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The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas, in Partnership with DesignConnects and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to Represent the U.S. at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas, in partnership with DesignConnects and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, have been selected by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs to commission, organize and curate the exhibition of the U.S. 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.

“The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design and the University of Arkansas are privileged by this selection and by the collaboration with DesignConnects and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art,” said Peter MacKeith, dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas. “Our exhibition, PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity, proposes a positive, productive presentation of American architecture, one of empathy and education. The exhibition format emphasizes a diversity of voices and perspectives, but also a set of common causes for productive action through architecture and design. The emphasis will be on imperative issues, national and global, addressed through architecture and design, and on public engagement and civic building for the greater good, founded on a generous architectural diplomacy of creative expression, representing the best of the nation’s past, present and future.” MacKeith will also serve as coordinating curator for the Pavilion’s exhibition, together with Jonathan Boelkins, exhibition designer and special projects coordinator for the School.

“As we search for new places to gather and connect to community, it’s a privilege to be selected to present PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity with this dynamic team,” said Susan Chin, principal, DesignConnects. “Exploring how this classic typology shapes lives, defines communities and enriches society, I believe our PORCH will provide opportunities for cultural exchange and expand our understanding of the world and each other.”

“Bringing people, art and nature together is at the core of Crystal Bridges’ mission, and architecture is a key factor in that equation. Architecture has been one of our institution’s three pillars from the beginning, in part because of the long history of architecture and architectural scholarship across our region. Our collaborators at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design exemplify that legacy, and we are thrilled to collaborate with them and DesignConnects to uplift that scholarship and explore the new, global conversations PORCH will open up at the United States Pavilion in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale,” said Rod Bigelow, executive director, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

The interdisciplinary, collaborative team of commissioners is joined by a notable curatorial design team: 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 architects Julie Bargmann of D.I.R.T. Studio and Maura Rockcastle of Ten x Ten Studio. Blackwell received the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects in 2020; Burks received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in product design in 2015; and Bargmann was the inaugural recipient of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Prize in Landscape Architecture from the Cultural Landscape Foundation in 2021. Rockcastle and 10 x 10 Studio are a 2024 Emerging Voice in North American architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism, as awarded by The Architectural League.

The Architect’s Newspaper is the media partner for the exhibition.

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 Blackwell, Burks, Bargmann, and Rockcastle 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.