Venice Biennale

Ian Ritchie Architects represent the United Kingdom at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2004 alongside eight other practices selected and curated by Peter Cook. The theme was METAMORPH, for which the practice chose to exhibit three projects: Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre, The Spire and Whitecity. These projects echo the theme in the way their architecture has shifted the perception of material, scale and building typology. Three walls translated these perceptions.
Five phosphor-bronze mesh panels replicating those used in the external cladding of the Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre covered one wall of the exhibition room. These panels invited visitors to touch and experience vicariously the tactility of the actual building. Texts were presented in the form of monographs published by Categorical Books on the Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre and The Spire. These books were held in stands especially designed to sway “like sunflowers” at different heights to suit both adults and children.