From May 10 to November 23, 2025, the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale will unfold across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and Forte Marghera. Curated by Carlo Ratti, the edition is titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.
The title refers to the three types of intelligence that shape this year’s reflection; in response to the urgency of the theme, several national pavilions and collateral projects turn their attention to materials, techniques, and tools of making. For designers, material innovators, and anyone drawn to production, the 19th Biennale offers speculative prototypes, installations, workshops, and reimagined traditions that can inform sustainable ideas for the future.
What kind of climate awaits us in 2050? And further ahead, in 2150? For Carlo Ratti, this is the starting point for rethinking how we design the spaces and objects we live with. With images of cities like Los Angeles and Valencia facing extreme weather, Venice becomes a launchpad for examining the future—and the responsibility embedded in design.
Designing objects, interiors, and systems for a changing world means challenging long-held priorities, embracing new materials and models, and finding a balance between aesthetics and adaptability. In this context, the Biennale becomes a platform for reframing design as an ecological, political, and cultural practice.
Pavilions, Projects, and Exhibitions Testing Ideas for the Future
Among the many proposals on view, here is a selection of a number of pavilions and projects that stand out for those working in design, materials, and production processes.
These are spaces where experimentation takes on tangible forms, and where formal research is closely tied to a deeper reflection on resources, technology, and the environmental challenges of our time.
Lavaforming, Iceland Pavillion
Can destruction become a creative act? According to the Icelandic Pavilion, yes. With Lavaforming, a project by architect Arnhildur Pálmadóttir, founder of s.ap architects, lava is no longer seen purely as a destructive force but as a resource with potential.
The idea is both radical and unexpected: using controlled lava flows to produce sustainable building materials. Rooted in Iceland’s specific geological conditions, the pavilion explores how molten rock, a symbol of extreme transformation, could reduce the environmental impact of construction. It is an approach that connects landscape, risk, and innovation, opening up new directions for material design.
On Storage, Pavillion of Applied Arts
The Pavilion of Applied Arts is a collaboration between La Biennale di Venezia and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Its aim is to explore the relationship between architecture, design, and the applied arts through a contemporary lens.
For the 2025 edition, it presents On Storage, an exhibition curated by Brendan Cormier featuring a new six-channel film by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The show investigates the architecture of logistics, mapping out spaces like warehouses, archives, and distribution centers to reveal the hidden infrastructures that keep the global flow of objects in motion.
Build of Site, Danish Pavilion
With Build of Site, the Danish Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale puts reuse and maintenance at the center of a more sustainable architectural practice. Curated by Søren Pihlmann, the project turns the pavilion into an active construction site, testing hyper-local techniques to recover and repurpose materials already present in the building.
In collaboration with universities and international research centers, the exhibition blends advanced technologies with bio-based binders to give new value to discarded materials and promote a circular approach. It is a work in progress that becomes an aesthetic, technical, and cultural narrative about building today.
Building Biospheres, Belgian Pavilion
The Belgian Pavilion, commissioned by the Flemish government and curated by the Flanders Architecture Institute, takes the form of a living laboratory with the exhibition Building Biospheres. Conceived by landscape architect Bas Smets, climatologist Valerie Trouet, and biologist Stefano Mancuso, the project explores how architecture can evolve by drawing from plant intelligence.
Buildings are imagined as artificial microclimates, where vegetation is not just ornamental but plays an active role in purifying air, regulating temperature, and improving the livability of urban environments. The result is an experiment that brings together science, ecology, and design.
Diagrams: A Project by AMO/OMA, Fondazione Prada
For the 2025 Architecture Biennale, the Venice outpost of Fondazione Prada, Ca’ Corner della Regina, hosts an exhibition designed by AMO/OMA under the direction of Rem Koolhaas. The project is entirely dedicated to the diagram, approached as both a cognitive tool and a universal system of representation.
Drawing on diverse materials—from the seventh century to the present and from a range of geographic contexts—the exhibition builds a thematic map of contemporary urgencies, revealing their recurring and cross-cutting nature. The diagram becomes a lens for reading conflict, political processes, and social transformation, as well as a call for awareness and agency.
