Much of CLAD’s coverage this week was unsurprisingly centred around the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale.

The event is the biggest in the industry’s calendar, and CLAD was there to take a look at this year’s pavilions – exploring different challenges and solutions facing built environments around the world – and to meet some of the most influential architects working in leisure.

Among the exhibits that caught our eye were Spain’s Golden Lion-winning exploration of how Spanish architecture has overcome economic turmoil, Norman Foster’s planned droneport for Rwanda and MVRDV’s invisible Infinity Kitchen, with the latter two likely to have strong leisure applications in the future. Winy Maas, one of the creator’s of the Infinity Kitchen, used a forum at the event to demand architects “kill vagueness” in their projects and text heremake the public benefits of their work clear for everyone.

The theme of public space and how it should be developed is a prominent one at this year’s festival, and Biennale curator Alejandro Aravena opened his introductory press conference with some fiery criticism of developers who put profit above the public good. Richard Rogers later backed this rallying cry in an interview with CLAD, in which he emphasised the need for us all to “defend our public spaces”.

“The erosion of public space by the private market is a really serious problem in cities.” What do you think? https://t.co/sCcVrwT1cv

— UM_Architecture (@UM_SoA) May 31, 2016