{"id":83624,"date":"2025-05-08T04:05:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T04:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/83624\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T04:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T04:05:13","slug":"interview-with-carlo-ratti-at-the-2025-venice-biennale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/83624\/","title":{"rendered":"interview with carlo ratti at the 2025 venice biennale"},"content":{"rendered":"

INTERVIEW WITH VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE CURATOR CARLO RATTI<\/p>\n

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The 19th Venice Architecture Biennale<\/strong><\/a> opens its doors from May 10th to November 23rd, 2025, transforming the city into a global stage for architectural innovation, critical discourse, and creative exchange. Titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., this year\u2019s exhibition is curated by Italian architect and MIT professor Carlo Ratti<\/strong><\/a>, who reimagines the role of intelligence in shaping the built environment. During designboom\u2019s interview with Ratti in Venice, he reflects on the urgency of adaptation across disciplines.<\/strong> \u2018It\u2019s basically about how we can use different disciplines and different forms of intelligence in order to tackle the most important problem today: adaptation. In short, you could say architecture is survival.\u2019 he notes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Set across Venice\u2019s iconic Biennale venues, the Giardini, Arsenale, and Forte Marghera, the 2025 edition hosts national pavilions from 66 countries, including debut entries from Azerbaijan, Togo, Qatar, and Oman. As climate change<\/strong><\/a> looms large over the city and the planet, the exhibition<\/strong><\/a> frames architecture as an active participant in this global condition as a practice of transformation. Through exhibitions, installations<\/strong><\/a>, and dialogues, the 2025 Biennale examines how architecture can help shape new ecologies of intelligence, ones that are deeply material, inherently collective, and urgently needed.<\/p>\n

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The Central Pavilion is currently closed for renovations | image \u00a9 designboom<\/p>\n

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Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. OPENS ON MAY 10TH<\/p>\n

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Rooted in the Latin word gens, meaning people, the theme calls for a redefinition of intelligence as a shared, evolving force, transcending binaries and embracing collaboration across disciplines. Visitors will encounter a deeply interdisciplinary approach, where architecture meets data science, biology, planetary systems, and engineering to envision a more adaptive and resilient urban future. \u2018Architecture is kind of at the center, with other disciplines supporting it\u2019 Ratti tells designboom.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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At the heart of Carlo Ratti\u2019s curatorial vision is the climate emergency: a force already reshaping how we live and build. From wildfire-resilient structures to water-sensitive urbanism, the Biennale encourages bold, cross-disciplinary thinking to reimagine architecture as a living, evolving force. The 2025 Biennale becomes a dynamic platform for over 750 participants, from architects and artists to climate scientists, farmers, chefs, programmers, and philosophers. Selected through an open and decentralized process led by an interdisciplinary curatorial team, the contributors range from emerging talents to renowned figures such as Patricia Urquiola, Kengo Kuma, and Boonserm Premthada. \u2018For the first time in the history of the Biennale, we launched an open call\u2014for people from all over the world to submit ideas,\u2019 explains the curator.<\/strong> This radical inclusivity challenges traditional notions of authorship, favoring collaborative models more akin to scientific research than solitary design genius. \u2018It\u2019s a bit like a chain reaction,\u2019 he adds. Read on for our full conversation with Carlo Ratti, where we delve deeper into the ideas behind this year\u2019s Biennale.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Carlo Ratti | image by Jacopo Salvi<\/a><\/p>\n

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RATTI ON THE 19TH INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION<\/p>\n

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designboom (DB): The exhibition brings together over 300 contributions from more than 750 participants, from architects to artists, chefs, photographers, coders, fashion designers, and many more. What does such an interdisciplinary selection, a first for the Venice Biennale, bring to the conversation around the future of architecture?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Carlo Ratti (CR<\/a>): <\/strong>That\u2019s really one of the key points, and I think it\u2019s very important. In the past, architecture has looked at different disciplines\u2014think politics, the arts, and so on\u2014but usually by venturing out into those areas. Now it\u2019s almost the opposite. Architecture is focusing on the built environment because, when it comes to adaptation, the built environment is the key mechanism through which we can respond to a changing climate and a changing planet. Other disciplines are now coming in to support that. Architecture is kind of at the center, with other disciplines supporting it. And the reason is \u2013 you know Herbert Simon, who won the Nobel Prize last century \u2013 he wrote a beautiful book called The Sciences of the Artificial. In it, he says science looks at how the world is, and architecture and design look at how the world could be or ought to be. When you put the two together, you combine the creativity of architecture with the grounding of physical laws and other constraints of the planet. That way, other disciplines can support how we adapt.<\/p>\n

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ELEPHANT CHAPEL by Boonserm Premthada | image \u00a9 designboom<\/p>\n

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DB: The theme identifies three inteligence directions, natural, artificial, and collective, and sets a clear path structure inside the Arsenale. Yet walking through the exhibition, it often feels more like a weaving of the three into ecosystems of coexistence. Was that sort of blending intentional, and what does it achieve?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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CR: <\/strong>Because of the sheer density of the subject, we thought it was important to separate them, more as a tool to clarify the exhibition. But they all stem from one notion of intelligence. Take the \u2018artificial\u2019 for example. First, we look at the natural and artificial together. One project explores AI but with the aim of better understanding nature. Or take the \u2018collective\u2019 \u2013 there are projects using different technologies to understand favelas. So yes, there\u2019s a lot of blending. That was intentional.<\/p>\n

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The Other Side of the Hill by Beatriz Colomina, Roberto Kolter, Patricia Urquiola, Geoffrey West, and Mark Wigley | image \u00a9 designboom<\/p>\n

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DB: How do you see the national pavilions\u2019 response to the theme?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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CR:<\/strong> I was really pleased with the work done by the National Pavilions, all 65 of them this year. Every year they bring strong contributions. But often there\u2019s no common theme, so while everything may be beautiful, it can feel like a hodgepodge. The first person who really tried to create a common thread was Rem Koolhaas in 2014. I was lucky enough to be invited that year, and I remember him telling me about it\u2014and he achieved it, to a certain degree. This year we tried something similar, but in a more bottom-up way. We gave a theme: one place, one solution. Then we held a number of meetings with the National Participants, where curators presented their ideas. Slowly, the excitement around the theme grew, and most of them engaged with it deeply.<\/p>\n

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At the press conference tomorrow, I won\u2019t be able to show 700 slides for 700 participants, but we\u2019ll talk about themes that cut across everything \u2013 national participations, collateral events, and more. This helps illustrate the \u2018chain reaction\u2019 we\u2019re aiming for \u2013 from salons to submissions, to the whole collaborative process.<\/p>\n

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