February 2025

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 19 feb 2025

The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of Venice Architecture Biennale will take place from 10 May to 23 November 2025 in Venice, Italy. This year's theme, 'Titled Intelligens Natural Artificial Collective', will focus on how architecture takes a flexible and active role in adapting to changing times by taking advantage of all kinds of intelligence, natural, artificial and collective. Carlo Ratti, an architect and engineer, and presently the director of the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and also faculty at Politecnico di Milano, is the curator of the Venice Biennale. He says, 'Architecture has always been a response to a hostile climate. From the earliest 'primitive hut', human design has been led by the need for shelter and survival, driven by optimism: our creations have always strived to bridge the gap between a harsh environment and the safe, livable spaces we require. Today, that dynamic approach is being taken to a new level - as climate becomes less forgiving...The year 2024 marked a grim milestone as Earth registered its hottest temperatures on record...For decades, architecture’s response to the climate crisis has been centered on mitigation - designing to reduce our impact on the climate. But that approach is no longer enough. The time has come for architecture to embrace adaptation: rethinking how we design for an altered world...This year's exhibition invites different types of intelligence to work together to rethink the built environment...In the time of adaptation, architecture is at the center and must lead with optimism. In the time of adaptation, architecture needs to draw on all forms of intelligence - natural, artificial, collective. In the time of adaptation, architecture needs to reach out across generations and across disciplines - from the hard sciences to the arts. In the time of adaptation, architecture must rethink authorship and become more inclusive, learning from science. Architecture must become as flexible and dynamic as the world we are now designing for.' According to Ratti, addaptation demands inclusivity and collaboration and Intelligens will serve as a 'dynamic laboratory' that unites experts across various forms of intelligence. Moreover, curating on this scale required a fundamental shift in methodology and an interdisciplinary curatorial team has led the open, bottom-up selection process. The participant pool spans generation and is very inclusive with wide variety of viewpoints, ranging from new graduates to Nobel laureates, Pritzker winners, and senior acedemics and researchers. A more inclusive authorship model is also applied that achnowledges all the diverse voices that influence design. In this age of adaptability Venice Biennale also needs to work with other international organizations to widen horizon and understanding. Read on...

World Architecture Community: Carlo Ratti: 'Architecture Must Rethink Authorship And Become More Inclusive, Learning From Science'
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