Italian
The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale opens to the public today, continuing until November 23 at the Gardens, the Arsenale, and Forte Marghera. Curated by Carlo Ratti and organized by the Biennale, the 2025 edition is titled “Intelligens. Naturale. Artificiale. Collettiva.” A neologism that combines the idea of intelligence with the Latin root gens, meaning people, to emphasize the collective and inclusive dimension of designing the future.
VENICE. “Architecture – states Ratti – has always been a response to the hostility of climate and reality. Today, faced with a climate crisis that exceeds scientific predictions, architecture must make a paradigm shift: from mitigation to adaptation.” The exhibition starts precisely from this awareness and presents itself as a dynamic and transdisciplinary space, where design is regenerated through the interaction between different forms of intelligence – natural, artificial, and collective – to inhabit a radically changed world.
With over 750 participants from around the world and more than 300 contributions, the 2025 Biennale stands out for its openness and interdisciplinarity: among the participants there are architects, engineers, philosophers, artists, farmers, designers, scientists, and chefs, all gathered in an attempt to rethink the built environment as a space for collaboration among different areas of knowledge.
The curatorial process and the GENS program
The curatorial project took shape through the open platform “Space for Ideas”, which collected proposals from around the world and fostered a continuous dialogue between curator and participants. This led to an exhibition that goes beyond the logic of the solitary genius to embrace a new idea of collective and inclusive authorship, inspired by the academic model, where all contributors are recognized.
The beating heart of the program is the GENS Public Programme, a series of conferences, workshops, and activities that will take place over six months at Ca’ Giustinian, the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale, and the Speakers’ Corner at the Corderie. Among the partners: COP30, the Baukultur Alliance of Davos, C40, and the Soft Power Club.
The exhibition path
The Exhibition is divided into four main sections:- Natural Intelligence
Each section is designed as a fractal and modular organism, capable of connecting projects on different scales and encouraging the visitor’s free navigation.
Venice as a Living Lab
In 2025, with the Central Pavilion under renovation, the entire city becomes a Living Lab, transforming itself into part of the exhibition: installations and prototypes will be scattered among the Gardens, the Arsenal, and other urban areas, offering tangible and experimental solutions to global climate challenges.
A significant example is Margherissima, a Special Project at Forte Marghera, where a new eco-sustainable neighborhood is imagined to be born on the ruins of heavy industry.
Participation and Awards
66 countries are participating, including 4 new entries: Azerbaijan, Oman, Qatar, and Togo. The Italian Pavilion, curated by Guendalina Salimei, presents the project TERRÆ AQUÆ. Italy and the intelligence of the sea, a reflection on the Mediterranean as a fluid space between lands and cultures.
The Holy See is present with the exhibition Opera Aperta, dedicated to architecture as an act of care, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Laudato Si’.
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to the philosopher Donna Haraway, while a Special Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was posthumously given to the architect Italo Rota, who passed away in 2024.
College of Architecture and International Jury
Eight projects have been selected for the second edition of Biennale College Architettura, which offers participants under 30 a grant of 20,000 euros for the creation of installations exhibited out of competition.
The International Jury is chaired by Hans Ulrich Obrist and composed of Paola Antonelli and Mpho Matsipa.
President’s Statement
“Building the world intelligently, listening to the intelligence of the Earth: this is Intelligens” – declared Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the Biennale – “A thought that goes beyond contemporaneity to restore to architecture its primary function: that of being home and environment, ethics and ecology.”
