International Architecture Biennial São Paulo

São Paulo is an international metropolis – the industrial conurbation of Latin America and cul-tural centre of Brazil. And it is not by chance that São Paulo is also referred to as the “largest German industrial city”: Some 1,000 German industrial companies are based there, repre-senting the largest concentration of German firms in the world.

São Paulo’s role as a cultural city is assured not least of all through the Biennial. The São Paulo International Architecture Biennial was initiated in 1973 by the Biennial Foundation, Fundação Bienal, to complement the São Paulo Art Biennial. The venue for the event is the Biennial Pavilion, designed by the architect, Oscar Niemeyer and located in the Parque do Ibirapuera – a large, public city park. Under the roof of this exhibition hall all the participating nations come together and present their projects en masse. It is a large and varied exhibition – full of life.

The exhibition is highly valued as a platform for architectural themes, particularly in the South American region. In 2005 visitors numbered approx. 250,000. As with the Architecture Bien-nial in Venice the international resonance has increased steadily in recent years, São Paulo rates as the second most important international architecture show after Venice.

The last Architecture Biennial was enthusiastically received by visitors - predominantly a South American professional public, but also one that included interested laymen. In 2005 there was initially an entrance fee, but it was the equivalent of around 50 cents and included entrance to all the accompanying events. These, together with the numerous lectures by ar-chitects from the various participating countries, were very well attended and followed by the public with great interest. At weekends in particular the exhibition saw a veritable stampede of visitors, with intensive communication defining the general mood.

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