Architecture on an ambitious path

Eagerly awaited, finally open: the 19th Mostra dell'Architettura in Venice recently opened its doors and will once again present international projects, approaches and ideas that are sure to spark discussions in 2025. The Biennale, in which 66 nations are participating, focuses on the future of construction.

Opened on 10 May 2025 and curated by Carlo Ratti, this edition of the Architecture Biennale focuses – partly due to the circumstances – on very serious issues that affect us all. The argument for this could not be more accurate: Architecture has always been a response to a hostile climate. "Since the earliest ‘primitive huts’, human design has been driven not only by the need for protection and survival, but also by optimism. Our creations have always sought to bridge the gap between the hostile environment, the safe and habitable spaces we need and the kind of life we want to lead. Today, as the climate deteriorates, this dynamic is being taken to a new level. In the last two years, climate change has accelerated in a way that has surprised even the best scientific models”, states the Biennale manifesto.

In 2024, the Earth reached its highest temperatures ever recorded, exceeding the 1.5 degrees Celsius global average target set in the Paris Agreement. The fires in Los Angeles, the floods in Valencia and Sherpur, and the drought in Sicily have become evidence of an unprecedented and cruel attack on the natural elements. This makes the Biennale's appeal all the more urgent this time around: "When the knowledge and systems that have long guided our understanding begin to fail, new ways of thinking are needed. For decades, since we began to take carbon emissions into account, architecture's response to the climate crisis has focused on mitigating and reducing our impact on the climate. However, this approach is no longer sufficient. Architecture must go beyond mere climate protection, reflect on its long history of adaptation and rethink the way it designs."

Adaptation requires a fundamental change in architectural practice. This year's exhibition, ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective’, invites collaboration between different types of intelligence to collectively rethink the built environment. The title is a neologism, the last part of which, ‘gens’, means ‘human’ in Latin. It is an invitation to experience intelligence beyond the current narrow focus on AI and digital technologies and to show how we can adapt to tomorrow's world with confidence and optimism. ‘Intelligens’ therefore sees itself as a dynamic laboratory that brings together experts from different forms of intelligence.

For the first time, the exhibition presents over 300 contributions from more than 750 participants: architects and engineers, mathematicians and climate scientists, philosophers and artists, chefs and programmers, writers and carvers, farmers and designers, and many others. "In times of adaptation, architecture takes centre stage. It must draw on different forms of intelligence – natural, artificial and collective – and must appeal to multiple generations and disciplines, from the technical sciences to the arts. In times of adaptation, architecture must rethink authorship and become more inclusive. It must become as flexible and dynamic as the world we design for."

Under the title ‘Agency for Better Living’, Sabine Pollak, Michael Obrist and Lorenzo Romito address the housing crisis that is spreading across Europe and around the world, one of the most pressing issues for architects. Rents are rising to incredible heights, highly questionable real estate policies are becoming widespread, municipal housing is disappearing, neighbourhoods are being rented out to tourists and speculative vacancy has become the norm. For a large part of the population, life in cities is no longer affordable. Today, housing is a tradable commodity. The question is what stance architecture will take on this issue.

Curators Sabine Pollak, Michael Obrist and Lorenzo Romito are therefore launching the Agency for Better Living. Their aim is to explore the possibilities, spaces and rules for ‘better living’ for all, and to show that something can be done about current developments in the housing market. The starting point is Vienna, with its pioneering role in the question of affordable housing for all. What further ‘intelligens’ can help find solutions to these fundamental questions in times of ‘polycrises’?

In keeping with the overall theme of the Biennale - ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective’ - the Viennese system of social housing is expanded, extended and further developed in an ‘Intelligens’. The city of Vienna is therefore contrasted with another European city where the failure of planning processes led to self-organised forms of housing and living: Rome. Both cities, Vienna and Rome, demonstrate different ‘intelligences’ of how this can be done.

Vienna is a city that cares, it is a so-called ‘caring city’. In a top-down process, the city ensures that everyone looking for affordable housing gets it. Rome is a city of ruins, where hard-won bottom-up processes create informal living spaces with often astonishing forms of self-organisation. The Viennese system creates security, the Roman system axes on an active and creative civil society. Both produce innovative ways of life through very different, even contradictory processes. Overlaying the two could give rise to the utopia of a future coexistence with a smart strategy for unusual, inclusive, affordable and climate-friendly forms of living together in an open society.

‘How can we build on the world without building anew?’ Denmark's contribution addresses this question and provides a sensual and thought-provoking answer. The pavilion's curator, architect Søren Pihlmann of Pihlmann Architects, presents an exhibition that transforms the pavilion into a hybrid space between exhibition and renovation site. ‘Build of Site’ takes a novel approach by renovating the pavilion building while showcasing innovative methods for reusing surplus materials found during the construction process. Instead of using new resources to build a temporary installation, the exhibition represents a permanent improvement to the pavilion.

The idea arose from a series of recurring events: the Danish pavilion needed to be renovated due to recurring flooding, outdated functionality and problems with the indoor climate. Floors, doors and windows need to be replaced. The pavilion is therefore being restored, with unconventional ways of reusing surplus building materials being sought. The renovation work began in December 2024 as part of the exhibition concept and will be completed after the 2025 Architecture Biennale. During the exhibition period, the pavilion will take the form of a hybrid space in which the boundaries between exhibition and renovation become blurred.

"It should be clear to most people by now that in the future we will have to think constructively about what we have already put into the world. Until now, this has been seen as a limitation. But now it is time to discuss all the architectural possibilities offered by the ground, the stones, the concrete or whatever else is available on site", explains Søren Pihlmann. Upon entering Build of Site, visitors are transported to a construction site that has been temporarily frozen in time.

From May to November 2025, the pavilion construction site will be open to the public and will feature archetypal exhibition elements such as platforms, ramps, benches and tables. These have all been built from surplus materials that came to light during the renovation process. The materials used – including compositions of wood, limestone, concrete, stone, sand, mud and clay – have been closely examined since autumn 2023 in collaboration with researchers and students from the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, the Royal Danish Academy of Architecture, Design and Conservation, and ETH Zurich.

Gelatine, a by-product of the fishing industry in the Adriatic and elsewhere, was mixed with sand in the right proportions. This sand was dug out of the ground beneath the pavilion and shaped into a tabletop. Each individual limestone tile was examined to understand how it was cut in the quarry in Istria. This made it possible to determine the risk of the tile breaking when removed and whether it could be reused in the renovation of the floor. Non-destructive UPV (Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity) tests were carried out on the existing concrete ceilings to determine in advance how the components would need to be cut for reuse as beams in the exhibition in order to achieve maximum strength.

The close collaboration between experts from different disciplines since the beginning of the project is reflected in the way bio-based, high-tech and recycled elements are integrated into the architecture. The focus is not on the original function and value of the materials, but on how they can be reused to enrich our built environment. The exhibition thus refers both to a real structural change and to a change in the way we should understand architectural practice in the future.

‘In an age of uncertainty such as ours, does architecture still fulfil its original role as a shelter?’ The exhibition in the Polish Pavilion is an anthropological investigation of the emotional and rational dimensions of building. Through enduring rituals, living myths, regulations and safety mechanisms, boundaries become blurred and the most intimate needs and desires associated with the idea of home become visible. The project is the result of a multidisciplinary collaboration between curator and art historian Aleksandra Kędziorek, artists Krzysztof Maniak and Katarzyna Przezwańska and architect Maciej Siuda. With the exhibition ‘Lares and Penates: On Building a Sense of Security in Architecture’, they attempt to provide an answer in a time marked by constant change and growing instability. The team aims to look at architecture not from the perspective of the designer, but from the perspective of those who live in it. By suspending judgement, the project gives space to fears, desires and deep-seated needs, moving in both the emotional and rational realms.

"Lares and Penates were Roman deities responsible for protecting the hearth. In many languages, they still evoke the idea of guardianship and domestic security. In line with Carlo Ratti, curator of the 2025 Architecture Biennale, who included the word ‘intelligens’ in this year's exhibition title, we see Lares and Penates as a universal code rooted in ancient traditions and deeply embedded in our collective human intelligence", explains Aleksandra Kędziorek.

Careful research throughout Poland has uncovered customs and gestures that are still practised today and have been passed down from generation to generation: a candle in the window to ward off storms, a garland hung on construction sites to prevent accidents, an old threshold salvaged from a village that marks the symbolic boundary between outside and inside, or a rod used on new construction sites to locate underground veins. At the same time, the exhibition draws attention to safety features and infrastructure that comply with today's regulations, such as emergency exits and fire alarms. These elements, which are already part of the pavilion's architecture, are framed and highlighted as part of the exhibition. They include peepholes, alarm systems and padlocks – devices that often allow us to observe and protect without being noticed.

With a humanistic perspective, the exhibition weaves together the regulatory and emotional levels of architecture, two areas that are often perceived as separate. A fire extinguisher, for example, which is essentially a utilitarian object, is placed in a niche decorated like a fresco or framed in a Venetian-style mosaic that reveals its symbolic and reassuring qualities. The exhibition eschews digital abstraction. Instead, visitors encounter a constellation of found or assembled objects presented in full size and highlighted for their material presence within an essential scenography. The tactile, three-dimensional models are rooted in a shared cultural memory. This fertile, vital undercurrent is worth rediscovering, as it points the way to a more conscious architecture that engages meaningfully with the realities of today's world.

Architect and designer Matteo Thun and his team have also given a lot of thought to how best to address current issues. Inspired by Jorge Bergoglio and his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, his installation is a tribute to the universal values of love and peace shared by all religions of the world. Made from recycled wood from an abandoned ‘baita’ in Pavicolo in the Italian Alps, it has been given new life as a place of reflection and encounter. Rooted in the recognition of a shared human experience and a commitment to a hopeful, interconnected future, the installation, in its simplicity, serves as a vision for the future. There, brotherhood means awakening to a shared destiny and the spread of life through dialogue and connection.

The installation transcends its original function as a structure and becomes a space where individuals can reflect on the beauty of the collective human experience, the power of dialogue and the indestructibility of hope in the face of separation. As a physical and metaphorical meeting place, it invites visitors to pause and reflect on the values that hold humanity together. The recycled wood used in the installation carries its own meaning, reflecting the passage of time and the permanence of tradition. By reusing material from an abandoned mountain hut, the work not only honours its origins, but also highlights the potential for renewal and transformation, reminding visitors of the cycles of life and humanity's connection with nature.

The journey begins in the Italian Alps, with the wood of an abandoned wooden hut. The installation, which will be on temporary display at the 2025 Biennale, will later be moved to its permanent location at an altitude of 2,000 metres, where, surrounded by mountains, it will serve as a place of refuge to reflect on the values of peace that unite humanity. The life cycle of wood – from tree to shelter to art – reflects a commitment to renewal, waste minimisation and respect for the materials found in nature. In the Tuscan Apennines, at an altitude of 1,000 metres, Fratelli Tutti takes on a stone form, built from monoliths quarried just 80 metres from its location. 80 million years old, these stones embody the ideals of km-0 sourcing and timeless durability. It is a place of encounter, humanity and peace, a space for relationships where visitors are invited to recognise each other beyond all differences and reflect on our common destiny.

The trilogy is completed at sea level in Germany with a clay structure that anchors the project's message at 0 metres above sea level. Following the same principles of using local, natural building materials, this installation aims to promote a sense of harmony with the environment and encourage reflection on what unites us as humanity.

Fratelli Tutti is proof of how the built environment can exist in harmony with the planet. It is a place where the cycles of nature and human community converge, inviting us to pause, listen and rediscover the values that unite us all. By promoting regeneration and respecting natural rhythms, integrating recycled materials, avoiding unnecessary consumption and ensuring a life beyond temporary installations, the project embodies a regenerative vision.

The installation is a tribute to Bergoglio's vision and an invitation to pause, reflect and rediscover the power of human relationships and the value of harmony with nature. Jorge Bergoglio was an example of humility and believed in dialogue and universal brotherhood. His encyclical Fratelli Tutti was an inspiration and reminds us of values that transcend borders, cultures and beliefs.