On November 17, The Architect’s Newspaper is going live with PORCH TV, a one-day broadcast inspired by the U.S. Pavilion at the 19th Biennale Architettura. With support from the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas, in partnership with DesignConnects and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the program brings the pavilion’s thesis—the porch as a place for openness, exchange, and a bit of American hospitality—into the digital realm, inviting architects and audiences to pull up a seat and join the conversation.
Register now for PORCH TV.
Cross-Continental Conversations
From 12:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST, eight episodes will stream live, including keynotes, interviews, and three roundtables. Together, these three groupings—“Spaces of Community,” “Spaces of Nature,” and “Spaces of Memory,”—extend PORCH’s question of how architecture might embody generosity into conversations that span scales, regions, and disciplines.
Episode 1: Spaces of Community
Opening the afternoon, “Spaces of Community” brings together architects who design for collective experience. Jerome Haferd of Harlem-based Jerome Haferd Studio and Daniel Simons of San Francisco’s David Baker Architects will discuss how architecture can host civic and cultural life in equitable, imaginative ways. They’re joined by Andrew Freear of Auburn University’s Rural Studio, Carol Ross Barney of Ross Barney Architects, and David Perkes of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio. Each are leaders whose work translates social mission into built form. The discussion will trace how projects rooted in housing, public space, and cultural infrastructure can act as engines of belonging.
Episode 3: Spaces of Nature
Episode 3, “Spaces of Nature” convenes designers whose practices engage landscape, material, and ecology. Jesus Robles of Tucson’s DUST, Rick Sommerfeld of the ColoradoBuildingWorkshop, Eric Logan of CLB Architects, Gullivar Shepard of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, and Brian Farling of Jones Studio will share approaches that reconnect people to place. Their projects, ranging from desert dwellings and forest classrooms to adaptive landscapes, ask what it means to build with and within the natural world at a time of environmental urgency.
Episode 5: Spaces of Memory
In the late afternoon, “Spaces of Memory” turns toward the narratives that architecture carries. Alma Du Solier of Hood Design Studio, Albert Chao of COLES HOUSE Project, James Leng of Figure, Jason Jackson of brg3s architects, and Susan Jones of atelierjones will reflect on how design mediates history, preservation, and cultural legacy. Whether through mass timber innovation or community-based storytelling, their work illustrates how architecture can both honor the past and shape more inclusive futures.
Closing Reflections
The finale is a conversation with critics Mabel Wilson, Mark Lamster, and Inga Saffron. Together, they will consider the pavilion’s lasting impact and its proposition that generosity might serve as a design ethos in divided times.
The broadcast will conclude with closing remarks. As the pavilion’s physical presence in Venice will conclude later this month, attention now turns to closing events and activations, plus how the pavilion’s ideas of generosity and place will resonate beyond the Giardini.
As the U.S. Pavilion nears the end of its run in Venice, PORCH TV offers an act of connection. By streaming this dialogue to a global audience, the event extends the pavilion’s porch beyond its Venetian front yard, inviting anyone, anywhere, to step onto it.
Register for PORCH TV now to join us on November 17. The event is eligible for up to five hours of learning units from the AIA. Attendance is free.
The Architect’s Newspaper is the U.S. Pavilion’s education/outreach partner.
→ Continue reading at The Architect's Newspaper
