The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia opens on May 10, with preview days for professionals and press on May 7, 8, and 9. Titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., the 2025 main Arsenale exhibition has been curated by Italian architect Carlo Ratti, who sets the exhibition up dramatically with a bit of disaster porn–alarmist optimism. “To face a burning world, architecture must harness all the intelligence around us,” the curator said. This aesthetic intensity is meant to heighten the effect of the architecture on display, much of which seems to be centered around sustainability and social collectivism, both of which tend to lack drama, especially when aiming to be extra-sustainable and offer realistic solutions to the world’s crises—environmental, social, and political. However, Ratti’s past work suggests he can offer a fresh perspective on some of these topics, reinvigorating a Venice Biennale that has struggled in its search for novelty in recent years. From the curatorial statement: 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. The “collective” intelligence is the classic Venice broadstroke that allows in almost all architecture, much like David Chipperfield’s Common Ground (2012), Grafton Architects’s Freespace (2018), and Hashim Sarkis’s How We Live Together (2021). Ratti will look to distinguish Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. with a focus on nature, technology, and interspecies relationships. American philosopher Donna Haraway—a legend in the philosophy of nature, technology, and interspecies dialogue—will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a fitting spiritual guide for this edition of the biennale. Under this broad but green umbrella, Ratti has also coordinated the 66 national pavilions with more cohesion than past editions. I chewed through the word salad to identify some potential standouts. A screenshot from a speculative film that is part of Lavaforming, Iceland‘s pavilion about building with lava (Courtesy s.ap architects) Natural Systems Several national participants have a focus on landscape and the natural world. At the Belgian pavilion, landscape architect Bas Smets and biologist Stefano Mancuso will present Building Biospheres, which posits “plant intelligence,” or plants, as active participants in creating healthier, cleaner buildings and urban spaces. Iceland’s pavilion will take the potential of lava as a building material as its focus. Created by Arnhildur Pálmadóttir of s.ap architects, it asks, “what would natural architecture on earth look like, free from harmful mining and non-renewable energy extraction?” The Lithuanian pavilion, titled Architecture of Trees: From Indigenous Roots and curated by architect Gintaras Balčytis, will spotlight trees as an important element of urban development, taking cues from the European Green Deal and New European Bauhaus. Concept rendering for Japan Pavilion (Courtesy Asako Fujikura Takahiro Ohmura) (Re)generative Constructions History, memory, and cultural heritage will be the topic for many national pavilions, including several where the reconstruction or renovation of the pavilion itself is the subject of the exhibition. The Danish pavilion will be a live construction site where architect Søren Pihlmann will demonstrate his “innovative” material reuse techniques. Finland’s pavilion, titled The Pavilion – Architecture of Stewardship will be curated by Ella Kaira and Matti Jänkälä from the Helsinki-based architecture practice Vokal. It will investigate authorship and “pays homage to the contributions of Aalto’s wives, Aino and Elissa.” Japan’s pavilion IN-BETWEEN will also be in a state of flux, with Jun Aoiki and his team working with generative AI to reimagine the pavilion both physically and digitally. Uzbekistan’s A Matter of Radiance is a look at the modernist Sun Institute of Material Science, a solar furnace complex near Tashkent. It reflects on the legacy of the building and its place in Uzbek cultural history. AN’s news editor, Daniel Jonas Roche, recently traveled to the country to see the building and learn more about the wider modernist preservation movement. A stone being placed as part of the Cyprian pavilion (Courtesy Demetris Loutsios) Ancient Perspectives In their constant search for novelty, the arts institutions have discovered—after many years—that Indigenous cultures are vibrant and full of different “intelligens” than Western philosophy and modern development patterns. The trend continues this year in Venice, with many pavilions showcasing Indigenous culture. Curated by Luciana Saboia, Matheus Seco, and Eder Alencar of Plano Coletivo, Brazil’s pavilion (RE)INVENTION investigates “the intersection of ancestral knowledge and contemporary urban infrastructure.” The Cyprian pavilion showcases drystone construction, a pre-modern construction technique that the nine curators posit as relevant today. The Australian pavilion presents HOME, which will showcase Aboriginal knowledge about sustainable building and cultural sensitivity. Hopefully these pavilions won’t create an “other” as simple alternatives, but rather will honestly look at how this knowledge can be shared. Other potential highlights include the Albanian pavilion, curated by Anneke Abhelakh, which will highlight a country with a massive building boom. The Macau pavilion, curated by Chinese architect and Pritzker laureate Wang Shu with Iwan Baan, should be interesting, though few details have been released. Macau, a former Portuguese colony, is now the Chinese hyper-Vegas. The Latvian pavilion looks at Latvia’s militarized border with Russia and Belarus and how military landscapes come to define a country’s psychology. It will be curated by Liene Jākobsone and Ilka Ruby. The Holy See will present Opera aperta, curated by Marina Otero Verzier and Giovanna Zabotti and including work by Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO and MAIO Architects. The “parable-pavilion” will parallel Pope Francis’s ultra-based environmental and somewhat anti-capitalist manifesto Laudato Si, or “Care for our common home.” The U.S. Pavilion at the upcoming 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. (Luxigon/Courtesy Co-Commissioners of the U.S. Pavilion) Americana PORCH: An architecture of generosity is the U.S. Pavilion this year. Curated by Peter MacKeith, Susan Chin, and Rod Bigelow, it will feature contributions from Marlon Blackwell Architects, D.I.R.T Studio, TEN × TEN Studio, Stephen Burks Man Made, and Jonathan Boelkins. It is one of the more straightforward curatorial prompts. (Note: AN is the pavilion’s media partner, and I am co-teaching a course at the University of Arkansas with MacKeith.) The effort is “focused on the representation of the United States of America, at its best, in architectural means and in national character, through the contemporary manifestation of ‘the porch’—of that quintessentially constructed American place that is at once social, environmental, tectonic, performative, hospitable, generous, democratic.” New Arrivals There are four first-time participants in the 2025 Biennale: Qatar, Togo, the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Sultanate of Oman. Qatar is also gearing up for a construction project: Last week, Qatar announced that Lina Ghotmeh of Paris studio Lina Ghotmeh—Architecture, will design a new Qatar Pavilion, to be located in the Giardini of La Biennale di Venezia. Ghotmeh, who is Lebanese but based in Paris, won the commission through an international competition. When completed, it will be only the third pavilion in more than 50 years to be added to the historic Giardini. For a full list of participants, see the official Biennale website. Matt Shaw is a New York–based critic and author of American Modern: Architecture; Community; Columbus, Indiana.