Venice Architecture Exhibition 2025: Comprehensive Insights and Highlights
The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale has opened its doors! This global event is held every two years and showcases architectural insights, ideas, and innovations from around the world. This year's appointed curator, architect Carlo Ratti, has spent months working on the ambitious exhibition titled 'Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.'
Ratti acknowledges the impact of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale's influential theme by 2024 RIBA Gold Medal winner Lesley Lokko, hinting at the future and the next steps in the grand exhibition's global explorations.
The overarching theme is divided into three main sections:
- Natural Intelligence examines the integration of natural elements and processes into architectural design.
- Artificial Intelligence delves into the role of AI and technology in shaping future architecture.
- Collective Intelligence emphasizes collaboration and diversity to address architectural challenges.
Moreover, the exhibition includes a speculative section called "Out," which looks to outer space for ideas related to planetary futures. The main show, held at the Arsenale, spans over 750 participants and over 300 projects, making it a dynamic and diverse event.
Collaborative efforts across various fields are a key aspect of the exhibition, with Ratti stating, "I think we need to work more collaboratively. I always try to have teams of different disciplines working together. I call this approach the 'choral' architect."
The central pavilion, which usually hosts a significant portion of the main show, is under restoration this year, making way for the city of Venice to become a living laboratory, serving as the backdrop for various installations, prototypes, and experiments scattered across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and other neighborhoods.
In addition to the main show, national participations held at their respective pavilions across the Giardini park and the Arsenale showcase rich and far-reaching contributions. The Bahrain pavilion won the top gong for the best national contribution, focusing on climate change and a dialogue of old and new, the natural and the artificial. The Belgium pavilion examines the natural world's potential through plant intelligence, while the Brazilian pavilion zooms in on Amazonian communities and their ancestral infrastructure.
The Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 continues to engage creatively with the entire city, providing an immersive and thought-provoking experience for all architecture aficionados. Don't miss it! Wanna learn more about the Biennale and other architectural news? Subscribe to our newsletter for daily doses of inspiration, escapism, and design stories from around the world!
- The Bahrain pavilion, winner of the top gong for the best national contribution, focuses on climate change and explores a dialogue between the old and the new, the natural and the artificial, illustrating the intersection of environmental science and technology in shaping future architectural solutions.
- The Brazilian pavilion delves into the indigenous Amazonian communities and their ancestral infrastructure, blending architectural design with themes of technology, artificial intelligence, and cultural diversity, emphasizing the need for collaboration in addressing architectural challenges.
