The very word intelligens<\/em>, Latin for intelligence and containing gens<\/em> (\u201cpeople\u201d), hints at an inclusive, collective approach beyond today\u2019s narrow focus on AI. This intellectual framework is indeed invigorating and in line with the recent growing influence of posthuman and new-materialist philosophical frameworks in academia and the arts. Its proposal of architecture as a networked \u201csuper-organism\u201d of ideas, conceived as a choral response to our era\u2019s challenges rather than a solitary eco-lecture, is timely and essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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$\"Solid$
Solid Objectives Idenburg Liu (So-IL),<\/strong>
Mariana Popescu, TheGreenEyl<\/strong>
Necto<\/em>, installation view, Arsenale, Venice, 2025.
Photo: Marco Zorzanello, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Noble and contemporary as the theme is, the execution of Ratti\u2019s vision proves challenging. Rather than tightly curating a select group of contributors, he launched an unprecedented open call that attracted over a thousand submissions. The democratic ethos was admirable (\u201ca bottom-up … networked super-organism,\u201d in his words), but the outcome is an often confusing and fragmented cornucopia, at times overwhelming and uneven in quality. In other words, the exhibition lacks a firm curatorial hand to shape a coherent narrative. The idea of embracing multiplicity and connection, so intriguing conceptually, has been taken almost too literally, as every conceivable tangent and experiment finds its way in. The intention was to showcase an interdisciplinary \u201claboratory\u201d of ideas, but without stronger editing the \u201clab\u201d often feels more like a chaotic bazaar of concepts\u2014fragmentation as a bug in curatorial design rather than an intended structural choice. The central thesis dissolves amid so many disparate parts, leaving visitors to piece connections together themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ratti and his team have crammed the cavernous halls of the Arsenale with an astounding seven hundred and fifty participants and roughly three hundred projects. With the Giardini\u2019s Central Pavilion closed for renovation this year, the sprawling Corderie hall of the Arsenale has had to absorb virtually everything: every experiment, installation, screen, and model elbowing for attention in one space. Provocations abound at the entrance: a teetering wall of algae-based bio-bricks maps the peak of global population, only to reveal a heap of microbial \u201cgoo\u201d behind it, an ambiguous metaphor for intelligence or perhaps a sly nod to the exhibition\u2019s own excess. One moment you\u2019re peering at banana-fibre concrete samples or bricks made with elephant dung; the next you\u2019re confronted by a convulsing humanoid robot in a steel cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Beatriz$
Beatriz Colomina, Roberto Kolter, Patricia Urquiola,<\/strong>
Geoffrey West, Mark Wigley<\/strong>
The Other Side of the Hill<\/em>, installation view,
Arsenale, Venice, 2025.
Photo: Marco Zorzanello, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
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$\"Beatriz$
Beatriz Colomina, Roberto Kolter, Patricia Urquiola,<\/strong>
Geoffrey West, Mark Wigley<\/strong>
The Other Side of the Hill<\/em>, installation view,
Arsenale, Venice, 2025.
Photo: Marco Zorzanello, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
With wall texts and research data at every turn, the show also demands intense reading and focus, but offers little breathing room. As one commentator noted, if you devoted two full days just to this main show, you\u2019d have only about seventy-two seconds per contributor<\/em>: hardly enough to appreciate each idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The contrast with Lesley Lokko\u2019s 2023 Biennale is striking and instructive. Lokko\u2019s The Laboratory of the Future<\/em> succeeded in creating a more art-based, experiential exhibition, praised by many for its clarity and emotional resonance. Where Ratti\u2019s edition bombards us with information and gadgetry, Lokko\u2019s embraced storytelling and atmosphere; it \u201cset the scene\u201d with poetic installations and immersive environments rather than dense data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One praiseworthy aspect of this Biennale is its strong focus on materiality. Across the Arsenale and many national pavilions, architects are delving into the stuff buildings are made of and could be made of in the future. This is manifested in countless inventive material experiments on display: from graphene-infused concrete to blocks of mycelium and nets of flax and linen knitted by robots. The commitment to exploring sustainable materials and circularity is commendable and very much in the Biennale\u2019s spirit of \u201cadaptation.\u201d Ratti even implemented a \u201cCircular Economy Protocol\u201d for the Biennale itself, with exhibition panels made of recycled wood destined to be shredded and reused after the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As might have been expected, across the Biennale plants often make an appearance: installations with potted forests, hanging gardens, mossy displays, greenhouses. These unfortunately feel superficial in relation to the \u201cintelligence\u201d theme. It is a pity that despite its promises of stark vegetal de-objectification, the final result should often be the opposite. A number of national exhibitions feature planters and gardens that, though pleasant, echo a trend of using biophilia as an easy badge of eco-credibility. In a biennale about intelligence, one would have hoped for more insightful uses of living systems beyond the generic \u201cadd plants here\u201d approach. Inclusion of the natural world is certainly welcome, but it really needs to steer clear of the verdant shadow of greenwashing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite all this, there are also many truly original and ground-breaking exhibitions around the Giardini. By far, despite the lack of institutional recognition, Denmark\u2019s pavilion emerges as the undisputed standout of the national shows. Curator S\u00f8ren Pihlmann took the bold step of turning the pavilion itself into an active renovation project, directly embodying the ideas of sustainability and material intelligence. Titled Build of Site,<\/em> the exhibition strips the 1930s-era pavilion building to its bones and piles its broken bricks and plaster in the galleries. Visitors literally walk through a construction zone\u2014heaps of rubble on one side, work tables and tools on the other\u2014to witness the ongoing restoration and repurposing of the structure\u2019s fabric. Rather than present polished displays, Denmark offers an experience of architecture in action. This approach brilliantly integrates the pavilion\u2019s imminent renovation into the exhibition itself. It is at once complex in concept and immediately accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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$\"\"$
S\u00f8ren Pihlmann<\/strong>
Build of Site<\/em>, installation view, Pavilion of Denmark, Venice, 2025.
Photo: Marco Zorzanello, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Canada has taken a distinctly futuristic and scientific approach with an installation titled Picoplanktonics.<\/em> Inside, alien-looking porous structures coated in living cyanobacteria quietly bubble away, capturing carbon and purifying air as they grow. Created by the Living Room Collective, this exhibition merges architecture with biotech, featuring 3D-printed lattices that host microbial colonies, a tangible experiment in co-designing with living systems. It is a fascinating exploration of built environments that can heal, asking us to imagine buildings that could behave like living organisms. Although perhaps heavy on science, the Canadian pavilion made its point in an aesthetically captivating manner and directly engaged the intelligence theme by showcasing cooperation between nature and technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Pavilion$
Living Room Collective<\/strong>
Picoplanktonics<\/em>, installation view,
Pavilion of Canada, Venice, 2025.
Photo: Luca Capuano, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Living$
Living Room Collective <\/strong>
Picoplanktonics<\/em>, installation view,
Pavilion of Canada, Venice, 2025.
Photo: Luca Capuano, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Serbia\u2019s exhibition, titled Unraveling: New Spaces,<\/em> presents a beautiful metaphor for circularity and human-machine collaboration. The pavilion is draped with large woven woollen panels produced jointly by human weavers and robots. Throughout the Biennale\u2019s run, solar-powered mechanisms slowly undo these woven textiles, pulling them apart thread by thread. By the end, the wool returns to its original state: 125 spools of yarn neatly arrayed, closing the loop of its lifecycle. It is a subtle and elegant rejoinder to the Biennale\u2019s questions: intelligence here is not a flashy robot but a process, a collaboration that ends in regeneration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poland\u2019s pavilion takes a different but equally engaging tack by examining the idea of security and superstition in architecture. Titled Lares and Penates,<\/em> it delves into the little rituals and add-ons that people use to feel safe in buildings: a charming anthropological spin on \u201cintelligence\u201d as folk wisdom. The Polish team created displays of traditional talismans and household tweaks meant to ward off misfortune, then reinterpreted them in contemporary design. By riffing on Polish traditions of adding protective features to buildings (think decorative horseshoes or holy images above a doorway), the pavilion invites us to consider the emotional intelligence<\/em> embedded in vernacular architecture: those small design choices that make us feel safer and more at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Unravelling$
Slobodan Jovi\u0107<\/strong>
Unravelling: New Spaces<\/em>
Installation view, Pavilion of Serbia, Venice, 2025.
Photo: Luca Capuano, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Britain\u2019s pavilion deserves mention for its ambitious engagement with the themes of geology, extraction, and colonial legacy. The exhibition, called The Garden of Privatised Delights<\/em>, is a multi-part exploration of how Britain\u2019s landscape and architecture have been shaped by imperial domination and how they might be \u201crepaired.\u201d The pavilion combines disparate projects (from the caves of Kenya to the rebuilding of Gaza to speculative fungi materials for Kew Gardens) under a somewhat loose umbrella. In a particularly memorable gesture, the venerable Palladian fa\u00e7ade of the pavilion is swathed in a diaphanous veil of clay and bead curtains. Thousands of small spheres made from Kenyan earth, along with red and blue glass beads from Kenya and India, hung like a translucent skin over the building. This simple but visually arresting intervention transforms the pavilion\u2019s appearance and serves as a potent symbol: the soil of former colonies literally shrouding British architecture\u2014a comment on colonial extraction and the need for reparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Kabage$
Kabage Karanja, Stella Mutegi, Owen Hopkins, Kathryn Yusoff<\/strong>
GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair<\/em>, installation view,
Pavilion of Great Britain, Venice, 2025.
Photo: Marco Zorzanello, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Set within the historic Gaggiandre shipyard, the open-air installation Song of the Cricket<\/em> is a compelling fusion of ecological conservation and sound art, spotlighting the critically endangered Adriatic Marbled Bush-Cricket (Zeuneriana marmorata<\/em>). Once prevalent in Venice\u2019s wetlands, this species now survives in fragmented habitats totalling just 0.57 square kilometres, with fewer than five thousand adults remaining. Designed by Alex Felson, a professor and the director of the University of Melbourne\u2019s Urban Ecology and Design Lab, the installation introduces floating, mobile habitats designed to support cricket breeding and reintroduction efforts in the Venice lagoon. Complementing this ecological initiative, sound artist Miriama Young has crafted an immersive soundscape that interweaves natural cricket calls, synthesized elements, and a reimagined rendition of Vivaldi\u2019s \u201cSummer\u201d concerto, evoking the historic symphony of Venice\u2019s natural environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All in all, the Biennale brims with energy, ideas, and experimental spirit, embodying Ratti\u2019s call for inclusivity and collaboration across disciplines. However, the translation of this vision into the Biennale format falters. By attempting to include everything and everyone, Ratti may have inadvertently diluted the impact of the message. The light-touch, fragmentary curation results in a show that is grandiose and confusing. In striving to be a \u201cliving laboratory,\u201d the exhibition sometimes forgets to be a legible experience that guides its audience. In the end, Intelligens<\/em> inspires, frustrates, overwhelms, and occasionally delights\u2014a mirror, perhaps, of the networked world itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venice Architecture Biennale<\/strong>
May 10\u2013November 23, 2025<\/br><\/br>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":268978,"template":"","categories":[884,892],"numeros":[],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[932],"artistes":[7522,7523,7524,7525,7526,7527,7528,7529,7530,7531,7532,7533,7534,7535,7536,7537,7538],"thematiques":[],"type_compte-rendu":[],"class_list":["post-269003","compte-rendu","type-compte-rendu","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","category-webzine","auteurs-giovanni-aloi-en","artistes-beatriz-colomina-en","artistes-diller-scofidio-en","artistes-geoffrey-west-en","artistes-kabage-karanja-en","artistes-kathryn-yusoff-en","artistes-living-room-collective-en","artistes-mariana-popescu-en","artistes-mark-wigley-en","artistes-owen-hopkins-en","artistes-patricia-urquiola-en","artistes-renfro-en","artistes-roberto-kolter-en","artistes-slobodan-jovic-en","artistes-solid-objectives-idenburg-liu-so-il-en","artistes-soren-pihlmann-en","artistes-stella-mutegi-en","artistes-thegreeneyl-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu\/269003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/compte-rendu"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269003"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=269003"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=269003"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=269003"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=269003"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=269003"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=269003"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=269003"},{"taxonomy":"type_compte-rendu","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_compte-rendu?post=269003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}