Where the grass seems greener: Australia floats sustainability at Architecture Biennale

As far as the eye can see, thousands of plants form a sea of green. Among them are 65 species of grasses, all Indigenous to Western Victoria.

But this is not Australia – this is Venice, Italy, on the cusp of the Mediterranean summer.

Repair is Australias entry in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, one of the biggest showcases of its kind in the world.

The exhibit's creators, architects Mauro Baracco and Louise Wright, in collaboration with artist Linda Tegg, sourced 10,000 rare Indigenous plant seeds for the project.

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Wright says Australia's biodiverse grassland ecologies are often overlooked because they are “just” grass.

“By putting it inside a cultural institution, youre asking people to look at it again, to revalue it, to reconsider,” she says.

“What we wanted to do was present the land that we occupy [in Australia] in a way that will make people look at it in a different way.”

Australia is one of the most ecologically diverse countries in the world but high rates of deforestation continue – especially in Queensland – with land clearing rates the highest in the developed world.

There are more than 60 species of grass in the Australia Pavilion at Venice – but there is only 1 per cent of their natural habitat, in Victoria's Western Plains, remaining. You cant buy most of them at your local nursery; the team instead worked with local seed banks, some of which collect seeds from areas cleared for urban development, before construction begins.

The seeds were grown in Italy over the last eight months with the help of an agricultural school in Sanremo. They need daily attention in the pavilion to stay healthy.

Theres an irony that these native plants travelled all the way to Europe to make a point, but the message is a universal one.

“Architects have a role – among many people – in land use, and we can act in a way thats reparative rather than destructive [to the environment],” she says.

Inside the pavilion itself, greenery spills majestically atop the gallery floor like a verdant cloud. The plants are kept alive with artificial lighting.

“What were keen to reveal is the effort to artificially sustain life,” says Wright. “We very quickly and easily remove these things [from their natural environment] but to recreate them and keep them alive is actually very difficult.”

Sustainability has been a buzz word in design circles for a while, but Wright says we can go one step further.

“Sustainability is about the status quo, about keeping things in balance,” she says. “Its not about repairing and making good; its not an active thing.

"I think we actually need to repair things, not just keep them okay.”

A final part of the exhibit, a video work, showcases 15 real-life Australian projects – including by Indigenous Australians – that demonstrate the infinite ways architecture can be used for "repair".

“What they all do is a lot more than just the building itself," says Wright.

"They all engage with the natural environment, or a culture, or a street – sometimes a river.

“They act beyond the boundary of the [architectural] object … [but] theyre not attempting to be instructive or didactic – theyre a provocation. There are many ways to do this [repair].”

The 16th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale opens this weekend and is on until November 25.

Hannah Francis is Arts Editor at The Age.

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