Grove

Venice Biennale for Architecture

Edited by Philip Beesley

Living Architecture Systems Group

This publication documents the immersive project entitled Grove, a gathering space that offers a vision for inclusive, open building. Grove was presented to the public at the Arsenale, a main exhibition venue of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia,  from May 22 to November 21, 2021. 

Within this project, a suspended canopy of lace-like clouds hovers above a central pool-shaped screen, into which a film called Grove Cradle authored in collaboration with London-based Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones is projected. The projection pool is surrounded by a forest of totemic, basket-like columns with embedded custom speakers that carry a multi-channel spatial sound environment by composer Salvador Breed and 4DSOUND of Amsterdam.

Grove is new type of multimedia installation that responds to the poignant question posed by the title of Hashim Sarkis’s exhibition: How will we live together? In a response that re-interprets the interwoven layers and constantly transforming, near-to-life qualities of Beesley’s immersive architectural visions, the Living Architecture Systems Group collaborators offer a vision of a transformed world where future architecture seeks communion with plants, animals, and inert matter alike. Grove offers a vision of a radically inclusive future where we can mesh our bodies, minds and spirits with our surroundings, breach seemingly unbreachable divides, and create renewed worlds grounded in mutual exchange and empathy.