The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by Carlo Ratti, opens with immersive installations that confront climate change, including a film on civilizations rising and collapsing, a reflective pool installation by Michelangelo Pistoletto symbolizing humanity-nature reconciliation, and a non-functional air conditioner display by Transsolar Klima Engineering. Ratti issued the Biennale's first open call, selecting over 300 multidisciplinary teams—engineers, scientists, artists, and architects—to explore new building methods that reject Modernist materials like steel and concrete in favor of natural and Indigenous approaches.
This Biennale matters because it reframes architecture as a collaborative, interdisciplinary response to the climate crisis, moving beyond traditional architectural practices. By integrating scientific innovation, Indigenous knowledge, and artificial intelligence, it challenges the industry to adapt the built environment to global warming, making it a pivotal moment for rethinking how we design and construct in an era of environmental urgency.