GENS Public Programme

Saturday, 10 May
Collective Baukultur
Teatro Piccolo Arsenale (Campo de la Tana, 2161, Venice)
5 pm - 7 pm
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Speakers include: Oliver Martin (Chair of the Davos Baukultur Alliance), Vivian Brady-Phillips (Head of Strategic Initiatives, Urban Transformation, World Economic Forum), H.E. Zaliha Mustafa (Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of Federal Territories), Priti Parikh (Director of the School of Sustainable Construction & Professor of Infrastructure Engineering and International Development, UCL), Claudia Acuña Fernandez (Managing Director of Impact, New Story), Carlo Ratti (Curator, Biennale Architettura 2025).
Moderated by: Antonio Gómez-Palacio (Chair of DIALOG).
This event launches the Conferences of the GENS Public Programme, exploring how high-quality Baukultur (building-culture) shapes the built environment through collective intelligence and cross-sector collaboration. It highlights the shared responsibility of governments, businesses, and communities in fostering cultural, social, and economic well-being. Aligned with the Biennale Architettura 2025’s theme Intelligens, the discussion examines how collective thinking and innovative practices create meaningful, high-quality spaces that enhance everyday life across diverse contexts.

Co-organised with the Davos Baukultur Alliance, a global initiative uniting over 80 governments, businesses, and civil society organisations to advance collective action in improving the quality of living environments through cultural, social, and environmental solutions.

Tuesday, 13 May
Gone with the (Hot) Wind? Cities and Artistic Heritage Facing the Climate Crisis
Ca’ Giustinian, Sala delle Colonne (San Marco 1364/A – 30124, Venice)
10 am - 1:30 pm
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Speakers include: Luigi Brugnaro (Mayor of Venice), Carlo Ratti (Curator, Biennale Architettura 2025), Hélène Chartier (Director of Urban Planning and Design at C40), Ferruccio Resta (President of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano), Antonio Aurigemma (President of the Regional Council of Lazio), Pierpaolo Campostrini (General Manager, CORILA), Carlo Carraro (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Ugo Ferrero (Head of Communications and Institutional Relations, AICS), Laura Fregolent (IUAV University of Venice), Matteo Lepore (ANCI Coordinator of Metropolitan Cities), Simone Ombuen (ASviS GDL 11 Coordinator), Elio Schiavo (Chief Enterprise and Innovative Solutions Officer, TIM), Enrico Giovannini (Scientific Director of ASviS).
This conference explores the need to protect cities and human settlements from the escalating effects of the climate crisis. Rising sea levels, extreme weather, fires, and high temperatures threaten not only people but also monuments, historic buildings, and urban spaces. Venice, as a symbol of both the fragility of historic cities and cultural heritage, highlights the urgency of exploring innovative solutions that integrate sustainable architecture with adaptation policies to safeguard our cities.

Co-organised with ASviS, the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development, established in 2016, which aims to raise awareness of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and mobilise stakeholders to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Saturday, 24 May
The Intelligence of Cities
Ca’ Giustinian, Sala delle Colonne (San Marco 1364/A – 30124, Venice)
10 am - 7 pm
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Speakers include: Jean-Sébastien LeBreton (Exhibition Manager, Pavillon de l'Arsenal), Philippe Chiambaretta (Architect and Urban Planner, founder of PCA-STREAM), Lily Munson (Secretary- General, Villes Vivantes), Stéphanie Lemoine (Journalist, and contributor to Ecofaubourgs), Rosina Vinyes (Architect and Urban Planner, University of Barcelona), Adrien Larcade (Project Director, Paris La Défense), Carine Saloff Costes (Engineer and Director of SAEMES), Nicolas Dorval Bory (Architect), Michel Desvignes (Landscape Architect), Bas Smets (Landscape Architect), Quentin Barenne (Director and founder, Wintics), Elsa Lebrun & Charly Dufour (Founders, Poumtchak Studio), Jean Guiony (President of the Institute of Land Transition, and Founder of Aqua Alta), Gabrielle Fack (Economist), Laurent Eisenman (Director of New Uses and Rural Services Program, SNCF Tech4Mobility), Yaëlle Amsellem Mainguy (Sociologist and Research Associate at CERLIS), Alexandre Born (Co-founder and General Director, Bellevilles).
This seminar, divided into morning and afternoon sessions, investigates shifting urban paradigms, particularly in smaller cities, where transformation increasingly depends on human intelligence rather than technology alone. Structured around five expert-led roundtables, the event addresses urgent topics such as underground space management, AI surveillance, greening cities, and rural regeneration. Running alongside these discussions are two live hackathons, where students in architecture, urban planning, and design will develop and present innovative solutions, culminating in project presentations at the seminar’s conclusion.
Co-organised with Jean-Louis Missika (Media Sociologist, editor of La Grande Conversation, former Deputy Mayor of Paris for Urban Planning, Architecture, Innovation, and Greater Paris).

Wednesday, 28 May
European Cities Conversation on Climate-Responsive Urbanism and Architecture
Ca’ Giustinian, Sala delle Colonne (San Marco 1364/A – 30124, Venice)
10 am - 2 pm
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Speakers include: Massimiliano De Martin (Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Venice), Stéphane Lecler (Deputy Director General, Paris), Myriam Peón González (Director General of the Office of Madrid Master Plan), Giancarlo Tancredi (Deputy Mayor for Urban Regeneration, Milan), Camilla Bjerre (Executive Director of the Technical and Environmental Administration, Copenhagen), Maciej Fijałkowski (Secretary, Warsaw), Marion Waller (Director, Pavillon de l’Arsenal), Paolo Mazzoleni (Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Torino), Torleif Falk (City Architect, Stockholm), Filipa Roseta (Deputy Mayor for Housing, Local Development, and Municipal Works of Lisbon), Jules Pipe (Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and the Fire Service of London), Maro Evangelidou (Deputy Mayor of Urban Regeneration and Resilience of Athens), Jules Pipe (Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills, London), Maurizio Carta (Deputy Mayor for Urban Regeneration of Palermo), Maurizio Veloccia (Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning of Rome), Raffaele Laudani (Deputy Mayor of Urban Planning of Bologna), Andrea Vecci (Head of Impact, Sustainability and Communication, Redo).
Moderated by Hélène Chartier (Director of Urban Planning and Design at C40), Costanza de Stefani (Senior Manager for Reinventing Cities and Competition Lead, C40), Cécile Faraud (Head of Clean Construction, C40), Lean Doody (European Director for Cities, Planning & Design, Arup), Júlia López (European Regional Director, C40).
This event will bring together Deputy Mayors and city leaders from key European cities to discuss the way we build, plan and design cities to respond to climate change and modern challenges. Sessions will focus on urban planning, urban regeneration, housing and financing, from policies to implementation, showcasing the collaboration between city leaders, the private sector, and communities to foster clean construction and create green and thriving cities and neighbourhoods. Special attention will be given to the housing crisis, with an emphasis on creating inclusive, environmentally sustainable housing for all.
Co-organised with C40, a global network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities that are united in action to confront the climate crisis and create a future where everyone, everywhere can thrive.  

Saturday, 7 June
Climate Tech Startups
Corderie dell’Arsenale, Speakers’ Corner *
3 pm - 7 pm
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Speakers include among others: Carlo Bagnoli (President of Venisia and Professor, Ca’ Foscari University), Simona Maschi (Director, CIID Copenaghen), Stefano Micelli (Professor, Ca’ Foscari University), Federico Cuppoloni (Cleantech4Italy).
This event explores how innovative startups are addressing the climate crisis through cutting-edge technologies, such as carbon capture, energy storage, methane emissions reduction, and smart buildings. It also examines the transformative potential of Deep Tech in reshaping industries and driving the “fourth wave” of innovation, with a focused discussion on Future Farming and Nature Co-design.

Co-organised with Venice Climate Week, which runs from June 3 to 8, aligning with two key UN dates: World Environment Day (June 5) and World Oceans Day (June 8). This international forum aims to spark transformative dialogue and strategic collaboration on climate action, bringing together pioneers, institutions, and communities to shape the ecological transition through new narratives, actionable goals, and systemic innovation.

* To access the Corderie dell’Arsenale and the Speakers’ Corner, visitors must hold a valid exhibition ticket for the Biennale Architettura 2025.

Thursday, May 8
10:30 am - 11:00 am
The Life and Times of Gae Aulenti

A discussion around the portrait of Gae Aulenti, a human and professional history among the most intense of the Italian twentieth century, developed around its curious and collective nature, able to hold together the many worlds of architecture and often go beyond its borders.
Speakers: Stefano Boeri, Giovanni Agosti, Nina Artioli, and Nina Bassoli.

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Synthesising Complexity for Regenerative Futures

Exploring the provocation, “How can we leverage architecture’s relationship with computation and algorithms to design transformational practices which, in turn, respond to precarious urban conditions across the world”, this panel discussion references Exhibition participant Alisa Andrasek’s installation Agentic Architecture, a research project committed to tackling systemic planetary challenges through scalable design solutions.
Speakers: Fleur Watson (Associate Professor, School of Architecture, RMIT University), Alisa Andrasek (AIArch, Professor of Architecture, RMIT University), Albert-László Barabási (Robert Gray Dodge Professor of Network, Science and Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University), Claudia Pasquero (Director ecoLogicStudiom and Head of Institute of Urban Design at Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck), Winy Maas (Founding Partner MVRDV).

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Introducing “Restaging Criticism”
Speakers’ Corner (Corderie dell’Arsenale)

Throughout the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, Speakers’ Corner will host “Restaging Criticism,” a dynamic series on the future of architectural media. This kickoff event will look back to the role critics and historians played in the inaugural Biennale Architettura, in 1980; discuss the inspiration for the Speakers’ Corner design by Johnston Marklee; and frame possible futures for architecture criticism.
Speakers: Christopher Hawthorne (Senior Critic, Yale School of Architecture), Mark Lee (Principal and Founding Partner, Johnston Marklee), Florencia Rodriguez (Director and Associate Professor, University of Illinois Chicago).

5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Cities: Lessons from Microbes as Humans Adapt to Rapid Population Decline
Speakers’ Corner (Corderie dell’Arsenale)

In the last hundred years the human population and its energetic burden on the planet grew exponentially. Yet, the global population is projected to decline equally rapidly in less than a generation. Humanity must prepare for the coming deceleration. This multidisciplinary team of Exhibition participants (The Other Side of the Hill) discusses how microbes offer an alternative model for re-imagining urban and planetary futures.
Speakers: Beatriz Colomina (Architectural Historian), Patricia Urquiola (Designer), Mark Wigley (Architectural Historian), Geoffrey West (Theoretical Physicist), Roberto Kolter (Microbiologist).

Friday, May 9
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Intelligens for Urban Regeneration

Urban co-existence of culturally heterogeneous communities, recovery of post-industrial areas, conception of new work spaces as places of community aimed not only at production but also well-being: these are salient themes for the future of cities. With the Nuvola project as one example among many, responses to these challenges are proposed, shared by those who conceive of and design interventions that connect with and complement their surrounding neighborhoods, environments, and communities.
Speakers: Cino Zucchi (Founder CZA Architetti), Francesca Molteni (Founder, MUSE Projects Factory), Francesca Lavazza (Board member, Lavazza Group).
Moderated by Valerio Paolo Mosco (Professor of Architectural History, IUAV).

12:00 noon - 1: 00 pm
Building over time with Intelligens

Building is a complex endeavor, based on the capacity for interaction between different actors, each with unique knowledge and skills different from those of all others. This panel discussion brings experts into conversation around the collective and connective intelligences required to build, and the diverse set of natural, technical, technological, and artificial intelligences that inform construction.
Speakers: Federica Brancaccio (President, ANCE - National Association of Building Constructors), Antonio Di Franco (Secretary General, Fillea CGIL), Derrick De Kherckhove (Sociologist, Scientific Director, Media 2000).
Moderated by Daniele Pittèri (Cultural Manager).

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Between Islands, A Conversation

This event examines Exhibition project Oceanic Refractions as a revolutionary space where technology serves not as colonizer but as connector, linking fragmented island communities and diasporas while challenging the extractive logic of data commodification and reductive victim narratives. The conversation will illuminate how to transform cultural knowledge into a fluid, living archive—where ancestral and contemporary voices resonate against global silence.
Speakers: Elder Simione Sevudredre (Indigenous culturalist and advisor to the Oceanic Refractions project), Amer Kanngieser, Mere Nailatikau.
Moderated by Marina Otero Verzier.

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Restaging Criticism: The Exhibition as Critical Platform

To what extent does, or should, the architecture exhibition operate as a vehicle for architecture criticism and criticality more broadly? What kinds of alliances can we imagine, or bolster, between the critic and curator? Leading critics and architecture curators will gather at Speakers’ Corner to explore these questions.
Speakers: Aric Chen (General and Artistic Director, Nieuwe Institut), Francisco Diaz (Editor General, ARQ Libros), Eva Franch i Gilabert (Professor, UMPRUM the, Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design), Sarah Herda (Director, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts), Lesley Lokko OBE (Founder and Chair, African Futures Institute).
Moderated by Christopher Hawthorne (Senior Critic, Yale School of Architecture) and Florencia Rodriguez (Director and Associate Professor, University of Illinois Chicago).
Introductory remarks will be presented by George McCarthy and Enrique Silva from Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Collective IntelliGens: How Diversity in Architecture Shapes the Future

Architects and contemporary thought leaders will reflect on diversity in architecture during this event promoted by the non-profit organisation Diversity in Architecture (DIVIA). Through the sharing of experiences and knowledge, this platform brings together international voices to help shape a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable built environment.
Speakers: Trần Thị Ngụ Ngôn (Founder, Tropical Space, Vietnam), Patcharada Inplang (Founder, Sher Maker, Thailand), Izaskun Chinchilla (Founder, Izaskun Chinchilla Architects, Spain), Cazú Zegers (Founder, Cazú Zegers Architecture, Chile), Carolina Rodas & Carla Chávez (Founders, Rama Estudio, Ecuador), Martha Thorne (Architecture Consultant and former Pritzker Prize Director, Spain & USA).
Moderated by Julia Roever (DIVIA) and Marina-Elena Wachs (DIVIA).
Introductory and Closing Remarks by Ursula Schwitalla (DIVIA).

Saturday, May 10
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Designing Ecosystems of the Future

The need for innovation and foresight in designing ecosystems supporting both humankind and the planet has never been more urgent. This panel, including Exhibition participants (Space Garden), convenes an invigorating discussion with global thought leaders in architecture exploring design not just for individuals but for entire ecosystems to sustain life on Earth and beyond.
Speakers: Brent Sherwood (Former Blue Origin Senior Vice President, Advanced Development Programs, Former AIAA Space Domain Lead), Ariel Ekblaw (Aurelia Institute Founder and CEO, MIT Space Exploration Initiative Founder), Christopher Hawthorne (Senior Critic, Yale School of Architecture).
Moderated by Deborah Berke (Edward P. Bass Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, founding principal TenBerke Architects).

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Urban Diasporas and Participation: an Experiment Powered with AI Tools from Naples

An interdisciplinary conversation on urban and social transformations, starting from the case of Vela Celeste. Architects, urban planners, sociologists, and innovators will explore the role of mega-architectures, urban diasporas, the return to one’s roots, and the use of artificial intelligence in participatory design. A unique opportunity to imagine new ways of living and building community in the future of our cities.
Welcome address: Gaetano Manfredi, Mayor of the City of Naples (connected via video conference), Michele Di Bari, Prefect of the City of Naples.
Speakers: Alberto Martinelli (Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Sociology at the University of Milan), Laura Lieto (Deputy Mayor and Urban Planning Assessor for the City of Naples), Maria Grazia Falciatore (Chief of the Mayor’s Cabinet for the City of Naples), Catherine De Wolf (Director of the Chair of Circular Engineering for Architecture – CEA at ETH Zurich).

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Restaging Criticism: The L.A. Fires and Architecture in the Age of Climate Shock

Far from anomalies, this winter’s deadly wildfires in Los Angeles reflect a precarious New Normal in the age of climate shock. How might this state of perma-risk reorient architectural practice, citymaking, and the work of architecture criticism? Architects, critics, and theorists gather to discuss.
Speakers: Alejandro Haiek Coll (Founder, The Public Machinery), Christopher Hawthorne (Senior Critic, Yale School of Architecture), Mark Lee (Principal and Founding Partner, Johnston Marklee, Los Angeles), Michael Maltzan (Founder and Principal, Michael Maltzan Architecture, Los Angeles), Ana Rascovsky (Co-Director, Estudio Planta, Buenos Aires).
Moderated by Florencia Rodriguez (Director and Associate Professor, University of Illinois Chicago).

Sunday, May 11
12:00 noon - 1:00 pm
The Relevance of Land in an Era of Adaptation: a Conversation with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

This conversation brings together thought-leaders and practitioners to answer the question: What is the role of land in solving the economic, social, and environmental challenges of our age? Speakers explore the Exhibition themes of natural, artificial, and collective intelligence through the lenses of land and water, land and fiscal systems, and land and communities.
Speakers: John Farner (Executive Director, Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy), Solomon Greene (Executive Director, Land and Communities), Darla Munroe (Executive Director, Research and Cross-Cutting Initiatives), Marta Lora-Tamayo Vallvé (Professor of Administrative Law, UNED).
Moderated by Armando Carbonell (Former Vice President of Programs, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy).

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Restaging Criticism: Critical Futures

What does it mean to produce architecture criticism now? Has the ability to reach new audiences through digital platforms been a Faustian bargain, at the cost of stability for publications and critics alike? Esteemed critics and editors will gather to compare notes and sketch out some possible futures for critical practice at a moment of extreme flux for the field.
Speakers: Shumi Bose (Chief Editor, KoozArch), Sam Jacob (Sam Jacob Studio, London), Samuel Medina (Editor, New York Review of Architecture), Kate Wagner (McMansion Hell and Architecture Critic, The Nation).
Moderated by Christopher Hawthorne (Senior Critic, Yale School of Architecture) and Florencia Rodriguez (Director and Associate Professor, University of Illinois Chicago).

Monday, May 12
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Soft Tactics: Tailored Assemblies

In The Subversive Stitch, historian Rozsika Parker examines how weaving, once relegated to ideas of female domesticity, became a celebrated fine art practice and a critical form of knowledge production. This hands-on session begins with a discussion about weaving and other "soft knowledges" and their applications to architecture as ultra-thin material practices, representations of cultural identities, and forms of collective authorship.
Speakers: Stephanie Rae Lloyd (Assistant Professor, Rhode Island School of Design), Sam Sheffer (Critic, Rhode Island School of Design), Emily Ezquerro (Critic, Rhode Island School of Design), Emma Sheffer (Filmmaker, Channel Films).

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
My Grandfather’s House

An interdisciplinary approach connects personal and public archives, the built environment, urban anthropology, and feminist urbanism to understand the tensions surrounding Argentine democracy. A house, the story of a person, and the history of a country are all explored in conversation.
Speakers: Natalia Dopazo (Urban Planner, Asemblea Desobediente), Carolina Ipes (Associate Director, Urban Design & Masterplanning, Urban & Estate Regeneration, Community Engagement, PRP London).

Tuesday, May 13
2.30 pm - 3:30 pm
Circular Reconstruction and Material Reuse Strategies for Ukraine

Along with Exhibition participants (Circularity on the Edge), this session brings together architects, urbanists, policymakers, and cultural practitioners from Ukraine and across Europe to explore how material reuse can be reimagined through collective intelligence. In the context of Ukraine’s post-war recovery, the panel focuses on the systems, partnerships, and forms of knowledge needed to enable circular practices in real-world reconstruction.
Speakers: Lian Blok (Architect, Dutch Board of Government Advisors, Advisor on nature-inclusive architecture and sustainable urban development), Kateryna Lopatiuk (Researcher and Designer, ReThink; Author and participant in the Circularity on the Edge installation), Piero Petrucco (President, FIEC and Vice-President, ANCE).
Moderated by Roman Puchko (Co-Founder & CEO, ReThink).

Wednesday, May 14
2:00pm - 4:00 pm
Manifesto for the Rights of the Venice Lagoon

The Venice Lagoon represents a unique co-creation between human and non-human intelligens — an evolving, hybrid ecosystem shaped by millennia of interactions, adaptations, and tensions. This two-hour workshop opens up a conversation with architects, activists, policymakers, and the Biennale public, in which we explore how spatial disciplines can respond to more-than-human realities. If nature can hold rights, architects and urbanists cannot remain silent. Their voices — and their actions — are central to how we shape just, livable futures for both humans and non-humans.
Speakers: Venice Lagoon (Nature), Mitchell Joachim (Terreform ONE), Amalia Rossi (IDRA and Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti), Ren Yee (UNStudio), Francesca Tarroco (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, NICHE), Adelita Husni-Bey (TBA21), Elena Longhin (TU Delft, Urban Design), Alex Putzer (IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law), Katja Schechtner (MIT, Senseable City Lab & LCAU).

To access the Corderie dell’Arsenale and the Speakers’ Corner, visitors must hold a valid Exhibition ticket for Biennale Architettura 2025.
Admission to the Biennale Architettura 2025 is not included.