In 2016, Alejandro Aravena invited the Irish firm Grafton Architects to take part in ‘Reporting from the Front’, ‘his’ Venice Architecture Biennale. In the same year, the Biennale invited Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, the founders of Grafton Architects, to curate the 2018 edition. Like Aravena, they too issued a manifesto to the world. The tone, however, is very different. It is not a combative call for architecture at the forefront of social debate, but a plea for ‘Freespace’. Is that more than just a clever turn of phrase?

‘Freespace’ is a non-existent word, but quite a suggestive neologism. It can be translated as ‘free space’. It evokes concepts such as a free city or a free state. In this way, the word suggests a form of government or a model of society. ‘Freespace’ also suggests ‘free space’ or ‘scope for experimentation’, metaphors for intellectual or artistic leeway. The concept can also refer to places that do not belong to any one specific function or group, but are open to any use.