adma
Superstar
Yes, unless you feel that faculties of architecture don't count as "homegrown" anything...
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Venice Bienniale venue in Cambridge?
- Thread starter rdaner
- Start date
TKTKTK
Senior Member
I think it's a foreign grown event being paired with an architecture faculty (a good one, but not...the best one?)
adma
Superstar
Actually, Waterloo's architectural faculty has had a genuinely excellent reputation for eons now, so for them to score a Biennale coup shouldn't seem at all "unworthy"--and plenty of experts in the field would vouch for that.
You make it seem like it's little better than a backwater state-college drafting school--either that, or you're using an absurd amateur's Harvard/Yale/Princeton standard of "best one" judgment...
TKTKTK
Senior Member
But it is a backwater state-college, in a sense (at least compared to the other Ontario universities; UofT, Western). It just happens to have one of the top architecture programmes in the country. I didn't think it was quite #1 though.
adma
Superstar
If anything's "backwater state-college", it's your sense of judgment...
(quickly, because I'm rushing to work)
(quickly, because I'm rushing to work)
jeicow
Active Member
Waterloo is one of the top schols* in Canada for CompSci, Engineering, Kin, Math, and Psych (esp. clinical), physics (quantum and astro) and isn't lacking too much in the planning department either (tho the campus could use some more). Add the fact they have the only english optometry school, and are going to have one of the few pharmacy schools in the country, and you've got yourself a fairly decent school. The other arts and sciences aren't too shabby either, but when you compare them to the kind of faculty and opporuinities that cultural centres like TO and Montreal offer, and it doesn't always compare as well. I've think Waterloo brought itself up fairly well in the rankings for being comparativly young compared to a lot of the other big name universities in the country.
The move to Cambridge was one of the best things to happen to Architecture since not only allowed for huge increased in floor space, but also allowed for a whole new world on opportunities in the city. The Grand House Co-op is a completly student led initiative to design and build an eco-friendly residence, that likely would be difficult to pull off anywhere else. The Grand River and Main Street bridges have both been used for installation art pieces, and the super affordability of housing is always nice too. Also, since the move to the Faculty of Engineering, there has been a lot of investment (both from the Faculty and WEEF) to upgrade a lot of the older equipment.
* I'm just saying top, not best, since that would just get us into a whole circle of other problems.
TKTKTK
Senior Member
Lame. Don't forget you're mildly arguing that Cambridge is a more appropriate place for the Venice Architecture Biennale than Toronto. Whether you're arguing the point just to be contrary, or whether you firmly believe it...I'm really not sure.
jeicow
Active Member
But does Toronto really need it? It's a great cultural activity, but would it really be appreciated here as much as it would in Cambridge where the pavillion renovations would help revitalize the downtowns, which is one area the city isn't lacking in?
TKTKTK
Senior Member
Need it? no. But is that any reason for it not to be hosted here? I think we're too nice, sometimes, with how we distribute things in the region. Its great that we like to share, but I think we go too far sometimes in not demanding our dues. I think we're missing a prime tourism opportunity that Cambridge won't be able to capitalize as fully on.
Hipster Duck
Senior Member
Yeah, I'm with TKTKTK on this one. If I didn't think it's not going to happen, I could just imagine foreign artists and media leaving the art exposition to return to their rooms at the Holiday Inn Express by Sportsworld.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
I think it is great that more is happening in the hinterlands. It gives Torontonians interested in the arts more reasons to go out there.
The proposed TSO summer stage, and the Niagara Region winery restaurants are good examples of ways in which a big cultural centre such as Toronto can seed arts centres and support secondary commercial ventures with our patronage.
My friend Andrew has a show opening at the Cambridge Galleries in May and I'll probably go with friends to the opening. There's an architectural exhibition about libraries there at the moment that features Shim-Sutcliffe, Hariri Pontarini and Kongats - who designed the critically-acclaimed renovated Hespeler library in Cambridge.
A Biennale would be a logical extension to the evolution that is taking place. Besides, artists and designers have been living and working in rural Ontario forever.
The proposed TSO summer stage, and the Niagara Region winery restaurants are good examples of ways in which a big cultural centre such as Toronto can seed arts centres and support secondary commercial ventures with our patronage.
My friend Andrew has a show opening at the Cambridge Galleries in May and I'll probably go with friends to the opening. There's an architectural exhibition about libraries there at the moment that features Shim-Sutcliffe, Hariri Pontarini and Kongats - who designed the critically-acclaimed renovated Hespeler library in Cambridge.
A Biennale would be a logical extension to the evolution that is taking place. Besides, artists and designers have been living and working in rural Ontario forever.
jeicow
Active Member
But the Bienniale never was in the "main" cultural heartland to begin with. Venice is probably third in the pecking order of cultural centres of Italy, after Rome and Florence, and likely ahead of Milan and Turin (I've never been to those two though). It's more fitting for it to be in a somewhat less "traditional" centre, seeing as that's where it's origin trace back too (though in no way am I trying to say Cambridge is on-par with Venice).
Bingo.
TKTKTK
Senior Member
Hmmm, I kinda feel like you're really stretching to find justification. Cambridge isn't third in line for anything in Canada, is it?
Maybe Cambridge should get the La Spezia Architectural Biennale.
adma
Superstar
Who. Freaking. Cares. Which. Is. A. More. Appropriate. Place. For. The. Venice. Architecture. Biennale.
It's the luck of the draw, and the luck of the pitch, and the luck of the connections, and given that, well...Cambridge has earned its right to be "worthy" and "appropriate" for the occasion. As for more appropriate; this isn't a penis-measurement game, y'know. You might as well be arguing that Bilbao's a less appropriate place for Gehry's Guggenheim than Madrid or Barcelona.
If anything, TKTKTK, your amateurish arguments are just the kind of thing to scare the Biennale's organizers away from Toronto...