Following upon last year's Venice 12th Architecture Biennale curated by Kazuyo Sejima, it has been announced that David Chipperfield, principal of David Chipperfield Architects, will be lead curator of the next edition of the Biennale. Chipperfield, awarded the Mies van der Rohe Award earlier this year for the Neues Museum in Berlin, is currently completing numerous projects in Italy, including the redesign and conversion of S.Chiara Hospital in Pisa, the San Michele Cemetery Extension near Venice, and Ansaldo City of Cultures, Milan.

Of Chipperfield's appointment to the directorship, Paolo Baratta, Chairman of the Board of the Biennale, released the following statement:
"We thank [David Chipperfield] for accepting and for having patiently awaited the official designation. Kazuyo Sejima's appointment brought this Exhibition back into the hands of an architect, and Chipperfield's pursues the same course. After a series of Exhibitions that illustrated the many different ways of approaching the theme of architecture in the contemporary era (sociological, technological, urban), it appeared useful to turn to an architect who demonstrates great interest in architecture as a discipline and raises questions about the elements of which it is composed, about the objectives it pursues, about the constraints that affect it, about the tools that it uses to shape places, spaces, buildings. The next Architecture Exhibition will be characterized by the emphasis on a series of relationships that connect great architects and younger generations that refer to them. This Exhibition will represent a major opportunity to bring both the general public and the world of architecture up to date. This is also why it has already begun to organize the program involving Universities from all around the world, entitled Biennale Sessions, successfully tested during the last edition of the Exhibition."

Chipperfield himself describes his project thus:
"Participants will be encouraged through a declaration of affinities to make connections with other authors and other works. These dialogues and collaborations may involve a common proposal or a dialogue between projects even as a dialogue of provocation. In this way we wish to demonstrate the existence of a rich culture of architectural practice and research, stimulated by the work of other disciplines but defined by shared enthusiasms and concerns at a time when the singular works of architects are celebrated but the role of the profession and our place within society is continuously challenged."

Chipperfield founded David Chipperfield Architects in 1984 and has offices in London, Berlin, and Milan, and a representative office in Shanghai. The practice works internationally on commercial, cultural and residential projects, providing full architecture, master-planning, interior design and product and furniture design services for both the public and private sectors.