Proofing: Resistant and Ready

Assistant Professor Xavi Laida Aguirre’s project Proofing: Resistant and Ready features at the 2023 Venice Biennale of Architecture in a pavilion curated around the theme of “Everlasting Plastics.” Incorporating a built environment and an immersive video experience, Proofing: Resistant and Ready explores the contradictory nature of plastics in architecture as they help us create more robust and durable environments while also being partially responsible for the climate disaster. The project offers a series of prototypes and building techniques to intervene subversively in the built environment with the intention of reintroducing the lost promises of plastic’s longevity through both material and digital tactics.

More at the project website: Proofing

More at the exhibition website: Everlasting Plastics

Xavi Laida Aguirre is an Assistant Professor at the MIT School of Architecture and Urbanism. They are the Director of an architectural practice called stock-a-studio and the creator of the acclaimed project Someparts, a series of infinitely re-assembleable architectural kits.

Biography: MIT Architecture Department
Website: stockastudio.com and  someparts.parts
Social: Instagram

Project collaborators:

Ash Fure, Sound
Deborah Garcia, Commentary
Boneless Pizza~ Studio, Video production
Ian Erickson, Video and Website production
Jayson Kim, Video production
Zachary Slonsky, Video and Website production
Zachary S. Schumacher, Project Assistant
Agnes Parker, Fabrication 
Cheng Qin, Fabrication 
Samantha Ratanarat, Fabrication 

Supported by a Mellon Faculty Grant from the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) and by the MIT.nano Immersion Lab.

The New York Times: In Venice, Americans Explore Peace With Plastic

DesignBoom: designers highlight our dependency on ‘everlasting plastics’ at US pavilion in venice

Arch Daily: “Everlasting Plastics”: The U.S. Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale is Curated by SPACES Gallery

Columbia Books: Sketches on Everlasting Plastics