The Australian Institute of Architects has released the five shortlisted concepts vying to be Australia’s exhibition at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

The creative teams developed their proposals for stage-two presentations after being shortlisted by the Venice Biennale Committee. The committee is now tasked with choosing Australia’s first architecture exhibition in the highly anticipated new pavilion designed by Denton Corker Marshall – the first national pavilion to be built within the Giardini in the twenty-first century.

The proposals are:

POST – John de Manincor, Sandra Kaji-O’Grady and Misho Baranovic

POST takes to the digital age with an exhibition curated from social media activity around Australian architecture. The exhibition contains photographs and soundscapes created by architects, clients, builders, construction workers and users of buildings designed by Australian practices. The installation design is inspired by the biblical Tower of Babel. Its inverted form is an expression of the contemporary architectural ambition to bring people together from around the world rather than scattering them to the ends of the earth.

The Pool – Aileen Sage and Michelle Tabet

The Pool exhibition explores the democratic, social and sacred principles of the pool. The creative directors see it as a metaphor for their vision of Australian architecture that is driven by plurality but is also accessible, inviting, playful and collaborative with new and emerging voices across the discipline. The exhibition will feature an immutable pool element and create a highly sensorial experience. It uses light, mirror, glass and perspective to create a series of perceptual illusions, augmented by use of sound, light and smell.

Parlour Live! – Justine Clark and Naomi Stead with Maryam Gusheh, Catherine Griffiths and Fiona Young

Parlour Live! surveys the contemporary landscape of Australian architecture through its human stories. The exhibition attempts to dispel perceptions and stereotypes of who the architect is. Parlour Live! will invite every Australian architect to contribute to the exhibition with their own individual stories, and will document who the profession is, how it works and how it might become more robust and inclusive.

Wide Open – Ed Lippmann, Dr Anne Watson, Susan Freeman and Michael Hill

Wide Open will chart the last 250 years of Australia’s architectural history, from pre-colonial times to the twenty-first century. The exhibition will chronologically depict the development of architecture, through its disparate influences and emerging with its own identity. The exhibition will be an audio-visual experience with stills and moving images of the country’s landscape, climate and lifestyle.

Objects – Andrew Burns and Mark Gowing

As the name suggest, this exhibition focuses on the artefacts used in the process of producing a building, rather than the completed building itself. The exhibition will feature construction drawings, site photographs, material prototypes, jigs, discarded templates, precast formwork collected from architecture practices around the country. Through the objects, the exhibition will weave together a tapestry of architectural knowledge about how a contemporary Australian building is realized.

The winning proposal will be announced on 21 April 2015 at events in Melbourne and Sydney. The successful creative directors will be required to adapt their concept to the overall international theme to be announced in late-2015.

On the selection panel are: Paul Berkemeier (chair, immediate past president of Australian Institute of Architects), Janet Holmes à Court AC (Commissioner), David Karotkin (national president of the Institute), Ross Clark (chief operating officer of the Institute), Rachel Neeson (Neeson Murcutt), Ken Maher (executive chairman, Hassell), Helen Lochhead (deputy Government Architect of NSW) and Peter Malatt (president of the Institute’s Victorian Chapter, Six Degrees).