What does it really mean to build in 2025? And more importantly, can we still afford to start from scratch?
At the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Danish Pavilion chooses not to respond with a futuristic model or a theoretical provocation. Instead, it presents a real, tangible construction site that becomes a form of storytelling. Build of Site, the project curated by architect Søren Pihlmann (pihlmann architects), transforms the pavilion into a hybrid between exhibition space and renovation site. A place where materials speak, and every design decision is grounded in the reality of what already exists.
From May to November 2025, visitors will step into a landscape of recycled beams, compacted earth platforms, sand tables, and gelatin surfaces. Yet nothing is ephemeral: everything on view is part of an ongoing renovation of the pavilion itself, which began in 2024 and will continue beyond the Biennale. The idea is simple but resonant: to build an exhibition that doesn’t add to what is already there, but regenerates it. No temporary installations, no waste. The architecture of the pavilion is the message.
“It should be clear to most people by now that, going forward, we’ll have to think constructively with regard to what we’ve already put into the world,” says Pihlmann, “this has been perceived as a limitation. But now should be the time to discuss all the architectural possibilities provided by the ground, the stones, the concrete, or by whatever you find in the place where you’ve been granted the privilege to build upon the world.”
The project is guided by a close reading of the latent potential in materials. Istrian stone tiles are tested one by one to assess their reusability. Sand excavated from beneath the pavilion is mixed with gelatin, a byproduct of the Adriatic fishing industry, to shape surfaces. Existing concrete is scanned using noninvasive techniques to extract structural elements. The process unfolds in collaboration with universities and research institutes in Denmark and Switzerland.
The goal is not simply to assign new value to discarded materials, but to shift the way they are perceived. Each element, wood, stone, sand, clay, is approached not in terms of its original use, but for what it can still contribute to the built environment.
The pavilion becomes an evolving laboratory where high technology, biobased components, and repurposed waste coexist.
The Koch section, built in the 1950s, serves as the operational core of the project. The Brummer section hosts prototypes, studies, and process documentation. A film produced with the Louisiana Channel offers a behind the scenes look at the transformation.
Theoretical grounding comes through the publication Making Matter What Too Often Does Not Matter, a dialogue between Søren Pihlmann and Canadian poet Adam Dickinson.
In a time defined by climate urgency and material scarcity, the project shows that architecture can be both a critical practice and a concrete act, always rooted in matter and in place.
