The Pool Coming to Venice

The announcement comes less than two weeks after the completion of the new Australian Pavilion designed by Denton Corker Marshall, the first 21st century pavilion in the Biennale's Giardini. It's fitting that the first architectural exhibition in the new building will transform the space into a whole new environment, transporting visitors "poolside through an immersive multi-sensory experience," per a statement from the Australian Institute of Architects. Further, "Light, scent, sound, reflection and perspective will create a series of perceptual illusions, bringing to Venice a suggestion of a particular Australian architectural condition." The exhibition will also highlight some of the country's "most remarkable pools – be they natural or manmade, inland or coastal, temporary or permanent."

The creative directors said in the statement: "From pools of necessity to the pools of excess, the pool is a key architectural device, a memory and also a setting. It has the unique ability to evoke both the sacred and the profane and also aptly represents a distinctively Australian democratic and social space – a great leveler of difference."

The winning team is comprised of Sydney's Aileen Sage Architects, the alter ego of Isabelle Aileen Toland and Amelia Sage Holliday, and Michelle Tabet, an urban strategist with a consulting practice also in Sydney.