Spontaneous Interventions, U.S. Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale

Venice, Italy

The US Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by Cathy Lang Ho, features an installation rather than a conventional exhibition of projects. It consists of a lively system of banners to present a collection of 124 actionable strategies aimed at bringing immediate improvements to the urban public realm.

Freecell collaborated closely with communication design studio M-A-D, led by Erik Adigard and Patricia McShane, to design an enveloping environment that puts Spontaneous Interventions in a broader historical and cultural context. Freecell designed a kinetic system, employing banners, counterweights, and pulleys, in which the viewer needs to reach to pull information from the sky.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.