Gsapp 19th Venice Biennale

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GSAPP AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

Columbia GSAPP Faculty, Alumni, and Students Make Significant Contributions to the 2025 Venice Biennale of Architecture through installations, curatorial projects, and performances

February 13, 2025

The 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture opening on May 10, 2025 features a strong representation of Columbia GSAPP faculty and alumni participating through installations, curatorial projects, and performances in the main biennale exhibition, various national pavilions, and collateral events held throughout Venice. Curated by Carlo Ratti, the Biennale exhibition, Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., is on view from May 10 through November 23, 2025.

“For decades, architecture’s response to the climate crisis has been centered on mitigation—designing to reduce our impact on the climate. But that approach is no longer enough. The time has come for architecture to embrace adaptation: rethinking how we design for an altered world…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.” said curator Carlo Ratti.

THE CORDERIE

“The Corderie opens with a stark confrontation: global temperatures rise while global populations fall. This is the reality architects must face in a time of adaptation.” From here – explains Ratti, “visitors will traverse three thematic worlds: Natural Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, and Collective Intelligence.

Intelligens is designed as a dynamic laboratory featuring over 750 participants: architects and engineers, mathematicians and climate scientists, philosophers and artists, chefs and coders, writers and woodcarvers, farmers and fashion designers, and many more. Participating GSAPP faculty and alumni are:

Building for Quantum
Faculty Marina Otero Verzier ’13 MSCCCP

Canal Café
Charles Renfro ’94 AAD and Ricardo Scofidio ’60 B.Arch / Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Collapse Crisis Formalism Nile Greenberg ‘16 M.Arch / Abel Nile New York

Doxiadis’ Informational Modernism
Senior Lecturer in Architecture Mark Wasiuta, Co-Director of the MSCCCP program and Farzin Lofti-Jam ’12 MSAAD

The Dunes: Resilient Communities
Associate Professor of Professional Practice Adam Lubinsky ’01 M.Arch, Interim Director, Real Estate Development Program / WXY architecture + urban design

Earthen Rituals: Digitizing Earth Materials From 3D Imaging to Machine Fabrication
GSAPP’s Natural Materials Lab led by Assistant Professor Lola Ben-Alon.

Fragile Frontlines: A Forensic Atlas of Loss & Damage in the Third Pole
Urban Justice League and Madeeha Merchant '14 M.Arch

Humedales Enmarañados. Agua, cables y datos en Quilicura, Chile. | Wetland Enmeshments. Water cables and data in Quilicura, Chile
Faculty Marina Otero Verzier ’13 MSCCCP

La Libreria
Charles Renfro ’94 AAD and Ricardo Scofidio ’60 B.Arch / Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Laguna
Faculty Wonne Ickx / PRODUCTORA

Margins of Error
Professor Laura Kurgan, Director of the MSCDP program, Adeline Chum ’22 M.Arch, Assistant Director of the Center for Spatial Research, Adam Vosburgh ’22 M.Arch, Assistant Director of the MSCDP program

Metabolic Home
Associate Professor Lydia Kallipoliti, Director of the MSAAD program

Oceanic Refractions
Faculty Elise Misao Hunchuck

The Other Side of the Hill
Dean Emeritus Mark Wigley

The Perimeter of Architecture: Amid the Elements
Assistant Professor Emanuel Admassu ’12 MSAAD ’13 AAR and Jen Wood '12 MSAAD / AD—WO, faculty Rachaporn Choochuey / all (zone), IDC Professor of Housing Design Hilary Sample / MOS

Prompts & Provenance: Decoding Digital Geographies – AI’s Interpretation and Our Exploration of Global Localities
Judd Smith '25 MSCDP
Virginia Zangs '24 MSCDP

Recycling Intelligences
Lluis Ortega ’98 MSAAD

The Refreshing Square
Faculty Philippe Rahm / Philippe Rahm Architectes

Specific Gravity
Lindsey Wikstrom ’16 M.Arch / Mattaforma

STONECRUST. The Microbeplanetary Infrastructure of Lithoecosystems
Dean Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation

Transspecies Kitchen
Dean Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation

Uni(wi)fied: Community-specific Design Methods for Community-owned WiFi Structures in Harlem’s Public Housing, New York City
Fabrizio Furiassi '19 MSAAD
This project was launched through the GSAPP Incubator Prize.

Visit The Architect’s Newspaper for the full list of exhibition participants.

NATIONAL PAVILIONS

66 National Participations will organize their exhibitions in the historic Pavilions at the Giardini, at the Arsenale, and in the city centre of Venice.

Chilean Pavilion:
Inteligencias Reflexivas / Reflective Intelligences
Curated by Linda Schilling Cuellar ’18 MSAUD and a curatorial team, the pavilion explores the spatial arrangements of environmental deliberation spaces by challenging the roundtable metaphor—government-coordinated spaces for dialogue. Faculty Marina Otero Verzier ‘13 MSCCCP is an advisor to this project.

Peruvian Pavilion:
Andamio Vivo / Living Scaffolding,
Curated by Alex Hudtwalcker ’20 MSAAD and a team including Sebastian Cilloniz ’17 MSAAD. This pavilion redefines and expands the concept of scaffolding as a structure existing in an unseen, lower realm but essential and indispensable to support and sustain life on the surface.

Taiwanese Pavilion:
Non Belief ([無]-信仰)
Curated by Hsueh Cheng-Iun ’97 MSAUD and a curatorial team from the Department of Architecture at the National Cheng Kung University. This pavilion seeks to explore and redefine the potential of contemporary Taiwanese architecture.

Pakistan Pavilion:
(Fr)Agile Systems Curated by Madeeha Merchant '14 M.Arch and a curatorial team, this pavilion highlights the severity of Pakistan’s vulnerability to climate-induced disasters, but also serves as a reminder of the stark inequality of the climate crisis.

US Pavilion:
PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity
Justin Garrett Moore '04 M.Arch, MSAUD served on the selection jury for the pavilion organized by the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas, in partnership with DesignConnects and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Participants include Ralph Cunningham '86 M.Arch / Quill Architects and Associate Professor of Professional Practice Adam Lubinsky ’01 M.Arch, Interim Director, Real Estate Development Program / WXY architecture + urban design.

Holy See Pavilion:
Opera aperta
Held in the Complesso di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, this pavilion is curated by faculty Marina Otero Verzier '13 MSCCCP with and Giovanna Zabotti.

COLLATERAL EVENTS

Applied Arts Pavilion Special Project:
On Storage
Curated by Charles Renfro ’94 AAD and Ricardo Scofidio ’60 B.Arch / Diller Scofidio + Renfro and additional participants, this pavilion explores the global architecture of storage in service of the circulation of things, and features a newly commissioned six-channel film directed by DS+R.

Biennale College Architettura 2024/25:
Lucia Rebolino ‘23 MSCDP is one of eight grant recipients awarded funds to realize a final project for presentation at the 2025 Biennale.

More information

The 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture, Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.

Media contact

Ilana Curtis, communications@arch.columbia.edu