crowds sat in the sunshine in front of modern library building
Carré d'Art, Nîmes: Foster & Partners, Courtesy of Foster & Partners ©

James H Morris

Under the Biennale theme of ‘Sensing the Future – The Architect as Seismograph’, Professor Michael Brawn curated the British Pavilion exhibition for 1996. The Architecture of Information explored the future of libraries as hothouses of information storage and dissemination, at a time when digital content and internet provision had begun to have a significant impact on the form and distribution of information in our lives.

The exhibition illustrated four buildings designed as libraries at the end of the 20th century: The British Library, London by Colin St John Wilson and Partners; The Carré d’Art, Nîmes by Sir Norman Foster and Partners; The Ruskin Library, Lancaster by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard; and The Eden Project, Cornwall by Nicholas Grimshaw Partners.

Curator and designer of the exhibition: Michael Brawne

Commissioner of the British Pavilion: Andrea Rose (British Council).

Deputy commissioners: Brendan Griggs (British Council) and Richard Riley (British Council).