TEN x TEN to Join Curatorial Design Team Representing the U.S. at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale

August 23, 2024

TEN x TEN Landscape Architecture + Urbanism will join the curatorial design team alongside an interdisciplinary trio of commissioners selected by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs to commission, organize, and curate the exhibition of the United States Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. 

Co-commissioned by Peter MacKeith, Dean and Professor, Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas; Susan Chin, Principal, DesignConnects; and Rod Bigelow, Executive Director, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the exhibition titled PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity will focus on the representation of the United States through the contemporary manifestation of the porch in American architecture—a quintessential constructed place that is at once social and environmental, tectonic and performative, hospitable and intimate, generous and democratic. 

Along with TEN x TEN, the curatorial design team includes architect Marlon Blackwell of Marlon Blackwell Architects, who is also the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture at the University of Arkansas; designer Stephen Burks of Stephen Burks Man Made; and landscape architect Julie Bargmann of D.I.R.T. studio.  

PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity proposes an exposition of a quintessential American architectural place-construct that persists across scales, geographies, communities, construction methods, and histories. Through an exhibition design of multiple scales, experiences, media, and engagements, the commissioners and design team intend to spotlight the character, value, and contemporary purpose of the place of the porch through the exhibition of projects and practices across the nation.  

The physical construction of a new, temporary porch, amenities, and surrounding landscape for the U.S. Pavilion, as designed by the curatorial design team will be the site of programmed events and activities throughout the run of the Biennale. Musical performances, readings, farm-to-table meals, children’s education, social exchanges, craft demonstrations, and educational dialogues will be coordinated by an allied team of programming directors. The interior exhibition of the U.S. Pavilion will feature approximately 50 curated projects and practices drawn from across the United States, resulting from an open call for project entries scheduled for the coming fall, all highlighting the ongoing importance of the porch typology in American civic life. 

This American porch, as projected in exhibition and in animated character, is more than an exercise in nostalgia or a demonstration of contemporary inventive and ambitious architecture: this American porch is a collaborative porch, a projective porch, a speculative porch, a place of future-thinking, a place of optimism. 

TEN x TEN is deeply honored and incredibly grateful to join the curatorial design team alongside this notable group of practitioners. Co-Founders Maura Rockcastle and Ross Altheimer are excited to collaborate with their fellow practitioners on the design of this immersive exhibition and to represent the United States on the global stage.

You can find more information on the U.S. Pavilion at 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale here.