Common Ground: A Critical Reader: Venice Biennale of Architecture 2012

by David Chipperfield, Kieran Long (Editor), Shumi Bose (Editor)

An analytical insight on the Biennale exhibition’s main themes. The critical companion to the Biennale catalog, this book presents a general overview of the exhibition’s contents, helping one understand the Common Ground event. The list of authors features many great luminaries of architectural and cultural writing as well as daily reporters and journalists. By elucidating some of the underlying concerns of the exhibition, the book seeks to strenghten the ties to the Biennale by adding short, often visually led pieces directly related to Common Ground. For this reason, the book is destined to have a broad and enduring influence on architectural and cultural writing.

336 pages, Hardcover

First published November 13, 2012

About the author

Sir David Alan Chipperfield, CH, CBE, RA, RDI, RIBA, HRSA is a British architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985, which grew into a global architectural practice with offices in London, Berlin, Milan, and Shanghai.
In 2023, he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize., considered to be the most prestigious award in architecture. His major works include the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (1989–1998); the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach, Germany; the Des Moines Public Library, Iowa (2002–2006); the Neues Museum, Berlin (1997–2009); The Hepworth Wakefield gallery in Wakefield, West Yorkshire (2003–2011), the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri (2005–2013); and the Museo Jumex in Mexico City (2009–2013).