Blocks of granite for relaxing, delicate and gleamingly backlit ramps that lead through humid, drifting fog, concrete columns dangerously suspended above visitor’s heads, and stroboscope-lit geysers of water erupting out of the dark. Visitors primarily comprehend the 12th Architecture Biennale through physical experience and only secondarily through intellectual reflection. This was precisely the intention of this year’s Pritzker Award winner and Biennale director Kazuyo Sejima. More art than architecture? “People meet in architecture” is the general motto that Sejima formulated as guiding principle for the Biennale. She emphasizes this gathering of various art disciplines with contributions by artists such as Wim Wenders and his 3D film of the EPFL Rolex Learning Center, “If buildings could talk”. At the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, artist Thomas Demand and architects Caruso St. John created a true-to-scale plywood mockup of the restaurant facade that became a celebrated icon in China.