One of the world's biggest and most influential architecture fairs opens in Venice this weekend, with the interaction of city life and architecture as its central theme .
The 10th Venice Architecture Biennale, which runs from Saturday until November 19, is entitled Cities, Architecture and Society .
The aim is to inform and stimulate debate about contemporary and future urban society and the role played by architecture .
The director of this year's Biennale is Richard Burdett, centennial professor in architecture and urbanism at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) .
Burdett is responsible for the fair's cornerstone: an international exhibition on world cities in the spectacular Arsenale buildings .
The show will focus on 16 cities in four different continents (Barcelona, Berlin, Cairo, Caracas, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Milan, Turin, Mumbai, New York, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo) .
It aims to show how these cities are being transformed socially, economically and culturally and to what extent urban planning and architecture are behind these changes .
Models, projects, videos, films, research material and photos are included in the show, with works by some of the world's leading architects. Burdett, who is an advisor on urban design to the mayors of London and Barcelona, stressed that it was the first time that the Biennale had explored urbanism and the way architecture and civic life are interconnected .
"More than half of the world's population now lives in cities. A century ago, it was less than 10%. The 21st century will be the first truly urban era - more than 75% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050 .
"City architecture shapes the lives of over half of the world's population, creating the potential for social and environmental integration or conflict and fragmentation. "From the exploding cities of Asia, Africa and South America to the shrinking cities of the West, architects and urban designers play an increasingly key role in structuring the politics of urban life," said Burdett, who was born in Italy and speaks fluent Italian .
Davide Croff, the president of the Venice Biennale, said that "a cental ambition of the exhibition is to develop a manifesto on city design and governance for the 21st century" .
The Biennale will also explore current architectural trends around the world through separate exhibitions in the Biennale Giardini (Gardens) .
The Gardens house some 30 pavilions each representing a different country which will each present its own current urban development projects .
The Italian Pavilion will include designs for Norman Foster's futuristic housing estate at Santa Giulia on the outskirts of Milan together with Renzo Piano's plans for redeveloping the site of the former Falck steel works in the same northern city .
More than 100,000 visitors are expected to visit the Architecture Biennale before it closes in mid-November .
