to the contemporary questions faced by mankind. SPACE met with the general director Dominique Perrault, who visited Korea for the closing ceremony of the Biennale, and talked about SBAU 2021 and Seoul.
Choi Eunhwa (Choi): Even in 2019, when you were selected as the general director of SBAU 2021, a global pandemic was beyond our imaginations. Even so, the theme of the Biennale, ‘CROSSROADS Building the Resilient City’ is intimately connected to our present situation. What did you consider when deciding how best to reflect our present global circumstances in the selection and development of
