Architecture for People

McGuirk says that previous year's Biennales have had less success with engaging visitors with architecture. Curator Kazuyo Sejima succeeds, says McGuirk, because she is a practicing architect and not an academic. The theme chosen by Sejima for the Biennale is "People meet in architecture."

McGuirk writes, "It sounds trite, and a little awkward, but this is rather how Sejima speaks. You're never sure whether she is stating the obvious or being incredibly profound. In this case, it seems clear the theme is one that preoccupied her in the making of the Rolex Learning Center, a university building in which there are no walls, just an undulating landscape intended to promote chance meetings between students and disciplines. It's a social education space, like Socrates's Agora but for the Facebook generation."