More than 750 participants will contribute to this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, which curator Carlo Ratti has said will be a science-heavy edition of the festival examining the changing role of architecture at a time of environmental instability.
The event’s main exhibition, titled Intelligens Natural Artificial Collective, will explore how the industry can adapt to increasingly unstable living environments into habitable spaces with the help of cross-disciplinary collaboration.
“Architecture starts when the environment is against us and we adapt it to somewhere where we can live,” architect Ratti explained during a conference yesterday afternoon.
“We can look at this through science. There’s going to be a lot of science in this year’s biennale,” he continued.
According to Ratti, a large focus will be placed specifically on how architecture can move on from designing for mitigation to adaptation as the world faces rising carbon emissions and temperatures.
Biennale will be “a dynamic lab”
It comes as the Earth reached its hottest temperatures on record in 2024, with global averages passing the 1.5 degrees Celsius target of the Paris Agreement.
Ratti, who is also a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , believes that temperature records show there is no longer time for the industry to focus solely on designs that minimise the environmental impact of architecture.
Instead, he hopes to encourage the industry to uncover ways to adapt to the climate crisis and highlight the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in achieving this.
“We would like the biennale to be like a dynamic lab,” Ratti said.
“This year, we have an unprecedented number of participants, over 750, and we have got architects and engineers, mathematicians and climate scientists, philosophers and artists, chefs and coders, writers, farmers and fashion designers and many more,” he continued.
“We believe that adaptation demands inclusivity and collaboration, and that’s what we want to experiment with,” he continued. “Architecture is not alone in reducing emissions. Reducing emissions depends also on industry, transport and energy production.”
During yesterday’s press conference, Ratti pointed out some key exhibits to expect at the upcoming event, including a demonstration of the host city’s future if global warming continues.
“When it’s two degrees [warmer] in the long term, there’s three metres more of water, and Venice doesn’t exist anymore,” Ratti said.
“So what [the festival] will do will actually look at, in a scientific way, what the climate of Venice will be in 100 years.”
Meanwhile, other displays will explore topics such as urban mining and the restructuring of cities, through the lens of Ukraine, and the fusion of traditional construction techniques and artificial intelligence.
Tosin Oshinowo and Kengo Kuma among collaborators
Ratti’s exhibition will also involve a plethora of collaborations, including one with the European Space Agency and NASA to examine how space technology can be used to aid life on Earth.
Other collaborators include architects Tosin Oshinowo, Kengo Kuma and Boonserm Premthada, the Norman Foster Foundation and designer Patricia Urquiola.
The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, which will be the event’s nineteenth edition, is set to take place from 10 May to 23 November 2025 across the Italian city.
Ratti was revealed as a curator in December 2023. His appointment was described as “a screeching U-turn” by critic Catherine Slessor.
In an interview with Dezeen at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, architect Norman Foster said the event “is very much a reflection of the individuals who steer it”.
Ratti follows in the footsteps of Lesley Lokko who curated the event in 2023. Her main exhibition, named Laboratory of the Future, explored the themes of decolonisation and decarbonisation.
In addition to Ratti’s announcement yesterday, Venice Architecture Biennale organisers also confirmed that Israel and Russia will not participate in the event. Meanwhile, new participants will include Azerbaijan, Oman, Togo and Qatar.
Qatar is also expected to have a permanent pavilion built in Venice’s Giardini della Biennale, though no date has been announced for its opening.
The photography is courtesy of the Venice Architecture Biennale.
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