The title and theme of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale has been announced as ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.’
Curator Carlo Ratti explained that the title of the exhibition is usually announced in both English and Italian, but for 2025 will be condensed into a single Latin word: intelligens. While linked to the modern term ‘intelligence’, Ratti emphasised the final syllable of the word, ‘gens’, which is Latin for ‘people’. He suggested the word could conjure a future form of collective intelligence, and in particular the new frontiers of AI. The exhibition promises to draw upon an extended sphere of art, engineering, biology, data science and many other disciplines, linking them to urban space and the pressing question of the climate crisis.
Four methodological pillars for the exhibition were outlined by Ratti as part of the announcement, made alongside the President of La Biennale di Venezia, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. The first, ‘Transdisciplinarity’, will see architectural projects realised through collaborations between multiple professionals, with a focus on advancing scientific knowledge. ‘Living Lab’ is to use a number of special satellite projects around Venice and the Biennale sites while the Central Pavilion at the Giardini is closed for renovation. The public is invited to submit ideas via the Biennale website under a third pillar, ‘Space for Ideas’, which embraces a collaborative approach to design. Finally, ‘Circularity Protocol’ will see the development of a manifesto to define a new standard for the future of cultural events.
Students, graduate students and emerging practitioners under the age of 30 from all over the world are also invited to submit projects that employ ‘natural, artificial and collective intelligence to combat the climate crisis’, as part of the second edition of the Biennale College Architettura. A final selection of eight projects will be chosen (following a collaborative workshop in September 2024 with selected participants) to be included in the exhibition, with a grant of €20,000 for each project. The international call will remain open until 21 June 2024.
An architect and engineer by training, Ratti teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and at the Politecnico di Milano. He is the director of the Senseable City Lab and a founding partner of the architecture and innovation office CRA.
‘Ratti deciphers what we are and what we will be – as individuals and as society – in the digital flux that leads into our tomorrow’, Buttafuoco said in a statement. ‘Intelligens develops the knowledge and capacities that help us evolve, lest we succumb to a burning planet. Intelligens loves nature, millions of years of building, destroying, recycling, trial-and-error evolution. Intelligens acts, generating a new repertoire of solutions – ready for testing, feedback and safe failure.’
