iart is excited to be a part of «Geoscope 2: Worlds», a collaboration with Princeton School of Architecture, Reiser Umemoto Architecture, and curator Daniel López-Pérez, now on view at the Biennale Architettura 2021 in Venice. A rethink of R. Buckminster Fuller’s geoscopes, it showcases contemporary voices inside and outside architecture, ranging from Pritzker Prize winning architect Kazuyo Sejima to radical ecologist and philosopher Timothy Morton.

The first geoscopes, constructed by students of R. Buckminster Fuller 60 years ago, were conceived as embodiments of «the world looking at itself», and a means of comprehensively understanding one’s relationship to the world. In response to the Biennale’s question «How will we live together?» Geoscope 2 flouts the idea of a single world body in favor of «many worlds», by literally splitting the sphere in half and opening it up to multiple contributors and perspectives. Visitors to the installation at the Central Pavilion in the Giardini find themselves enveloped in a panoramic multimedia experience projected over 42 individual faces.

An earlier version of Geoscope 2 was shown in spring 2020 in an exhibition at Princeton University, commemorating the 125th anniversary of R. Buckminster Fuller’s birth.

Geoscope 2
May 22–November 21, 2021
Venice Architecture Biennale
Giardini della Biennale
Venice

Project team
Daniel López-Pérez & Jesse Reiser
Geoscope 2 Design: RUR Architecture, Reiser+Umemoto
RUR Architecture Team: Julian Harake, Katherine Leung
Inflatable Design: Pablo Kobayashi / Unidad de Protocolos
Inflatable Fabrication Team: Lucía Aumann, Ernesto Falabella, Emilio Robles, Pablo Kobayashi / Unidad de Protocolos
Experience Design: Jan Pistor - Bureau 314 for iart, with support from Denim Szram
Exhibition Manager: Kira McDonald / Princeton University School of Architecture
Exhibition Fabrication Assistants: Jasen Domanico, Kaleb Houston, Simon Lesina-Debiasi, Matthew Maldonado, Jacqueline Mix, Sonia Sobrino Ralston, Adrian Silva / Princeton University School of Architecture
Partnerships & Communications: Lukas Fitze / iart
Trailer Video: Onome Ekeh / Futurezoo

More photos of the project
More information about the project