Japanese architect Sejima's people-oriented Biennale

Kazuyo Sejima, Japan's Pritzker Prize-winning architect and the first woman to curate the prestigious Venice architecture show, says it should be all about people.

"Of course form is very important, because form is one attitude for relating to the surroundings," Sejima told AFP Thursday after unveiling the 12th edition of the Biennale in the lagoon city.

"But at the same time people's activity is to me very important. People also are involved in the process of creativity," said Sejima, 54, dressed all in white on a hot summer's day.

Sejima, whose Tokyo studio SANAA, co-founded with Ryue Nishizawa, created the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and London's Serpentine Gallery, said the architect's view of space "can give people opportunities."

She pointed to the example of a public park enjoyed by people of all ages and walks of life.

"Sometimes I can be alone in a park, but next to me there are groups of children, and children running around, but there are other people just resting," she said. "So in the park everyone can have their own privacy but at the same time everyone can feel their affinity with society."

The Biennale is to open to the public on Sunday and run through November 21, on the theme "People Meet in Architecture".

Describing the selection process for the event as "very difficult... because there are so many wonderful architects around the world," Sejima said she focused on youth and diversity.

The average age of the contributors is somewhere between 40 and 45. "It is a very nice chance for young architects to show good ideas," she said, adding that "roughly half" of the participants are attending for the first time.

Four dozen exhibitors - architects, engineers, artists and studios - are taking part in the 12th edition of the prestigious show, with newcomer countries including Albania, Bahrain, Iran, Malaysia, Rwanda and Thailand.

Separate from the exhibitions curated by Sejima, national pavilions feature contributions from 53 countries stretching over Venice's Arsenal and Giardini areas in the east of the lagoon city.

Two innovations this time are seminars each Saturday featuring past curators of the Biennale and an outreach to universities that will send students to Venice to take part in three-day internships at the event.

Sejima, a foremost contemporary architect who favours basic lines and simple shapes, was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize this year together with Nishizawa.

But, she insists, returning to the centrality of the human dimension: "Form is not an independent thing."