A Guide To The Arsenale At The Venice Architecture Biennale 2025

The Biennale Architettura, or the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2025, unfolds against a backdrop of global urgency. The climate crisis is no longer a distant threat—it defines our present. With adaptation taking the centre stage, this 19th edition sets a new paradigm for architecture’s role in shaping sustainable futures. Under the central curatorial theme of ‘Intelligens,’ curator Carlo Ratti turns Venice into a ‘Living Lab,’ where over 350 voices – from artists, architects, environmentalists, to scientists, as well as political leaders – respond to the challenges of our time. Beyond artificial intelligence, the exhibition demonstrates technologies and ideas that reimagine how we live, build, and adapt.

National Pavilions respond to the broad theme through the framework ‘One Place, One Solution,’ offering localised yet globally relevant perspectives. Scattered across Venice, many of the pavilions are anchored in the Arsenale– an architectural complex that holds a strong economic and military significance within Venetian history. Just outside of the Arsenale projects such as ‘Canal Cafè’, which converts the salt water of the Venetian canals into espresso coffee through purification technology, ‘Urban Heat Chronicles’, which offers low-cost cooling solutions, and ‘Solar Cooker’, inspired by Uzbekistan’s techniques used in 1980s, exemplify the spirit of this edition. As you enter the medieval dockyard complex, the Arsenale welcomes you with a host of projects presented by various national participants. Here is our curated guide of 5 standout Pavilions within the Arsenale you should not miss.

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Bahrain (Kingdom Of) Pavilion: ‘Heatwave’

A massive pit surrounded by sandbags set within dilapidated aesthetics takes over the Bahrain Pavilion. Titled ‘Heatwave,’ the pavilion hosts a modular presentation that addresses rising temperatures across the globe with a focus on the Gulf and Bahrain. Curated by Berlin-based architect Andrea Faraguna, the project presents a contemporary take on traditional Bahraini cooling techniques such as wind towers and shading devices envisioned within public spaces. At its core, the installation is based on the principles of geothermal wells and solar chimneys, forming a microclimate between the installation floor and ceiling. “Rather than sealing off interior space from harsh conditions, it creates a breathable environment that invites public life to continue even under extreme heat. Its material language draws from both vernacular traditions and contemporary experimentation, offering a low-impact, adaptable system that rethinks sustainability not as an aesthetic, but as a practical, collective necessity”, shares the curator Faraguna.

A recipient of the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, this pavilion explores climate resilience and social sustainability in the face of extreme heat. “The takeaway is a call to reimagine architecture not as a static shelter but as a dynamic mediator between heat, human experience, and environmental forces—a prototype for future urbanism in the age of extreme climate”, she adds.

Singapore Pavilion: ‘RASA-TABULA-SINGAPUR’

Celebrating the nation’s 60th anniversary post-independence, the Singapore Pavilion invites viewers to explore the city-making presented, fusing collective intelligence and innovation. Titled as ‘RASA-TABULA-SINGAPUR’, the table unpacks the concept of “superdiversity.” The title is inspired by Tabula (blank slate in Latin), transformed into Rasa (taste in Malay) at Singapura (Lion City in Sanskrit). The presentation incorporates a carefully chosen menu of architectural and urban planning projects. It explores how architecture, policy, and participatory design intertwine in the daily lives of Singaporeans. “Illustrating Singapore’s superdiversity, we are highlighting seven ‘main courses’, each offering a taste of how Singapore plans for life at every scale. These ideas continue through our research and teaching at SUTD, where planning for the future means designing for complexity. It’s one expression of a city always planning ahead, always becoming”, shares Prof. Khoo Peng Beng, Co-Curator of the Pavilion

Metaphorically presented like an extravagant feast spread, the visual treat includes key architectural buildings and designs on the Singaporean skyline, such as the Pinnacle at Duxton, the Punggol Design District (unveiling in phases this year), and Changi Airport, to name a few. Complementary to this is a presentation that highlights social and design innovations from their multicultural roots. The installation is curated by a multidisciplinary team from Singapore University of Technology and Design – Tai Lee Siang, Khoo Peng Beng, Erwin Viray, Jason Lim, Immanuel Koh, Sam Conrad Joyce and Carlos Bañón.

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Kosovo (Republic Of) Pavilion, Lulebora nuk çel më: ‘Emerging Assemblages’

Curated by landscape architect Erzë Dinarama, the Republic of Kosovo Pavilion traces the transition of innate landscape characteristics through sensorial atonement. Titled as ‘Lulebora nuk çel më. Emerging Assemblages,’ the project materialises the ecological tensions of uncertainty and shifting landscapes. The pavilion floor is covered with different soils sourced from two major Kosovar plains that hold diverse compositions, which are adaptive. This soil is neither static nor passive, but an active participant in ecological becoming, inscribing dynamic markers of change that resist standardized measurement. At the heart of the pavilion is a relational calendar that teases our olfactory senses to express these new agricultural rhythms. 

Drawing from farmers’ embodied accounts, each scent acts as a temporal node in a rhythmic assemblage of change – the stories of vanishing crops, delayed flowering, and emergent ecologies. “One key takeaway is that hyper-local and fragile forms of ecological knowledge—often dismissed as anecdotal or imprecise—are vital for navigating the unpredictability of climate change. These embodied, intergenerational ways of sensing and interpreting the world should not be romanticized as vanishing traditions, but embraced as living, adaptive practices,” shares curator Dinarama. Emerging Assemblages encourages the viewers to completely immerse themselves within it – to listen, feel and smell through the world in transition amidst new climate realities.

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Oman (Sultanate Of) Pavilion: ‘Traces’

Vernacular crafts such as palm frond weaving, carved wooden doors, and the branching geometries define the visual language of Oman’s debut pavilion at the biennale. Curated by multi-disciplinary Omani architect Majeda Alhinai, the installation weaves age-old craft traditions with a modern twist while maintaining its very innate utilitarian purpose. Titled ‘Traces,’ the project reignites the Omani idea of ‘sablah,’ a living space where stories are shared, decisions are made, and bonds are forged. The installation demonstrates how traditional practices inform contemporary designs. “I want international visitors to experience the pavilion not as a representation of a faraway culture, but as a space that prompts reflection on their ideas of community, openness, and spatial responsibility,” shares curator Alhinai. 

Without any defined formal entry or exit point, the installation fosters a free and open flow of discourse without borders. An overhead sound installation intervenes in the overall experience, diffusing local audio clips of conversations and chanting in Arabic. Drawing from its deep-rooted practice, the pavilion reimagines ‘sablah’ as a space where past and present meet to inspire the future. Following the biennale, the structure will continue to serve as a civic space within the Bahla region of Oman. “This reflects a core principle of sustainability deeply embedded in Omani traditions, where architecture is informed by resourcefulness and environmental awareness,” she adds.

Ukraine Pavilion, Dakh (ДАХ): ‘Vernacular Hardcore’

The Ukrainian Pavilion explores the most basic architectural concept of ‘Dakh,’ or thatched roof. By presenting this basic necessity as a luxury for a nation that is resurrecting post the aftermath of a geopolitical conflict, the pavilion makes a bold statement on current social conditions for some nations. Amidst extreme geo-political instabilities – fought in large part in the skies, by drones and missiles – the roof is also the first point of impact for hostile projectiles. The curation juxtaposes the ‘heritage vernacular’ of traditional Ukrainian village housing with the ‘emergency vernacular’ of self-organised reconstruction work during wartime. According to the artist and curatorial team, this layered approach combines archival traditions with traces of emergency repair, where tactile bundles evoke rural craft, while sharp metal edges signal present danger. With this design, resistance meets vulnerability and suggests that security is never separate from solidarity. 

Curated by Bogdana Kosmina, Michał Murawski and Kateryna Rusetska, the project demonstrates how AI-generated models can become a starting point for reconstruction for a nation in re-making with a primary focus on materiality and circular economy in the face of devastation and danger. “The future of Ukraine is not thatched; it is in resistance and the maintenance and reinforcement of the commons; and in learning from and with the experiences of others who are also now suffering war, engaged in resistance and reconstruction, and re-thinking heritage, from Ukraine to Palestine, and beyond,” shares Michal Murawski.

The Venice Architecture Biennale will run till November 23, 2025.