Yvonne Farrell, Grafton Architects — “One thing leads to an­other”

In 2018 the Architekturzentrum Wien celebrates 25 years since its founding. To mark the occassion we posed our own central question to Biennale Curator Yvonne Farrell of Grafton Architects: What can architecture do?

“We believe that everyone has the right to benefit from architecture.” This statement by the current curators of the Venice Architecture Biennale, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley MacNamara, not only explains the approach taken by the multiple award-winning Irish office but is also exemplified in the work of the Architekturzentrum Wien. For a quarter of a century the Az W has been communicating and researching the ways that architecture and urban development impact on everybody’s daily lives. In her lecture on her work as an architect and as a curator, Yvonne Farrell shows that architecture can do both, “give shelter to our bodies and lift our spirits”.