The Restroom Pavilion

17th Venice Architecture Biennale

May 22nd-November 21st, 2021

When we enter the restroom, we are never alone. Instead, we are entangled in a network of bodies, infrastructures, ecosystems, cultural norms, and regulations. In the Restroom Pavilion, some nodes within these networks are explored as they specifically materialize within Venice—a city that reveals itself as a constellation of mutually dependent environments and distinct geographies. In the Pavilion, a number of flags celebrate these networks in lieu of typical bathroom signage. Inside, a new materialization takes the place of the tiling that typically sustains modern and contemporary ideals of hygiene in the architecture of restrooms. If these ideals have typically operated through the creation of increasingly isolating and discriminatory practices, the Restroom Pavilion provides an inclusive description of the realities within which restrooms exist.  In the restroom, we always live together.

By: Matilde Cassani, Ignacio G. Galán, Iván L. Munuera.

In collaboration with: Paula Vilaplana de Miguel, Leonardo Gatti, Pablo Saiz del Rio.
Location: Giardini della Biennale
Sponsors: Elise Jaffe+Jeffrey Brown, Barnard College (Columbia University), Princeton University School of Architecture, AC/E (Acción Cultural Española)

The 17th Venice Architecture Biennale was curated by Hashim Sarkis