In the main category “Cities. Architecture and Society”the jury, which consisted of Richard Sennett, Zaha Hadid, Amin Aga Khan and Anthony Gormley, recognized the best national pavilion in Denmark. Its exhibit, entitled Co-Evolution, is dedicated to cooperation between Danish and Chinese experts in the field of green urban development in China. It represents a country that looks to the future, to the world around it, to other peoples and nations, and to use its rich scientific potential to help solve the problems of environmental pollution in Chinese cities. Danish architects not only analyzed the current situation, but also proposed specific ways to overcome these difficulties, presenting their ideas in visual images that are aesthetically valuable in themselves. At the same time, they were able to learn from the experience of their Chinese counterparts.
The Golden Lion Cities Award was presented to representatives of the Colombian capital, Bogotá. Over the past decades, this city has solved many problems in the field of social stratification, housing, education through an innovative approach to the transport system. The restriction on the use of cars in the city resulted in an increase in free space for residents, the streets became more pleasing to the eye, and the reforms carried out also turned out to be economically and socially beneficial for the population. Bogotá, according to the jury, is a beacon of hope for other cities in the world, both rich and poor.
The best urban development project was the Brazil 44 plan for Mexico City by architect Javier Sánchez (Higuera + Sanchez workshop). This is a small residential area, affordable social housing, which is very attractive in shape. The project includes an opportunity for residents to decorate their homes to their liking. In this way, the architect managed to avoid the dull uniformity that is characteristic of residential areas around the world.
A special award for architectural institutes went to the Faculty of Architecture of the Turin Polytechnic Institute for a student project of a residential complex for the poor for the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay).
In addition to these four awards, three national exhibitions were honored in the main section: the Japan Pavilion (Teronobu Fujimori) for "the formal unity of the exposition and the pleasure it brings to visitors", the Icelandic pavilion for the "remarkable collaboration" of the artist Olafur Eliasson and the studio of architect Henning Larsen, and the pavilion of Macedonia (Minas Bakalchev and Mitko Hadji Puglia) for the depth and poetry of reflections on the city, succinctly expressed through words written in chalk on a blackboard.
In the “Cities of Stone” section, seven “Stone Lions” were awarded to various Italian architects who submitted designs for the predetermined seaside cities of southern Italy - Bari, Crotone, Syracuse and Pantelleria. According to the jury, they perfectly express the possibilities of stone as a material and the formal and social potential of a traditional settlement on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Portus section of the Biennale (Palermo) awarded the Portus Architectural Prize for the reconstruction project of the harbor area of Potenza to the architects Gustavo Matassa, Vicenzo De Biase, Silvia Marano and Rose Nave.
The jury of the Italian Pavilion, in turn, awarded three awards. The Manfredo Tafuri Prize was awarded to the architect and architectural theorist Vittorio Gregotti for his contributions to the analysis of the modernist tradition. The Giancarlo De Carlo Prize was awarded to the architect and scientist Andrea Stipa for combining experimental research into the city as a phenomenon with a free, almost visionary approach to the problem. Architectural critic Luca Molinari has been awarded the Ernesto Nathan Rogers Prize for his treatment of contemporary architecture in an innovative way of studying the development of communication theories.
