A jury of arts and architecture professionals recently announced the selected curatorial proposal for the Luxembourg Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2027. The exhibition will be curated by housing expert Céline Zimmer and architects Bùi Quý Sơn and Paul-Antoine Lucas, co-founders of the critical spatial practice Exutoire, one of the winning practices of the ArchDaily 2026 Next Practices Awards. The proposal is titled "Excess! On the Overconsumption of Living Space" and addresses the inequitable distribution of living space as a reflection of "broader habits of excess that contribute to the current housing and ecological crises." The issue will be illustrated through a dialogue between the realities of Luxembourg and Vietnam to reflect on spatial consumption. The Luxembourg Pavilion is located on the first floor of the Sale d'Armi in the Arsenale, which will open to the public for the Biennale on May 8, 2027.
According to the European Housing Coop, Luxembourg's housing supply is structured around a dual system split between a high-cost private market and a strictly regulated, publicly subsidized sector. From a holistic perspective, "Excess!" expands on the implications of demographic and economic growth in a world of finite ecological resources, in light of the country's high per capita housing floor area. The exhibition will share space and resources with Vietnam, bringing into dialogue the realities of Luxembourg, one of Europe's richest countries, a small parliamentary democracy in the form of a constitutional monarchy, with those of Vietnam, one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economies and a one-party Communist state. The curatorial team seeks to open up conversations and learn from intersecting perspectives, drawing on professional experience in housing systems and realities, social justice through design, and queer theory in architecture.
Bùi Quý Sơn is a Vietnamese architect and researcher, and co-founder of the Hanoi-based critical spatial practice Exutoire. Exutoire was named one of the 20 winning practices in the ArchDaily 2026 Next Practices Awards, recognized for bringing underrepresented perspectives into architectural discourse and examining established assumptions about how environments are produced and inhabited. Paul-Antoine Lucas is a Hanoi-based architect and researcher interested in housing, social justice through design, and queer theory in architecture. Together with Bùi Quý Sơn, he co-founded the queer critical spatial practice Exutoire in 2019. They published their first book in 2025 with Ruby Press, titled Housing, Micropolitics, and Pedagogies: Designing and Practicing Collectivity. Céline Zimmer is a researcher, housing expert, and activist from Luxembourg. Her research examines housing affordability and the potential of the cooperative housing model, a largely underexplored concept in Luxembourg's housing policy. In 2026, she founded Eist Neit Wunnen Agence, an agency promoting and facilitating the large-scale implementation of housing cooperatives in Luxembourg.
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"Do Architecture": Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu Announce Theme and Title for 2027 Venice Architecture BiennaleThe jury was composed of Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, and Alice Loumeau, curators of the 2025 Luxembourg Pavilion; Maribel Casas, director of LUCA – Luxembourg Center for Architecture; Aslı Çiçek, associate professor at Hasselt University's Faculty of Architecture and Arts and visiting professor at Ghent University's Department of Architecture and Urbanism, and editor of OASE; Sophie Dars, architect, professor, and co-founder of Accattone Magazine; Michelle Friederici, president of the Luxembourg Order of Architects and Consulting Engineers; Claudine Hemmer, advisor for visual arts and architecture at Luxembourg's Ministry of Culture; Pamela Medina Lopez, project manager for biennials, festivals, and fairs; and Eléonore Mialonier, head of architecture, design, and crafts at Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg.
The upcoming Venice Architecture Biennale will be open to visitors from May 8 to November 21, 2027. The 20th edition is titled "Do Architecture — For the Possibility of Coexistence Facing a Real Reality," curated by Amateur Architecture Studio founders Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu. Other national pavilions responding to the curatorial call include the German Pavilion, examining coexistence and democracy through "CONVIVERE"; the Ukrainian Pavilion, examining displacement and shared space through "Pool of Questions"; and the Türkiye Pavilion, examining reuse and memory through "Spolia Futures."
