Venice Biennale: Learning from Trees

Created for the 17th Venice Biennale, the design utilises 436 individual pieces of our Vulcan timber.

The 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia has officially opened and New Zealand’s Learning From Trees: transforming timber culture in Aotearoa installation has arrived at the Italian Pavilion.

A collaboration from staff at the University of Auckland School of Architecture and Planning and Andrew Barrie, the installation explores the use of timber as an innovative building material that is both sustainable and strong.

“It’s very unusual for a university from outside Italy to be invited to exhibit in the Italian pavilion,” says one of the project’s designers Dr Kathy Waghorn, “but Alessandro Melis taught at the School, and was extremely interested in the country’s traditions in working with timber, and our research on the material”.

Learning From Trees: transforming timber culture in Aotearoa is now on display at La Biennale di Venezia, which runs until 21 November 2021.

The goal was to explore the use of timber as an innovative building material that is both sustainable and strong.

Each of the Vulcan timber ‘battens’ was given a unique label, and the packages were weighed to ensure that they can be carried by two people.