Sheffield in Venice  

Echo City, developed under the leadership of Jeremy Till, Director of Architecture at the University of Sheffield, is an "urban register" describing Sheffield at a variety of scales from 1:1 to 1:10 million. The 1:1 room is an installation of found objects from a project in the inner-city neighbourhood of Sharrow initiated by the art collective Encounters; 1:100 features architectural projects by Sauerbruch Hutton, Studio Egret West and Hawkins Brown, and Mecanoo; 1:10,000 is a literary and photographic journey written in the streets of Sheffield by writer Tim Etchells and photographer Hugo Glendinning; and 1:10,000,000 is Martyn Ware’s soundscape projecting Sheffield's relationship with the world at large. The central exhibit is an interactive model developed by Jim Prevett which invites visitors to reconfigure urban elements at a variety of scales from the surrounding rooms. Till comments: “Architects tend to focus on the 1:100 and in this eschew the dynamics of the other scales and the rich interplay between them. Their main loss is an understanding of the settings for social and political life”.

The British Council’s panel of advisors: Tom Dyckhoff, Farshid Moussavi, Alice Rawsthorn and Deyan Sudjic recommended an exhibition that examined the issues facing Britain's regional cities, rather than London. In response to the indignation roused by this decision amongst certain London architects, the British Council's Head of Design & Architecture, Emily Campbell, who is Commissioner of the Pavilion said: "They were hasty in their scorn. The phenomenon of cities once great on account of reasons that no longer exist is a tragic condition to which we must find convincing answers".  

Sheffield, meanwhile, has been getting a lot of attention from other quarters. Sheffield musicians Richard Hawley and the Arctic Monkeys are on the shortlist for the Mercury Prize, Britain's most prestigious music award; Sheffield's iconic cooling towers are the most popular contenders for Channel 4's Big Art Project; and Stirling Prize-shortlisted architects O'Donnell & Tuomey are working on a new John Lewis for Sheffield.

The director of this 2006 Venice Biennale of Architecture is Ricky Burdett, Centennial Professor of Architecture and Urbanism and LSE, and its theme is the interaction of architecture and social dynamics in the world’s major cities. Other British work featured in his international exhibition and in the Italian Pavilion which he curates, includes: Dixon Jones’ Exhibition Road Scheme for London; the Victoria Embankment improvement by MJP Architects; Dongtan Island Eco-City in Shanghai by Arup Associates; the Kartal Masterplan for Istanbul by Zaha Hadid Architects; the East River Masterplan for New York City by Richard Rogers Partnership with SHoP Architects, NYC; and a series of film installations by Neutral. The Architecture Foundation will be streaming a blog from the Padiglione Italia and the Royal College of Art architecture students will be presenting a major research project in the Arsenale. A significant amount of the urban research for the Arsenale initiates in the Cities Programme/Urban Age Project at the London School of Economics.

For further information about the British pavilion, British participation at the Biennale and official UK press accreditation, please contact:  

Ellen Miller, British Council Press Office, 020 73894939, ellen.miller@britishcouncil.org

Or

Catherine Ince , Curator and Project manager, British Council or visit www.britishcouncil.org/venicebiennale

For information about the Venice Biennale please contact the Biennale Press Office at archpress@labiennale.org / infoarchitettura@labiennale.org  tel.+39 041 5218846 – 5218716

For more information on all this year's Venice Biennale activities, please see the official Biennale website.