During yesterday's press conference, after Carlo Ratti had provided a brief look at just a few of the projects that will be part of the Biennale when it opens on May 10, a reporter described the exhibition as “impressive.” It is hard to disagree with that term, given that Ratti's bottom-up approach, which involved an open call for projects last year, has resulted in more than 750 participants (individuals or organizations) creating more than 280 projects for the exhibition. (By comparison, Lesley Lokko's 2023 exhibition, The Laboratory of the Future, had 89 participants.) Given that the Central Pavilion in the Giardini will be closed during Ratti's exhibition, many of those projects will be placed in the Corderie, while others will be located in other parts of the Arsenale and some will be scattered about Venice. These numbers don't include the 66 national participations, which are split between the Giardini, the Arsenale, and other parts of Venice, as well as the numerous collateral events, special projects, and educational sessions. So, if anything, “overwhelming” might be more apt than “impressive.”

Ratti unveiled the theme last May, saying Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. will be “about the built environment and the many disciplines that shape it.” Ratti is an architect, engineer, educator, and inventor, so it is not surprising to find him embracing fields outside of architecture. But for Intelligens he is placing architecture in a central position among other disciplines, where it can play a leading role in our global climate crisis, one that he believes requires adaptation. Ratti explained it this way in yesterday's presentation: “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. Architecture must become as flexible and dynamic as the world we are now designing for.”

Following from the theme and the bottom-up open call, the 762 participants are made up of “experts across various forms of intelligence,” in Ratti's words. These include architects and engineers, for sure, but also mathematicians and climate scientists, philosophers and artists, chefs and coders, writers and woodcarvers, farmers and fashion designers, among others. Most of the projects that Ratti chose to present during the press conference, like the ones shown here, will be housed in the Corderie, where visitors will traverse three thematic worlds: Natural Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence and Collective Intelligence. Among these projects are The Other Side of the Hill, which “digs deeper into our global population future by exploring the microbial communities that balance resource consumption,” Boonserm Premthada's Elephant Chapel, which uses bricks made from elephant dung, and the Speakers' Corner, which will serve as a venue for hosting panels, workshops, and discussions.

When World-Architects spoke with Ratti last summer, he described the closing of the Central Pavilion as an opportunity, not a problem. By extending the exhibition into parts of Venice, he wanted to “use Venice as a lab to try out new architectural ideas.” In yesterday's press conference he revealed a few projects that will be part of this Venice Living Lab, which will consists of experiments, many of them obviously focused around water. One is Canal Café, which will take canal water, purify it naturally, and “turn it into the best espresso in Italy,” making an important issue accessible to visitors. In a similar vein, Ratti is interested in using the exhibition to speak to the general public, not just fellow architects, and he is interested in the influence of non-pedigreed architecture — architecture designed without architects. An example of this is found in the Manameh Pavilion, designed by a team led by Rashid and Ahmed Shabib, which will use vernacular precedents to create a climate-adaptive space for people to come together — and to relax while they take in the 762 projects, 66 national pavilions, and other contributions to the Biennale.

The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale – 19th International Architecture Exhibition will take place from Saturday, May 10, to Sunday, November 23, 2025.