Venice Biennale: The Latest Architecture and News

Architect Andrea Faraguna is the curator of the Kingdom of Bahrain's national pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale. The exhibition, titled Heatwave, is a site-specific installation that explores passive cooling strategies for public spaces, inspired by Bahrain's traditional architecture and reimagined through contemporary approaches. Its technical response to the global challenge of rising urban temperatures was recognized by the Biennale's international jury, which awarded it this year's Golden Lion for Best National Participation. While on site in Venice, ArchDaily's editors had a chance to discuss with curator Andrea Faraguna about the context that gave rise to the pavilion, the mechanisms put in place, and his perspective on events such as the Venice Architecture Biennale.

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Titled Paraíso, hoje. [Paradise, today.], the exhibition representing Portugal at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia addresses architecture as a cultural construction of landscape. Curated by architects Paula Melâneo, Pedro Bandeira, and Luca Martinucci, landscape architect Catarina Raposo, and video artist Nuno Cera, it offers an immersive installation featuring videos created using new digital technologies and artificial intelligence, along with an Atlas of images. Together, they construct a critical exploration of the proposed theme, the allegory of a "Paradise." This year, the Portuguese exhibition changed location, moving from Palazzo Franchetti to the Fondaco Marcello building, next to Venice's Grand Canal. It will remain open to visitors and host a series of debates until 23 November 2025.

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The Kingdom of Bahrain's Heatwave exhibition, curated by architect Andrea Faraguna has been announced as the winner of the Golden Lion for the Best National Participation at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. The winner has been selected by an international jury comprising of Swiss curator, critic, and art historian Hans Ulrich Obrist as jury chair, South African architect, lecturer, and curator Mpho Matsipa, and Italian curator Paola Antonelli. The awards ceremony is broadcast live from the headquarters of the Biennale at Ca'Giustinian. The pavilion stands out for addressing the pressing issue of extreme heat through a site-specific installation that showcases passive cooling strategies rooted in Bahrain's climatic realities and cultural context.

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As one of the most important and visited contemporary architecture exhibitions worldwide, the Venice Architecture Biennale extends beyond the grounds of the Giardini and the Arsenale, aiming to engage the entire city in discussions on relevant issues, challenges, and opportunities within the architectural profession. This year's Biennale, curated by Carlo Ratti, explores the theme "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective," inviting visitors to consider how architecture, technology, and nature intersect to shape the future.

As part of this year's event, 11 collateral exhibitions organized by various national and international institutions offer a range of perspectives on topics such as sustainability, cultural landscapes, and adaptive architecture. These exhibitions, spread throughout Venice, contribute to the broader conversation on the evolving role of architecture in addressing global challenges and promoting a more sustainable and interconnected future.

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The Kingdom of Bahrain's national pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia was awarded this year's Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Titled Heatwave, the exhibition was curated by architect Andrea Faraguna and located in the historic Artiglierie of the Arsenale. Through a site-specific installation, Heatwave reimagines the design of public space by exploring passive cooling strategies rooted in Bahrain's climatic realities and cultural context. The project's aim, to offer a speculative yet grounded architectural response to the environmental urgency shaping urban life today, was recognized by the Biennale's international jury, which praised its "viable proposals for extreme heat conditions."

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The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia opens in less than two weeks, on May 10, 2025, and will remain open to the public until November 23. On the day of the opening, the official Awards Ceremony will take place, during which a selected international jury will confer several official prizes, including the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. The recently announced jury includes South African architect, lecturer, and curator Mpho Matsipa; Italian curator Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator and Director of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York; and Swiss curator, critic, and art historian Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine in London, who will serve as President of the Jury.

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Built on a cluster of 118 small islands in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, the city of Venice, Italy, has captivated the imagination of architects and tourists alike. The area has been inhabited since ancient times, becoming a major financial and maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as proven through the rich architecture that characterizes the city to this day. With influences from the Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance styles, the city represents a palimpsest of architectural narratives, overlapping and influencing each other. In recent years, Venice has become a major attraction for architects drawn to the La Biennale di Venezia, the most important Architectural Exhibition featuring national pavilions, exhibitions, and events to explore new concepts and architectural innovations.

Beyond the Biennale, Venice itself is an open-air museum for architecture lovers. While the city is best known for its historical buildings, Modernist and contemporary interventions add a new layer of interest, with many contemporary architects working with the historical fabric, like OMA's intervention and rehabilitation of Fondaco dei Tedeschi, or David Chipperfield's renovation of Procuratie Vecchie, one of the buildings that define Piazza San Marco. In addition to what the city has to offer, the site of the Venice Biennale is also marked by interventions by famous architects such as Carlo Scarpa, Sverre Fehn, and Alvar Aalto, made permanent due to their outstanding qualities.

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At the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia 2025, the collateral event titled "NON-Belief: Taiwan Intelligens of Precarity" is curated by Cheng-Luen Hsueh and co-curators Ping-Sheng Wu, Meng-Tsun Su, and Sung-Chang Leo Chiang, working alongside a team from the NCKU Department of Architecture. In line with the Biennale's main theme, "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.", the exhibition explores the idea of "precarious intelligens," a form of resilience shaped by the intersection of natural disasters, geopolitical challenges, globalization, and an uncertain future.

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As a result of the ideas competition organized by the governments of Sweden, Finland, and Norway in 1958, Sverre Fehn's Nordic Pavilion won first prize, becoming one of the most significant works of his career and one of the most outstanding Scandinavian architectural achievements during the mid-20th century. Designed to create a space at the Venice Biennale for the biennial exhibitions of these countries, Fehn's proposal addressed several key architectural challenges—ranging from its integration with the site and incorporation of pre-existing elements to the handling of physical boundaries and uniform natural lighting. His design explored the interaction between architecture and trees, the flexibility in the exhibition space, the filtering of light, the connection between interior and exterior, the concept of movement through space, and the display of artworks.

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The Lithuanian Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale presents Archi / Tree / tecture, a project by the National Architects Association. Commissioned by Juratė Tutlyte and curated by architect Gintaras Balčytis, the exhibition invites architects, students, communities, and visitors to reflect on the deep connections between architecture and urban nature. It positions the discipline as an interpretive medium that reveals the layered relationships shaping our cities, which in turn reflect these dynamic interactions. The proposal evokes an urban memory rooted in landscapes where fields and trees once stood, introducing the dimension of time into discussions on city ecosystems, sustainability, and resilience. The exhibition, an indoor installation designed by architects Paulius Vaitiekūnas, Andrius Pukis, and Vika Pranaitytė, will be set within the Church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti. The audiovisual and light installation in the pavilion was designed by the interdisciplinary art duo Lina Pranaitytė and Urtė Pakers, while the sculptural component of the installation was created by Kęstutis Lanauskas.

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Videos

The national exhibition of Uruguay at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, titled "53.86% Uruguay, Land of Water," explores the intrinsic relationship between architecture, territory, and water. Curated by architects Katia Sei Fong and Ken Sei Fong, along with visual artist Luis Sei Fong, the exhibition proposes that we may be entering the age of water, the "Hydrocene", and that the way humanity manages and conserves this resource will shape its future. In this context, the project highlights that Uruguay's maritime territory (53.86%) is larger than its land territory. Water, therefore, is not only a natural resource but a fundamental element of the country's history and culture, essential to its development.

The Bulgarian contribution to the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale is an experimental installation titled Pseudonature, situated at the intersection of nature and technology, reality and simulation. Curated by architect and designer Iassen Markov, the project explores the future of sustainability in a world where natural processes are increasingly mediated by artificial intelligence and human intervention. The exhibition features an outdoor installation that exposes technological and climate paradoxes and an interior space designed as a reimagined traditional Bulgarian room. Outside, physical interventions disrupt natural balances, highlighting the fragile interplay between technology and the environment. Inside, the space shifts to a setting for contemplation, where restoring equilibrium becomes a collective and introspective challenge.

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"Living Scaffolding" is the name of the proposal selected to represent Peru at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by architects Alex Hudtwalcker, Sebastián Cillóniz, and Gianfranco Morales, along with historian José Ignacio Beteta, the exhibition tells the story of a totora reed raft that, in 1988, embarked on a sea journey to other ports in South America and Polynesia. Its unprecedented expedition began on the Peruvian coast south of Lima and lasted 54 days at sea. The raft was the result of a collective, handcrafted effort and a significant structural challenge. The exhibition aims to highlight the importance of ancestral knowledge in addressing such challenges, celebrate materials essential to Peruvian cultural heritage, and expose the value of collective intelligence.

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The Luxembourg pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale will offer visitors an experience focused entirely on sound. Sonic Investigations, curated by architects Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, and Alice Loumeau, is an immersive invitation to shift focus from the visual to the sonic. The sound installation, located in the Arsenale's Sale d'Armi, is based on a practical and theoretical investigation that re-examines the country's territory through field recordings capturing a range of sounds from biological, geological, and anthropogenic sources woven into the landscape. The installation creates an embodied experience of space, emphasizing the value of sensorial approaches in spatial practices and exploring the question: How can we reveal the entangled character of specific contemporary situations in Luxembourg?

Nieuwe Instituut, the national museum and institute for architecture, design, and digital culture in the Netherlands, has opened the Dutch Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. This year, the Giardini pavilion, designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1953, is transformed into a sports bar. Titled "SIDELINED: A Space to Rethink Togetherness", the exhibition is curated by Amanda Pinatih, Design & Contemporary Art Curator at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, in collaboration with social designer Gabriel Fontana. Through a queer lens, the project examines sport as an architectural system that regulates spaces, bodies, and behavior, offering an alternative perspective on societal norms related to gender, identity, and group dynamics.

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Out of 45 participating submissions for Chile's Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, the winning proposal has been recently announced. 'Reflective Intelligences,' the curatorial project by Serena Dambrosio, architect, researcher, and lecturer at Universidad Diego Portales; Nicolás Díaz Bejarano, architect, researcher, lecturer, and PhD candidate in Architecture and Urban Studies at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; and Linda Schilling Cuellar, architect, urban designer,educator and doctoral candidate at the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths University.

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"There Is Nothing to See Here" is the title of the exhibition hosted in the Hungarian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. Since 2015, the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art has managed and organized both the temporary exhibition and the building. This year, it presents an alternative vision for the future of the profession. Curated by creative director and assistant professor Márton Pintér, in collaboration with Ingrid Manhertz, András Graf, and Júlia Böröndy, founder of the platform Women in Architecture (WIA), the exhibition will showcase the work of 12 architecture professionals who apply their expertise in fields beyond the profession.

During a live presentation for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, curator Carlo Ratti offered a glimpse into the programming of this year's edition. The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale will include 66 National Pavilions, with 4 countries represented for the first time: the Republic of Azerbaijan, Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, and Togo. The exhibition, divided between the Giardini (26), at the Arsenale (22) and in the city center of Venice (15), explores the theme of "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective", gathering over 750 participants, including individuals and organizations forming interdisciplinary and multigenerational teams. According to the numbers released, this year's edition is shaping up to become the largest Architecture Biennale held in Venice.

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