The Swiss Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale pays tribute to Lisbeth Sachs (1914–2002), one of Switzerland's first licensed women architects, by recreating her 1958 kunsthalle design inside the pavilion originally built by Bruno Giacometti. The exhibition, titled "Endgültige Form wird von der Architektin am Bau bestimmt," is curated by an all-woman team—Elena Chiavi, Kathrin Füglister, Amy Perkins, Axelle Stiefel, and Myriam Uzor—and resurrects a structure Sachs built for the 1958 Swiss Exhibition for Women's Work (SAFFA) in Zürich, of which almost no trace remains today.
This intervention matters because it directly challenges the Giardini's historical exclusion of women architects—no national pavilion in the Giardini was designed by a woman until the upcoming Qatar pavilion by Lina Ghotmeh. By inserting Sachs's work into the Swiss Pavilion, the curators present an alternative architectural history and highlight the ongoing need for inclusivity in the built environment. The project also underscores the broader invisibility of women's contributions to architecture and the importance of giving women a physical and visible presence in shaping future spaces.