Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 – 5 Pavilions not to be missed

Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 – 5 Pavilions not to be missed

Note: We have not visited all the national pavilions of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale; therefore, those described in this article are just our favorites among those we saw. We based this selection on how originally and thoroughly the pavilions have developed the theme proposed by the 2025 Biennale curator Carlo Ratti, and the quality of their exhibition’s design and content communication.

cover: The Belgian Pavilion, photo © Riccardo Bianchini/Inexhibit

France – “Vivre avec / Living with”
The French Pavilion at the Biennale’s Gardens is closed for renovation; “Vivre avec / Living with” is therefore an en plein air installation, surrounding the pavilion under renovation.
Conceived by architects Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane, in collaboration with Martin Duplantier and Éric Daniel-Lacombe, the temporary space was conceived drawing inspiration from the construction site, the garden, and the proximity to the Rio dei Giardini canal, making the renovation an integral part of the experience offered to visitors.
Made of steel scaffold tubes, the exhibition occupies the space in front of the pavilion and its backyard, towards the nearby canal – a key element of the Venetian landscape, creating a microclimate protected from direct sunlight.
Attached to the metal structure are panels with contemporary architectural designs that refer to six themes choisen by the curators: “Living with Existence,” “Living with Proximity,” “Living with Harm,” “Living with Vulnerabilities,” “Living with Nature and the Living World,” and “ Living with Collective Intelligence. The exhibition aims to be a living representation of the contemporary world and at the same time a pressing invitation to build a new and fruitful relationship between architecture and the environment.

Above: The French Pavilion. Photos © Riccardo Bianchini/Inexhibit

The French Pavilion: © courtesy of Agence Anne Samson Communications / Institut Français

Denmark – “Build of Site”
As with the case of France, the Danish pavilion is a hybrid space in which exhibition and architectural renovation merge. The pavilion’s curator, Søren Pihlmann (Pihlmann Architects), devised an exhibition in which the on-site works, which will be completed after the end of the Biennale, are an integral part of the exhibition concept. An in-depth analysis was conducted on the state of the building in 2016, which revealed several critical issues and the need to intervene, also to mitigate the effects of climate change, which have made the pavilion more vulnerable. In particular, it was necessary to renovate pavements, windows, and doors, as well as create a new entrance on the northeastern facade. Started in October 2024, the renovation also includes new strategies to reuse waste materials from the construction and demolition processes.
Explains Søren Pihlmann, “It should be clear to most people by now that, going forward, we’ll have to think constructively with regard to what we’ve already put into the world. (…) This has been perceived as a limitation. But now should be the time to discuss all the architectural possibilities provided by the ground, the stones, the concrete, or by whatever you find in the place where you’ve been granted the privilege to build upon the world.”
The materials used in the pavilion – wood, limestone, sand, silt, and clay – have been analyzed in collaboration with researchers and students from the Royal Academy, the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, and the ETH Zurich since fall 2023.
Close collaboration with experts from various fields, who have contributed to the development of the project from its early stages, demonstrates how architectural practice should evolve in the future: the focus is not on the original function and value of materials, but on how they can be regenerated and used to enrich the built environment.

Above: the Danish Pavilion. Photos © Riccardo Bianchini/Inexhibit

Belgium – “Building Biospheres”
For the six months that the Architecture Biennale is open, the Belgian pavilion will be a prototype, a visitable experiment on how to build a fruitful relationship between architecture and nature: the goal of the curator, landscape architect Bas Smets, in collaboration with neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, is in fact to test how plants can interact with indoor environments and how they can actively contribute to improving their microclimate.
The evolution of architecture has resulted in environments that are more and more artificially controlled and increasingly separated from the external environment; Smets and Mancuso instead imagine a near future in which this separation can be eliminated, and in which buildings can generate the correct microclimate for humans through the activity of plants.
In the central hall of the pavilion, naturally lit by a large skylight, more than two hundred plants have been planted; their behavior will be constantly monitored by three microclimatic stations that will activate the regulation of water, light, and ventilation to meet the needs of the plants. But these needs coincide with those of the humans who inhabit the environments. Building Biospheres demonstrates how a new and fruitful symbiosis can be created between human needs, plant needs, and building management, a kind of renewed alliance between architecture and nature.

Above: the Belgian Pavilion, photos © Riccardo Bianchini/Inexhibit

Photo © federica Lusiardi/Inexhibit

Germany – “Stresstest”
Despite increasingly intolerable heat and extreme weather events that will soon make it difficult for humans, animals, and plants to live in some of Europe’s cities, it is still not a priority for those who govern us to prioritize urban development adapted to the changing climate.
The German Pavilion, curated by Nicola Borgman, Elisabeth Endres, Gabriele Kiefer and Daniele Santucci, clearly and unequivocally exposes our present and near future: in the large central hall, a large video projection features a sequence of images in which ominous contemporary urban landscapes follow one another: construction sites where concrete and metal dominate, scorching public spaces, extensive parking areas completely paved over. The exhibition underscores the need to act fast, calling for resilient planning and design practices that implement strategies for climate adaptation of public spaces.
The curators point out how key strategies are widely known and practicable: removal of impervious surfaces, creation of large shaded areas, introduction of water features, and above all, recognition of the fundamental role of trees in public space. But then why hesitate any longer?

Above: The German Pavilion. Photos © Riccardo Bianchini/Inexhibit

Spain – “Internalities”
The Spanish Pavilion curators’ response to the Biennale’s theme comes through the invented word “Internalities”. The neologism expresses the need to build using local resources and technologies, according to an approach taken by the younger generation of Spanish architects, whose work is presented in the exhibition.
“Internalities” is opposed to externalities, a term coined in the 1920s by economist Arthur Pigou, who used it to define the set of environmental repercussions that are not considered in the production process. In the construction industry, externalities include the extraction of materials, energy consumption, waste production, and the disappearance of local skills and workers.
The sections that make up the exhibition, curated by Roi Salgueiro Barrio and Manuel Bouzas Barcala, present five themes related to the internalization concept: Materials, Energy, Labor, Waste, and Emissions. Each section was developed by a team of researchers and focused on a specific area of Spain, from north to south, exploring the relationship between territorial resources and building practice.

Above: The Spanish Pavilion. Photos © Riccardo Bianchini/Inexhibit