This year’s Venice Architecture Biennale opened with a strong message: architecture is no longer just about buildings, it’s about systems, data, climate, and the future of our collective living.
Curated by Carlo Ratti, architect, engineer, and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, the 2025 edition explores how architecture can respond to the complex challenges of the 21st century. Ratti is known for his visionary approach to urban design, blending digital technologies with physical space to make cities more responsive and sustainable. His curatorship brings together projects that don’t just show, but actively provoke new ways of thinking.
Among the many standout installations we experienced:
Lavazza’s water bar filtered water from the Venice lagoon to brew coffee: a symbolic and literal act of transformation, highlighting the role of design in sustainable resource use.
Refik Anadol’s immersive work once again pushed the boundaries between art, AI, and data. Using real-time environmental inputs, his installation created a living visual narrative that was both beautiful and unsettling, a reminder of the invisible forces shaping our environment.
Climate change, unsurprisingly, was everywhere, but what struck us was how varied the responses were. From speculative futures to urgent calls for action, architecture is clearly shifting from object-making to system-thinking.
We were especially proud to see the installation by Paolo Ciuccarelli (founder of DensityDesign Lab, professor of design at Northeastern University) in collaboration with Albert-László Barabási, the network science pioneer. Their project mapped the invisible dynamics of collaboration, influence, and complexity, a fitting contribution to a Biennale about the interwoven systems of our world.
The Venice Biennale remains one of the most important global platforms for architectural thought, not just showcasing innovation, but shaping discourse. For us at The Visual Agency, it was a chance to connect, reflect, and get inspired by how design can illuminate the urgent issues of our time.
As always, an eye-opening experience.