The Greek participation in the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, explores the role of tourism as a vehicle of modernization of Greece through the emergence of constructed tourism landscapes: hotels and resorts, organized beaches, archaeological sites and museums, public space designs and infrastructure facilities. It also focuses on the concurrent (re)shaping of Greek national identity that is enhanced through the contact of the ‘other’, the foreign, new and global element, which the activity of tourism presupposes. It examines and presents – through examples of both built and unrealized projects as well as through new designs developed for the exhibition by Greek and foreign architects – architectures of tourism as tools for the modernization of the country and the shaping of its identity. Starting off from the seaside hotels and organized beaches of the 50s and 60s, it moves to the large-scale hotel volumes and international style modernism of the decades to follow , and the minimalist life-style and the wellness culture of the more recent years and the need for sustainability and a limited environmental footprint during the ongoing crisis.
‘Tourism Landscapes’ is directed and curated by the National Commissioner architect and professor Yannis Aesopos. The participating architects include Buerger Katsota Architects, Zissis Kotionis, Tense Architecture Network, Konstantinos Doxiadis, Dimitris Fatouros, Renzo Piano, Alexandros N. Tombazis, Bernard Tschumi and many more.
