Exploring Climate and Population Challenges at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale

Entering the central exhibition of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale immerses visitors in a strikingly disorienting atmosphere marked by darkness, intense tropical humidity, and eerie music interwoven with the hum of air-conditioning. This evocative scene portrays a vision of Venice a century from now, serving as a cautionary tale about the excessive reliance on air conditioning.

Moving into a contrastingly cooler environment, visitors encounter a sharply rising concave wall made of white bricks. Along its side, dates chart the rapid increase of the global population from 3,000 B.C., highlighting a sharp rise beginning in 1804 that is projected to peak soon before declining.

These two installations capture the core themes of this year’s Biennale, which runs through November 23: the intertwined challenges of climate change and population dynamics. Under the title 'Intelligens: Natural, Artificial and Collective,' the exhibition investigates how architecture can serve as a pivotal force in adapting to a transforming planet.

The exhibition’s curator emphasized the philosophy behind the show, quoting an introductory panel that asserts, 'The future of architecture lies not in dominating nature, but in forming a partnership with it.'

He further highlighted the question posed to visitors: 'In this new era, can we conceive buildings as intelligent and adaptive as trees?'

While the exhibition features around 300 projects from approximately 750 contributors worldwide — a notable increase compared to previous years — the themes are not always explicitly clear. The majority of works were selected through an unprecedented open call, branded as a 'space for ideas,' which welcomed fresh perspectives from emerging voices across the globe that might otherwise have gone unheard.