The 19th International Architecture Exhibition, organised by La Biennale, will take place in Venice from Saturday 10 May to Sunday 23 November 2025, and will be dedicated to the theme ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective’.
At the centre of the exhibition, the proposal of new solutions to face the urgent challenges posed by climate change with a multidisciplinary, transversal and intergenerational approach. The protagonist will therefore be an architecture that responds to the climate crisis no longer through mitigation but through adaptation, making use of all forms of intelligence: natural, artificial and collective.
With its compelling connection to current events, the event intends to break free from the traditional concept of an exhibition, constituting a true scientific and experimental laboratory on the future of architecture and the challenges that characterise our time, creating positive synergies with institutional fora for international dialogue, starting with the COP30 in Belem.
Curated by architect and engineer Carlo Ratti, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Milan Polytechnic, the exhibition will take place not only in the spaces of the Arsenale and Giardini, but also in other areas of the city. Venice – one of the places most exposed to climate change – will thus become a living laboratory hosting a new exhibition concept with installations, prototypes and experiments scattered throughout the wider urban context.
Taking the rise in global temperatures as its starting point, the exhibition will be divided into three thematic sections: ‘Natural Intelligence’ (how nature can inspire new architectural solutions), ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (investigating the role of technology and artificial intelligence in design) and ‘Collective Intelligence’ (highlighting the value of multidisciplinary collaboration). It will close with the ‘Out’ section, which will focus on the theme of space exploration as a solution to the most pressing crises of the present.
66 national pavilions (there were 64 in the 2023 edition), among them the new participations of 4 countries: Azerbaijan, Oman, Qatar, Togo .
The arrival of Qatar is the first fruit of the cooperation protocol signed in June 2024 between Qatar Museums and the Municipality of Venice, which will lead to the construction of a permanent pavilion.
The Italian Pavilion, promoted by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of this Ministry of Culture, will host the project ‘TerræAquæ – Italy and the Intelligence of the Sea’, curated by Guendalina Salimei. It will focus on rethinking the relationship between land and sea, with particular attention to coastal and port areas.
Renewing its participation is the Holy See, which will be present with its ‘Opera aperta’ exhibition project in the Complesso di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice.
The days from 8 to 9 May will be dedicated to the pre-opening and institutional inaugurations. The award ceremony will take place on Saturday 10 May.
The list of side events promoted by national and international institutions and organisations will be announced in the coming weeks.
There will be two special projects: Margherissima, presented inside the Austrian powder magazine of Forte Marghera in Mestre, and the Pavilion of Applied Arts, presented for the ninth consecutive year jointly by la Biennale di Venezia and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, entitled ‘On Storage’ this year.
More information on the programme, content and side events can be found at labiennale.org , while here you can find the participating Nations including Australia (winning Country ed. 2024).
