Circularity Handbook Installation at the INTELLIGENS exhibition in Venice – All images are courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia 2025.

Architecture. How can architecture become a catalyst for adaptation and change in the face of today’s social and environmental crises? This is the poignant question posed by architect, engineer, and innovator Carlo Ratti, who curates the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. The 19th International Architecture exhibition, from May 10 to November 23, is titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. It explores a new collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to making a difference. We preview some of the highlights of the show.

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Co-Poiesis at the INTELLIGENS exhibition in Venice.

The core of the Intelligens exhibition takes place at the Corderie in the Arsenale. Various site-specific installations, prototypes, and experiments will be distributed throughout the Giardini and the city of Venice. This year, the Central Pavilion at Giardini will be closed for renovation.

At Corderie, visitors will navigate three thematic realms: Natural Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, and Collective Intelligence. Each section is designed as a modular, fractal environment that connects large and small-scale projects.

The Other Side installation.

The opening questions are simple but urgent: What will tomorrow’s climate look like? How will shifting populations reshape the world? A multidisciplinary team, including artist Michelangelo Pistoletto and German climate engineering office Transsolar, presents a work that turns spatially into artificial floods and searing air vortices. The Other Side of the Hill installation investigates the future of our global population by examining the microbial communities that regulate resource consumption. Designer Patricia Urquiola transforms this concept into a spatial experience, merging mathematics with design.

The Other Side installation.

In the Natural Intelligence section, the Living Nature installation, spearheaded by Kengo Kuma Associates, delves into the essence of building harmoniously with nature. This project examines how traditional Japanese joinery techniques, combined with AI, can transform irregular timber into a viable structural material.

Kengo Kuma’s Living Nature installation.

The Matter Makes Sense installation examines the future of construction, highlighting materials like bioconcrete, banana fibre, graphene, and beyond. Professors Ingrid Paoletti and Stefano Capolongo, along with Nobel laureate Konstantin Novosëlov and scenographer Margherita Palli Rota, unite to demonstrate how innovative materials can transform the fundamental aspects of building architecture.

Matter Makes exhibition.

The Biennale’s Circular Economy Manifesto, developed with guidance from Arup and input from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, sets bold goals for reducing waste and promoting material reuse. Boonserm Premthada’s Elephant Chapel innovatively transforms recycled elephant dung into bricks, showcasing nature’s waste as a valuable resource for construction.

Boonserm Premthada’s Elephant Chapel installation.

In the Artificial Intelligence section, robotics, engineering, and data science converge to demonstrate the impact of technology on our built environment and society systems. Here, Ukrainian researchers use computer vision to map and rebuild cities destroyed by war. “It’s a haunting reminder that technology is not neutral—it can be a tool for rebuilding or a means of destruction. In the eyes of those who see peace, it becomes a vision for reconstruction.”

Ukraine war photo by the SAY NOT TO WAR image collection.

The Collective Intelligence section focuses on the development and learning derived from collective wisdom. Urban ecosystems, whether in the favelas of Rio, the refugee camps of Bangladesh, the small towns of China, or the vibrant markets of Lagos, provide significant insights into the interplay between material economies and social networks.

Lagos Katangua Market – Photo by Andrew Esiebo.

To bring many voices together from all corners of the world, the Collective section features a Speakers’ Corner – a physical platform designed by Christopher Hawthorne, Johnston Marklee, and Florencia Rodriguez. The project rises above the Exhibition, physically and metaphorically, as a venue to host panels, workshops and discussions.

Speakers’ Corner at the INTELLIGENS exhibition in Venice.

The Exhibition culminates in Out. Through the 360 sonic structure Oxyville, “we look for inspiration beyond our fragile planet.” An installation inspired by astronauts’ space suits rethinks how we can improve building and insulation techniques on Earth.

Gateway to Venice’s Waterways, Water View, Porsche x Foster Foundation, The Art of Dreams, 2025, Porsche AG.

In Venice, the Norman Foster Foundation teamed up with Michael Mauer, Porsche, and Miguel Kreisler from Empty+Bau, and more to redesign Venice’s relationship with its canals, exploring sustainable aquatic mobility as a blueprint for the future. Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Aaron Betsky, Natural Systems Utilities, SODAI and Michelin-starred chef Davide Oldani will turn the very waters of Venice into a symbol of transformation—purifying the canals to create the best espresso in Italy, proving that environmental challenges can be woven into the fabric of daily life.

Canal Café by Aaron Betsky, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Natural Systems Utilities, and SODAI.

Intelligens also confronts the legacy of Bernard Rudofsky’s Architecture Without Architects—a manifesto for vernacular and Indigenous design. “His ideas should be reimagined in the context of climate adaptation.” In projects like the Manameh Pavilion, Rashid and Ahmed Bin Shabib, Alia Al Mur, Yusaku Imamura, Jonathan Shannon, and Vladimir Yavachev explore traditional cooling techniques from the Gulf region.

Manameh Pavilion at the INTELLIGENS exhibition in Venice.

Terra Preta is a collaboration between Cacique Nixiwaka Yawanawa, André Corrêa do Lago, Marcelo Rosenbaum, Fernando Serapião and Guilherme Wisnik, addressing housing needs in the Amazon. Indigenous knowledge will merge with scientific research to create sustainable, culturally rich housing solutions.

Terra Preta at the INTELLIGENS exhibition in Venice.

All photos and the graphic design below are courtesy of the Venice Biennale.

SpaceSuits.US, astronauts’ installation at La Biennale di Venezia 2025.