Hans Ulrich Obrist, Paola Antonelli, and Mpho Matsipa—esteemed members of the 19th Biennale Architettura international jury—have named this year’s Golden and Silver Lion winners, accompanied by special mentions. Golden Lions, as per years past, were broken up into two categories: Best National Participation, which recognizes nation-states; and Best Participation, a category for individual groups not tethered to countries. Distinguished philosophers and recently deceased architects also took home Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement awards. The ceremony was broadcast live from the headquarters of the Biennale at Ca’Giustinian. The roster was approved by Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, upon recommendation by Carlo Ratti. Golden Lion for Best National Participation The Kingdom of Bahrain won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Heatwave was designed by Andrea Faraguna. It exhibited Andrea Faraguna, Wafa Al Ghatam, Eman Ali, Alexander Puzrin, and Mario Monotti. Heatwave, sited in the Arsenale, centered contemporary, passive cooling strategies rooted in Bahrain’s vernacular tradition, like wind towers and shaded courtyards. Likewise, two special mentions were awarded to other National Participations: the Holy See and Great Britain. The Vatican’s award was announced almost synchronously with when Robert Francis Prevost was named Pope Francis’s successor. The Holy See’s contribution, titled Opera aperta, was curated by Marina Otero Verzier and Giovanna Zabotti. It exhibited Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and MAIO Architects, founded by Anna Puigjaner. Opera aperta was inspired by a 1962 text by Umberto Eco, a personal inspiration for chief curator Carlo Ratti. The goal was to create space for cultural exchange, the curators and exhibitors expressed in a statement. The Great Britain Pavilion was shrouded in beads. (Marco Zorzanello/Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia) Geology of Britannic Repair, Great Britain’s contribution, was curated by Owen Hopkins, Kathryn Yusoff, Kabage Karanja, and Stella Mutegi. It exhibited cave_bureau, Palestine Regeneration Team (PART), Mae-Ling Lokko & Gustavo Crembil, and Thandi Loewenson. This pavilion was a dialogue between Great Britain and Kenya about reparation and renewal, curators added. The mission was charting out new relations between architecture and geology. Golden and Silver Lions for Best Participation Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Natural Systems Utilities, SODAI, Aaron Betsky, and Davide Oldani won the Golden Lion for Best Participation with Canal Café. The coffee shop operation filtered water from the Venice canals. “Canal Café is a demonstration of how the city of Venice can be a laboratory to speculate how to live on the water, while offering a contribution to the public space of Venice,” curators said. “It also invites future speculation about the lagoon and other lagoons.” Canal Café by DS+R, Natural Systems Utilities, SODAI, Aaron Betsky, and Davide Oldani (Marco Zorzanello/Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia) Silver Lions for Best Participation went to Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler for their contribution, Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500. This contribution was at the intersection of colonialism, militarization, automation and enclosure. Two special mentions were awarded by the international jury to Tosin Oshinowo, and Oshinowo Studio for Alternative Urbanism: The Self-Organized Markets of Lagos; and Boonserm Premthada for Elephant Chapel. Alternative Urbanism was focused visualizing processed waste of the industrialized economy. Elephant Chapel was commended by the international jury for creating a “durable brick structure with bio material.” Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement Donna Haraway, the prolific author of Cyborg Manifesto and so much more, won the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award. Italo Rota, an Italian architect who died on April 6, was bestowed a Special Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Memoriam. Tragically, Koyo Kouoh, the Cameroonian art curator slated to lead the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, passed away unexpectedly over the weekend in Basel, Switzlerland. She was 57 years old—the news came as a shock to many. Kouoh’s successor hasn’t yet been named. The last Venice Architecture Biennale’s Golden Lion winners were Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares of Brazil, and DAAR’s Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal. Want to read about what piqued AN’s interest at the biennale this year, follow along in the dispatches here.