Venice, that amphibious city that seems to have been dancing on water for centuries, is once again preparing to become the stage for architectural reflection on a global scale. Under the leadership of Carlo Ratti, the Architettura 2025 Biennale is deploying an audacious manifesto around a multi-faceted and polysemous concept: Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. Architecture becomes a dynamic force for adaptation, an evolving response to a world in rapid mutation.

Venice, laboratory of the future

The exhibition, which runs from May 10 to November 23, 2025, is not a static showcase. It's part of a movement, a thought process in perpetual transformation, where architects, engineers, scientists, artists, philosophers and even cooks come together. This edition of the Biennial invites us to question the role of architecture in a world marked by climate change and the emergence of new intelligences, whether human, artificial or collective.

The adaptation era: a necessary turning point

Carlo Ratti, an insatiable visionary, has placed this Biennial under the banner of adaptability. In his view, the climate crisis calls for a radical break with traditional approaches. Until now, architecture has focused on mitigating the effects of global warming, seeking to minimize its ecological impact. This paradigm is no longer sufficient. Faced with record temperatures, increasingly frequent natural disasters and galloping urbanization that is depleting resources, we need to rethink the way we inhabit the world. Architecture must be transformed into an art of resilience, capable of integrating, anticipating and collaborating with living forces.

From the very first steps into the Corderie de l'Arsenale, visitors are immersed in an immersive scenography that echoes this urgency. The exhibition opens with an implacable observation: the planet is burning, waters are rising, societies are faltering. The projects presented are not intended to fuel an alarmist dystopia, but to propose solutions.

Each section explores a type of intelligence applied to architecture. Natural intelligence draws on biomimicry and the ingenuity of ecosystems to propose new forms of habitat. Artificial intelligence, far from being a threat to human creativity, becomes an experimental tool for designing more efficient, adaptive and scalable structures. Finally, collective intelligence embodies the power of knowledge sharing, interdisciplinary dialogue and co-creation.

A Biennial based on diversity and inclusion

Venice itself becomes an integral part of the discourse. The floating city, threatened by rising sea levels and the onslaught of mass tourism, reinvents itself as a life-size laboratory. Experimental installations spread beyond the Giardini and the Arsenale, taking over other districts, infiltrating the urban fabric and involving its inhabitants. 

The way in which participants were selected illustrates this commitment to inclusion and openness. For the first time, an open application platform attracted projects from all over the world. Far from an elitist selection process, this approach enabled unexpected proposals to emerge, from both established figures and young, as yet unknown talents. Among the 750 participants were architects awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize, young graduates, renowned scientists collaborating with craftsmen, experimental designers working with climatic engineers. 

This plurality is also reflected in the national pavilions, in which sixty-six countries offer their vision of intelligence applied to architecture. From Italy, exploring the age-old wisdom of its relationship with the sea, to Qatar, questioning the concept of shared habitat, each nation contributes its stone to the edifice of global reflection. 

Flagship projects and disruptive innovations

In this interweaving of visions and experiences, some projects stand out for their audacity. Living Structure, led by Kengo Kuma and his teams, reinvents the art of construction by fusing ancestral Japanese carpentry techniques with artificial intelligence to transform raw wood into fluid, organic structures. Matter Makes Sense focuses on the materials revolution, exploring the future of bio-concrete, banana fiber and graphene. On a more radical note, The Other Side of the Hill projects a future where built structures could be designed in symbiosis with microbial ecosystems, rethinking the very notion of sustainability.

The GENS program, conceived as an intellectual agora, gives a voice to architects, urban planners, climatologists, sociologists and artists to fuel this real-time debate. These exchanges continue through a dense program of conferences and workshops open to the public. The Biennial becomes a space for transmission and experimentation, a catalyst for ideas and action.

Rethinking the world through architecture

Underlying all this effervescence, one question remains: can architecture still save the world? Far from providing a definitive answer, the Architettura 2025 Biennial will be sketching out avenues, raising awareness and proposing alternatives. Intelligence, in all its forms, becomes the raw material for architectural renewal. In the shadow of Venetian palaces and the shifting reflections of the lagoon, this edition reaffirms a fundamental premise: building is not simply about erecting walls, it's about imagining possible worlds.