Tbilisi Architecture Biennial

Tbilisi Architecture Biennial (TAB) was established in 2017 by Tinatin Gurgenidze,

Natia Kalandarishvili, Otar Nemsadze, Gigi Shukakidze.
TAB aims to biannually bring together professionals from diverse disciplines united
under one topic that will be presented during the event, policy makers, local public
and other stakeholders to initiate and broaden existing critical discourse on
architectural and urban issues in Tbilisi and beyond
With joined forces the TAB platform will generate exhibitions, new architectural
installations, spatial experiments, symposiums and other activities related to the theme
of the event. The topic, location as well as a curator for the event will change on each
occasion.

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TAB 2018

Buildings Are Not Enough

მხოლოდ შენობები არ კმარა

The Tbilisi Architecture Biennial 2018 will be exploring the built and lived spaces of
the Soviet modernist mass housing neighborhoods - Microrayons. Under the name
“Buildings Are Not Enough!” the Tbilisi Biennial will study the manifested
transformational processes and newly reinvented inhabiting logics of the
neighborhood dwellers, who tend to adjust the architecture and the urban environment
according to their needs by taking action to change their built surroundings.

The research about the transformational processes of the Soviet Microrayons opens up
whole new spectra of questions that we would like to address during the 2018 Tbilisi
Biennial. As we go beyond the local background of “Soviet” and discuss “Buildings
Are Not Enough” within an international context. Periphery, Monotony, Informal
Architecture, Living Forms, Social Practices, Housing Issues, these are some of the
themes we find interesting to explore within the main topic of the Biennial.

“Buildings Are Not Enough” illustrates the chaotic outbreak of constructions that
followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Nowadays the processes of the previous
years shape the cityscape of Tbilisi. Our interest in exploring the soviet Microrayons
is connected with the fact, that these neighborhoods were designed and constructed
according to Soviet rules and regulations and these places represent very well the
current state of the society and reflect the recent history of Tbilisi. On the one hand
“Buildings Are Not Enough” is an answer of dwellers to the architecture and the
disobedience towards the form of the buildings where they live. While, on the other
hand “Buildings Are Not Enough” is a self-solution to living space problems of the
residents.

We call for local and international contributors who will respond to “Buildings Are
Not Enough” by drawing their own individual approaches and sharing their own
stories regarding the theme.

Over the course of three days, we welcome all interested parties in one of the
Microrayons of Tbilisi and hope to generate a wider conversation on the topic and
gather an interesting collection exploring the “Buildings Are Not Enough” in different
contexts of the world.