Venice Architecture Fest Tackles 'Painful' Modernity

Star designer Rem Koolhaas said Thursday that adapting to architectural modernity can be a "painful process", as he prepared to unveil the program for Venice's architecture Biennale.

The Dutch designer is curating this year's program, which will look back over the past 100 years of innovation.

"I suggested that it would be interesting to look at the last century, to look from 1914 to 2014 and I've called that theme 'absorbing modernity'", said Koolhaas, who is known for his extravagant designs.

The Biennale, which is held every two years, is officially entitled "Fundamentals" and opens on Saturday, with 65 countries taking part including 11 for the first time. 

"I realised that modernisation is a very often painful process but that somehow every nation in the last 100 years has been forced to modernise itself," said Koolhaas, who is known for his research and designing a series of signature projects around the world.

Paolo Baratta, director of the Venice Biennale, said the 2014 edition would be about architectural "research" not just in an academic sense but also in the sense of "what we are capable of demanding from architecture".

The Biennale will last until November.