This year’s Venice Architecture Biennale breaks with two mechanisms that defined its presence over the last fifteen to twenty years. First is the setting of a grand, though conveniently abstract theme that suggests a connection between current development and the state of architecture. The ethics of architecture (or of the architect?), the architect as seismograph, architecture is for people, that kind of stuff. These past themes suggested a critical position of the curator on duty, but hardly succeeded in influencing the debate, let alone affairs. At best they added flavor to the core element of the Biennale: a presentation of who matters in architecture. And that brings us to the second mechanism: no matter the main curatorial theme, every pavilion was totally at liberty to present their best architecture and architects. Some pavilions succeeded in selling an idea more than products and some (rarely) attempted to raise an issue, but the ‘who’s doing what’ element was dominant.

We just launched Volume's 41st issue, 'How to Build a Nation'. In the coming weeks we're going to publish a selection of articles, and for those who are interested how the issue looks and feels we have uploaded a preview.

For the first time, a general theme was given to the national pavilions at this year’s Architecture Biennale in Venice. They were to be historical shows, focused on the impact of modernity on a country’s architecture. What it produced was not just a global survey of twentieth century construction, but also heroic stories of nation-building. Yes, architecture can build nations. Today, we seem far from that notion. The nation-state is either giving up on itself, or exploited through tyrannical regimes. Meanwhile architects are hardly taking up the cause.

Join us on 1st October for the opening event of Connected at New Energy Docks in Amsterdam!

The annual theme Money and its questions posed by the Think Space 2013/2014 guest curators Ethel Baraona Pohl & Cesar Reyes Najera will undoubtedly trigger conversations at the upcoming Unconference event at Lauba, People and Art House in Zagreb, 11-13 June 2014.