by Johanna Siegler // Apr. 29, 2025
“To face a world on fire, architecture must be able to harness all the intelligence around us.” This urgent provocation by curator Carlo Ratti frames the expansive inquiry of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale. Titled ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.,’ the 2025 edition centers on plural intelligences, natural ecosystems, artificial technologies and the collective wisdom of communities, converging to rethink how we build. Ratti, an architect-engineer known for interdisciplinary innovation, envisions architecture at the epicenter of our response to ecological crises, drawing on everything from biology to data science in search of “intelligent solutions.”
Carlo Ratti // Photo by Andrea Avezzù, Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
Accordingly, this Biennale wholly expands the field, calling on more than 750 participants across disciplines to rethink how we build in an altered world. In doing so, Ratti and his curatorial team dissolve the traditional image of the architect as a singular genius, advocating instead for a model of distributed authorship, akin to collective scientific research. This year’s ‘Space for Ideas’ open call welcomed submissions globally, ensuring an unprecedented breadth of voices, from Pritzker laureates to emerging practitioners. Signaling a shift towards plural architectures, this year’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to scholar Donna Haraway, whose thinking on kinship, ecology and collective survival echoes through many of the Biennale’s projects.
Boonserm Premthada: ‘Elephant Chapel,’ 2025 // Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
At the heart of ‘Intelligens’ is adaptation: an insistence that architecture must evolve with shifting climates and social structures. Where past Biennales often emphasized sustainability or mitigation, Ratti’s exhibition embraces a more dynamic paradigm, suggesting that resilience today demands collaboration across generations and fields. This ethos permeates the Corderie dell’Arsenale, structured as three interlinked “worlds”: Natural Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence and Collective Intelligence. Visitors move through modular, fractal spaces designed to foster dialogue between small-scale experiments and global visions.
The experience culminates in a speculative section, ‘Out,’ questioning whether space exploration offers an escape from Earth’s crises (Ratti’s answer: it doesn’t, but it might help us improve life here). Highlights include collaborations between climate scientists and architects, like ‘The Other Side of the Hill,’ which visualizes microbial life as a model for post-growth societies. Meanwhile, Thai architect Boonserm Premthada’s ‘Elephant Chapel’ transforms elephant dung into building material, exemplifying circular design principles.
The hydropolis Venice itself, always more than a backdrop, becomes an all-permeating actor in this Biennale. With the Central Pavilion under renovation, installations are dispersed across the city, transforming Venice into a “living lab.” Projects like the Canal Café, which purifies lagoon water into espresso, or Margherissima, a speculative urban prototype for the polluted lands of Marghera, integrate the exhibition into Venice’s urban and ecological fabric. These interventions tether the exhibition’s grand themes to the material reality of a city on the frontlines of climate change.
Aaron Betsky, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Natural Systems Utilities, SODAI: ‘Canal Cafe,’ 2025 // Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
Beyond the main exhibition, the 66 National Pavilions will propose context-specific responses to global crises, from reparative geologies and AI-driven heritage preservation to coastal resilience and Indigenous knowledge as a guide for future dwelling.
Confronting colonial extraction through geology and architecture, Great Britain’s Pavilion, ‘Geology of Britannic Repair,’ traces connections between the Great Rift Valley and Britain’s industrial past. Curated by Kabage Karanja and Stella Mutegi of the Nairobi-based Cave_bureau, alongside UK-based Owen Hopkins and Kathryn Yusoff, it proposes repair as a design methodology. At the Armenian Pavilion, ‘Microarchitecture through AI: Making New Memories with Ancient Monuments’ delves into the intersection of artificial intelligence and cultural heritage. Curated by Marianna Karapetyan, the exhibition collaborates with designers and technologists, including Electric Architects and the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, to explore how AI can reimagine Armenia’s ancient monuments for contemporary contexts.
Illustration of ‘HOME’ by Dr Michael Mossman, Emily McDaniel and Jack Gillmer-Lilley // Courtesy Australian Institute of Architects
Italy’s contribution, ‘Terræ Aquæ. L’Italia e l’intelligenza del mare,’ curated by Guendalina Salimei, turns toward the intelligence of the sea. Focused on Italy’s shifting coastlines, the pavilion becomes a maritime laboratory, exploring how architecture can adapt to rising seas and coastal erosion. Through speculative projects and multimedia works, it charts new relationships between land and water in the Mediterranean. Curated by a team of First Nations architects and practitioners led by Dr. Michael Mossman, Emily McDaniel and Jack Gillmer-Lilley, the exhibition in Australia’s Pavilion centers on “Country,” a holistic concept that ties people, land and culture. Titled ‘Home,’ it explores the layered meanings of dwelling through the lens of Indigenous knowledge systems. Through storytelling, spatial installations and ceremony, the pavilion amplifies First Nations voices, presenting natural intelligence as ancient, living knowledge.
Exhibition Info
La Biennale di Venezia
Group Show: ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.’
Exhibition: May 10–Nov. 23, 2025
labiennale.org
Giardini della Biennale, 30122 Venezia VE, Italy, click here for map
Arsenale di Venezia, 30122 Venezia VE, Italy, click here for map
