Lares and Penates: On Building a Sense of Security in Architecture

From the very beginning, architecture’s primary role has been to protect. The set of anxieties that accompany its inhabitants has evolved – people still turn to architecture to seek shelter from weather or the elements, but nowadays they also contend with climate catastrophe, wars or the prospect of mass migration. Does architecture have the tools to protect us from adversity? What practices taken from the construction and use of buildings can we employ to provide us with sense of security?

The Lares and Penates exhibition seeks answers to these questions in building superstitions still cultivated today. Firmly rooted in the local Polish tradition, it draws from the practices and rituals that ensure a sense of security in architecture, as a resource of pre-modern, collective wisdom. It views these as a practical and universal response to fears that have accompanied people for centuries, and those of today. The exhibition demonstrates that, in a technologically advanced world, the simplicity and accessibility of these solutions gives the human psyche a much-needed sense of agency. Without judging the effectiveness of these techniques, it points out their vital role in building a sense of security or creating a local community. In this way, the exhibition echoes the main theme of the Architecture Biennale, Intelligens. In defining the intelligence of the future as ‘inclusive, multiple, and imaginative beyond today’s limiting focus on AI’, curator Carlo Ratti emphasised the last syllable of the title: gens, or people.

The exhibition was created by an interdisciplinary team, involving architect Maciej Siuda and artists Krzysztof Maniak and Katarzyna Przezwańska. It juxtaposes two ideas: security and a sense of security. The first includes solutions found in building, fire, and health and safety regulations. The second incorporates the architecturally-related practices and rituals in Poland meant to ensure good fortune and to protect against ill fortune. The exhibition shows these two components as equal and complementary. Together, they allow the country’s inhabitants to feel more secure in a rapidly changing reality.