Calling All Guerrilla Designers: The Venice Architecture Biennale Wants You

We've told you before about the many ways modern designers have begun to buck societal restrictions. There's graffiti and street art, of course, but what about DIY bike lanes (pictured above) to make cities safer for cyclists? Or guerrilla furniture built for weary-footed commuters? Clever opportunities abound to improve cities on the cheap, and smart people in locales around the world are already doing it. Alas, too often these attempts to improve communities are scoffed at, thought of as simple vandalism. This year, the super-exclusive U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale hopes to change all that.

Titled "Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good," the American entry to this year's biennale focuses solely on designers who have taken solution-building into their own hands. Included projects, the planners say, "will frame an archive of compelling, actionable strategies, ranging from urban farms to guerilla bike lanes, temporary architecture to poster campaigns, urban navigation apps to crowdsourced city planning."

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If you're a designer, be excited for two reasons: 1. You can submit your project for possible inclusion in Spontaneous Interventions here, and 2. This means good, relevant design operating outside above strict regulation is beginning to earn serious respect. Now for our politicians to listen.

Photo by Martin Reis