2025 Venice Architecture Biennale 1-Day Visit

This year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, under the theme “Intelligens: Designing with Nature”, focuses on the relationship architecture establishes with nature, technology, and society. As two architects, after staying for two nights on the Mestre side of Venice, we took the vaporetto in the morning and spent a full day exploring both the Giardini and Arsenale areas of the Biennale. It was an exhausting but truly inspiring experience. Themes we are particularly interested in—such as digital architecture, sustainability, education and healthcare architecture, and even space architecture—were frequently present throughout the exhibitions.

Our Route

We started early in the morning at Giardini and moved to Arsenale around noon. This order makes sense for anyone interested in Venetian architecture, as Giardini hosts more national pavilions that are physically scattered, whereas Arsenale offers a more linear and extended exhibition structure.

Standout Pavilions and Themes in My View

🇺🇸 ABD Pavilion: “Porch – An Architecture of Generosity”

An interpretation of spatial generosity through the culture of the porch. Modular platforms built from wood and compressed earth were both architecturally and socially impactful. I liked that the exhibition wasn’t just a display but also a living space open to social interaction. Also, the quality of the models was truly inspiring.

🇩🇪 Germany: “Open for Maintenance”

A culture of maintenance, repair, and co-production... The pavilion is built from leftover materials from previous Biennales. It offers a “living exhibition” that puts sustainability into direct practice through repair workshops conducted daily by different teams. It invites you to be an active, not passive, participant.

🇫🇮🇳🇴🇸🇪 Nordic Pavilion: “Industry Muscle”

A study on the representation of the body—particularly trans and hybrid bodies—in postmodern architecture. The installations include audio narratives, collages, and lightweight metal structures. Among all pavilions, this building was my favorite. The use of concrete was genuinely beautiful—simple and elegant.

🇨🇦 Canada: “Picoplanktonics”

Perhaps one of the most innovative projects at the Biennale. “Living” structures made with 3D printing technology containing cyanobacteria are exhibited. These microorganisms capture carbon—meaning the structures breathe. An exciting example of architecture's relationship with biological evolution. I hope to witness these types of buildings being constructed in the future.

🇪🇸 Spain:"Internalities: Architectures for Territorial Equilibrium"

This pavilion focuses on rethinking the externalities of architecture—waste, carbon emissions, energy use, material cycles, and labor—within the context of ecological balance. Its goal is to establish a sustainable link between ecology and economy. That’s why the exhibition emphasizes local materials, traditional craftsmanship, and low-carbon processes. This was the pavilion I liked the most. Truly like a three-dimensional Pinterest board—full of wonderful models and carefully selected projects.

🇹🇷 Turkey : “Grounded”

Don’t be disappointed if you can’t find the Turkey Pavilion in Giardini—it’s located at the end of the characteristic stone corridor in Arsenale. The exhibit rethinks the relationship between architecture and earth. With “Earth” as its theme, the pavilion presents soil as a living entity—a part of the ecosystem, a memory archive, and a cultural repository. The exhibition allows visitors to experience the texture, smell, and sound of soil in a sensory and immersive way.

Biotopia Theme in Arsenale: The Transformative Power of Architecture

The main exhibition at Arsenale, “Biotopia,” approaches architecture not just as the production of physical space but as a tool for social transformation. It challenges us to consider architecture not merely as building, but as a practice of repair. The Biennale’s curator, Carlo Ratti, builds the structure of the exhibitions around three axes—natural intelligence, artificial intelligence, and collective intelligence.

The Natural, Artificial, Collective triad encourages thinking about ecology, technology, and humanity in a balanced relationship. This area was filled with structures inspired by biological systems, post-disaster reconstruction projects, models of collective production, and examples of sustainable craftsmanship. It wasn’t enough to just view the exhibitions—you had to reflect, and sometimes even confront your own ideas. Some rooms were made almost unbearably hot to highlight the severity of climate change.

Our Main Takeaway from Arsenale

This Biennale reminds us that architecture is not just about objects—it is also about sensitivity, contribution, and collective healing.

So what do you think—how much are we as architects really able to do this in practice? And how much will we be able to in the future? How do you see the future of architecture?

Did you also attend the Biennale? If so, which parts caught your attention the most?

Let’s talk in the comments. :)