Biennale Architettura 2025: Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.

The 19^th International Architecture Exhibition, titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., curated by Carlo Ratti and organised by La Biennale di Venezia, will open to the public from Saturday May 10 to Sunday November 23, 2025, at the Giardini, the Arsenale and at the Forte Marghera. The pre-opening will take place on May 8 and 9; the awards ceremony and inauguration will be held on Saturday May 10, 2025.

THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF THE CURATOR
«Architecture has always been a response to a hostile climate. From the earliest "primitive hut," human design has been led by the need for shelter and survival, driven by optimism: our creations have always strived to bridge the gap between a harsh environment and the safe, livable spaces we require.» Carlo Ratti stated.

«Today, that dynamic approach is being taken to a new level - as climate becomes less forgiving. In the fires of Los Angeles, in the floods of Valencia and Sherpur, in the droughts of Sicily, we have witnessed first-hand how water and fire are attacking us with unprecedented ferocity. The year 2024 marked a grim milestone as Earth registered its hottest temperatures on record, pushing global averages beyond the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C target. In just two years, climate change has accelerated in ways that defy even the best scientific models.»

«For decades, architecture’s response to the climate crisis has been centered on mitigation—designing to reduce our impact on the climate. But that approach is no longer enough. The time has come for architecture to embrace adaptation: rethinking how we design for an altered world.»

«Adaptation demands a fundamental shift in our practice. This year’s Exhibition Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. invites different types of intelligence to work together to rethink the built environment. The very Latin title Intelligens contains the word gens (“people”) - inviting us to experiment beyond today’s limited focus on AI and digital technologies.»

«In the time of adaptation, architecture is at the center and must lead with optimism. In the time of adaptation, architecture needs to draw on all forms of intelligence – natural, artificial, collective. In the time of adaptation, architecture needs to reach out across generations and across disciplines - from the hard sciences to the arts. In the time of adaptation, architecture must rethink authorship and become more inclusive, learning from science.»

«Architecture must become as flexible and dynamic as the world we are now designing for».

A) Intelligens serves as a dynamic laboratory, uniting experts across various forms of intelligence. For the first time, the Exhibition features over 750 participants: architects and engineers, mathematicians and climate scientists, philosophers and artists, chefs and coders, writers and woodcarvers, farmers and fashion designers, and many more. Adaptation demands inclusivity and collaboration.

B) Curating on such a large scale required a fundamental shift in approach. The selection process has been open and bottom-up, guided by an interdisciplinary curatorial team. The Space for Ideas, our open call for projects from May 7 to June 21, 2024, generated an overwhelming global response. The flood of submissions was both thrilling and daunting, but it allowed us to discover fresh, lesser-known voices that might otherwise have been missed.

C) The resulting participant pool spans generations—from seasoned professionals still innovating at ninety to recent graduates just beginning their careers. Pritzker Prize winners, former La Biennale di Venezia Curators, Nobel laureates, Royal Professors appear alongside emerging architects and researchers. This inclusion reflects our commitment to a diverse range of perspectives.

D) This richness of contributions calls for a new approach to authorship. Intelligens challenges the tradition of the architect as the sole creator, with other professionals relegated to supporting roles. We propose a more inclusive authorship model, inspired by scientific research. In the time of adaptation, all voices driving design must be recognized and credited.

E) In the era of adaptation, La Biennale di Venezia must collaborate with other institutions. Intelligens has forged connections with other global Institutions, the UN's COP30 in Belem, C40, the Davos Baukultur Alliance, the Soft Power Club, and many others. Its public program, GENS, will host a chorus of events and conversations, engaging audiences both large and small.

THE CORDERIE
«The Corderie opens with a stark confrontation: global temperatures rise while global populations fall. This is the reality architects must face in a time of adaptation. From here – explains Ratti - visitors will traverse three thematic worlds: Natural Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, and Collective Intelligence. The Exhibition culminates in Out, and asks: can we look to space as a solution to the crises we face on Earth? Our answer is no—space exploration is not a way out but a means to improve life here, on the only home we know.»
«Each section is conceived as a modular, fractal space—an organism that links large and small-scale projects, creating a web of dialogue. The Exhibition design by architecture and design office Sub, directed by Niklas Bildstein Zaar, and the graphic design by Bänziger Hug Kasper Florio mirrors the interconnectedness we need to survive. Digital layers amplify and expand conversations, adding a new dimension to the exhibition.»

VENICE AS A LIVING LAB
«With the venue of the Central Pavilion under renovation in 2025, Venice will not just host the Biennale Architettura—it will become a living laboratory. The city itself – one of the most imperiled on Earth in the face of a changing climate—will serve as the backdrop for a new kind of Exhibition, where installations, prototypes, and experiments are scattered across the Giardini, the Arsenale and other neighborhoods».

«Intelli/Gens. To build the world with intelligence, listening to the intelligence of the world. This is what Carlo Ratti wishes to say in his visionary Exhibition, the very title of which announces its intention to be a foundational reflection for the near futures, the subject of study and debate for the scientific and artistic community and for the public of visitors.»

«Future time is indeed Carlo Ratti’s project and thinking. His unique vision transcends the contemporary – which is the time of divestment – to make architecture, man’s shelter since the dawn of time, the ability to dwell in the world.

In the dialectical arena of the various disciplines, constellated with algorithms that he consults as newly-minted oracles, Ratti deciphers what we are and what will be – as individuals and as society – in the the digital stream that leads into our tomorrow, the time of all of us Gens bestowed with Intelligence. And while intelligence is the foundation of the individual’s evolutionary process, in the most noble sense of their being civis (a third declension noun thus both masculine and feminine), architecture is the space in which it may be wielded, in a constant negotiation with the territory. Through functions, symbols and relationships, intelligence generates architecture guided by ethical, aesthetic and ecological principles. It is no coincidence that the Greek word oikos means both a “home” to live in and an “environment” that surrounds us».

Eight projects have been selected for the second edition of Biennale College Architettura 2024/25: Joelle Deeb (Syrian Arab Republic), Jia Wei Huang (Malaysia), Caterina Miralles Tagliabue (Spain), Agnes Thomasina Parker (Great Britain), Lucia Rebolino (Italy), Tanvi Khurmi (Canada), Rita Espinha Dos Santos Abreu Morais (Portugal), Florian Kilian Jaritz (Germany), Franziska Gödicke (Germany), Jaakko Julius Heikkilä (Finland), Emil Oscar Lyytikkä (Finland).

The goal of the College Architettura 2025 is to complement the 19th International Architecture Exhibition with a research laboratory for the development and production of projects using natural, artificial and collective intelligence to fight the climate crisis. Over 200 students, graduate students and emerging practitioners under the age of 30 from 49 countries around the world have joined the call for participation.

The eight projects will receive a grant of 20,000 euros for the realization of the final work. The works will be presented, out of competition, as part of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., curated by Carlo Ratti.

NATIONAL PARTICIPATIONS
66 National Participations will organize their exhibitions in the historic Pavilions at the Giardini (26), at the Arsenale (22) and in the city centre of Venice (15).
4 are the new Participations: Republic of Azerbaijan, Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Togo.

ITALIAN PAVILION
The Italian Pavilion at the Tese delle Vergini in the Arsenale, sponsored and promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, is curated by Guendalina Salimei with the project TERRÆ AQUÆ. L’Italia e l’intelligenza del mare.

HOLY SEE
The Holy See Pavilion, promoted by Prefetto del Dicastero per la Cultura e l’Educazione della Santa Sede, Cardinale José Tolentino de Mendonça, this year will be held in the Complesso di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice (Fondamenta S. Gioacchin, Castello 450). The exhibition is titled "Opera aperta" and curated by Marina Otero Verzier and Giovanna Zabotti.

VENICE PAVILION
The City of Venice participates with the historical Venice Pavilion at the Giardini, with the exhibition titled Biblioteche. Costruendo l’intelligenza veneziana. The Venice Pavilion will have its own emanation in other institutional spaces and in the premises of the Università IUAV di Venezia.

COLLATERAL EVENTS
The Collateral Events, which are admitted by the Curator and promoted by non–profit national and international bodies and institutions, will be announced in the coming weeks. Organized in several locations around the city of Venice, they offer a wide range of contributions and participations that enrich the diversity of voices that characterizes the Exhibition.  

SPECIAL PROJECTS realised by La Biennale di Venezia
The project Margherissima, exhibited inside the Austrian armoury (Polveriera austriaca), Forte Marghera in Mestre, focuses in the area of Marghera and the contaminated territory located near Ponte della Libertà. It is designed by Nigel Coates, Michael Kevern, Guan Lee, John Maybury and Jan Bunge, participants in the International Exhibition competition.

La Biennale di Venezia and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London present for the ninth consecutive year the Applied Arts Pavilion Special Project titled On Storage, curated by Brendan Cormier, in collaboration with Diller, Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). It explores the global architecture of storage in service of the circulation of things, and features a newly commissioned six-channel film directed by DS+R.

BIENNALE SESSIONS: the project for Universities
On the occasion of the 19^th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia dedicates the project Biennale Sessions to Universities, Academies of Fine Arts, and other Institutes of Higher Learning. The project aims at providing them with special conditions to organize three days-visits for groups of 50 or more students and faculty members; it also offers logistical assistance in organising their stay in Venice, and the possibility of holding workshops free of charge in the educational spaces located in the exhibition venues. As of today, 24 Italian institutions have joined the project, 20 foreign institutions and 6 institutions involved in the programme through a joint project with DASTU-Politecnico di Milano.

EDUCATIONAL
La Biennale di Venezia’s education programme includes education proposals addressed to the audiences of its Exhibitions and Festivals, such as university students and faculty members, schools, families, art and architecture lovers and beyond.
In the past two years, Biennale Architettura 2023 and Biennale Arte 2024 had 131.509 participants in Education activities, amongst whom 72,125 were young people. These figures show that education activities are appreciated and essential for different types of audiences.
A broad Educational programme will be offered in 2025 as well, addressing itself to individuals and groups of students, children, adults, families, professionals, companies, and universities. All these initiatives aim to an actively involve participants. They are conducted by professional operators, carefully trained by La Biennale, and they fall under the following categories: Guided Itineraries and Workshop Activities and Interactive Initiatives, tours that combine a workshop part with the visit, which can take place in the designated spaces or directly in the Exhibition route.

The official catalogue, titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., consists in two volumes. Volume I of the catalogue is dedicated to the International Exhibition curated by Carlo Ratti, and is divided in two parts. Part one, titled Intelligens, is dedicated to presenting the sections of the Exhibition: Intro, Natural Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Collective Intelligence and Out. Each project on display in the Exhibition is accompanied by a critical text and a rich apparatus of photographs. Part two of the volume, titled Venice as a Living Lab, presents “a number of special projects that will leverage Venice and the outdoor areas of the Biennale Exhibition venues as a Living Lab – living laboratories, merging interacting formas of intelligence”. The volume is enriched with a series of critical essays and “Impossible Conversations” that explore the themes of the Exhibition in dept. Volume II presents the Na­tional Participations and the Collateral Events: it includes a series of illustrated texts that explore the projects proposed by National Pavilions and the Collateral Events at the Giardini, the Arsenale and in various spaces throughout Venice.

The graphic identity of the Biennale Architettura 2025 and the design of the publications are by Bänziger Hug Kasper Florio. The volumes are published by Edizioni La Biennale di Venezia.

Since 2021, La Biennale di Venezia launched a plan to reconsider all of its activities in light of recognized and consolidated principles of environmental sustainability. In 2022 La Biennale obtained the carbon neutrality certification for all the events it held that year. This was made possible by carefully collecting the data on the causes of CO2 emissions generated by the events themselves, and on the adoption of consequent measures. The entire process for achieving, was conducted in compliance with the international standard PAS2060.

For the year 2025, the goal is to obtain the “carbon neutrality” certification in accordance with the new ISO 14068 standard, for all of La Biennale’s scheduled activities: the 82^nd Venice International Film Festival, the Theatre, Music and Dance Festivals and, in particular, the 19^th International Architecture Exhibition. For all the events, the most important component of the overall carbon footprint involves the mobility of the visitors. In this sense, La Biennale will engage again in 2025 in a communication campaign to raise the awareness of the participating public.

A Circular Economy Manifesto launched by Carlo Ratti, with guidance from Arup and input from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, strengthens La Biennale's commitment to this goal, promoting an increasingly sustainable model for the design, installation and operation of all its activities and events. The challenge is to create pavilions and spaces that are examples of a bold circular thinking that offer a lasting sustainability legacy. The goal is to eliminate waste, circulate materials and regenerate natural systems proving that architecture and our built environment can coexist harmoniously with our planet.

Biennale Architettura 2025 has been made possible by the support of Rolex, Partner and Official Timepiece of the event.

We would like to thank the Sponsors of Biennale Architettura 2025:
Bloomberg Philanthropies, Vela - Venezia Unica, Hydro and Gruppo Saviola.

We would also like to thank Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.

Rai is the Media Partner of the 19^th International Architecture Exhibition and will follow the event with a dedicated offer on TV, radio and on the web​.

We would like to thank the Ministry of Culture, the local institutions that support La Biennale in various ways, the City of Venice, the Veneto Region, the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per il Comune di Venezia e Laguna, the Italian Navy and the Museo Storico Navale di Venezia.

We thank the important international Donors, organisations and institutions who are essentials to the creation of the 19^th Exhibition.

We especially wish to thank Carlo Ratti and his entire team.

Finally, we would also like thank the highly professional staff of La Biennale, who work with such great dedication on the organisation and management of the Exhibition.