Kazuyo Sejima

The prominent line-up for Munich’s “Seismographs of Architecture” symposium kindled great expectations. Kazuyo Sejima, Matthias Sauerbruch, Brendan Macfarlane and others traveled to the Bavarian capital specially for the occasion. Since the event hinged not on dialog but on lectures, many a question went unanswered. And the freezing cold draughty glass foyer of the Academy of Fine Arts certainly placed the audience’s patience under additional strain.

Kazuyo Sejima, the Director of the 12th Venice Architecture Biennial, has pulled something special out of the bag with the central exhibition "People meet in Architecture". She has managed to create an atmosphere of light-heartedness in which the opportunities afforded by contemporary architecture as well as the latter's limits are on show without glossing over the weighty issues.