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Today, the 20th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia was officially presented. It will take place from May 8 to November 21, 2027, with pre-opening events on May 6 and 7, at the Giardini, the Arsenale, and other venues across Venice.
The President of the Biennale, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, together with curators Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, announced the title and theme of the Biennale Architettura 2027: Do Architecture – The Possibility of Coexistence in Real Reality.
"We believe that architecture is not merely something to discuss, but above all something to practice personally,” explain Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu. “The philosophy of architecture is first and foremost a ‘philosophy of making’: a practice that engages with reality, in specific places and through concrete constructions. It is precisely through this concrete act of ‘making’ that seemingly incompatible elements can find forms of coexistence within the same space.” The question at the heart of the Biennale concerns not only architecture, but the very destiny of contemporaneity itself: is coexistence still possible? Can memory and innovation, artisanal slowness and industrial efficiency, natural materials and advanced technologies, urban development and the rural world still coexist? These are questions that transcend disciplinary boundaries and challenge the very idea of progress that has been built over recent decades.
It is no coincidence that the core of the reflection revolves around the verb “to make.” In an era marked by the climate crisis, global homogenization, and technological saturation, the act of building once again becomes an ethical gesture before being an aesthetic one. To make architecture means taking responsibility for the material consequences of design: land consumption, the resources employed, and the social relationships generated by buildings. “In a context shaped by concrete and urgent crises, adopting a simple and authentic approach to architecture takes on a particular significance today.”
President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco stated:
“Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu bring architecture back to its most concrete, physical, and necessary dimension: that of building in direct relationship with the land, materials, communities, and the reality of places. Their thinking reaffirms the value of ‘making’ as a cultural, ethical, and constructive act, far removed from spectacle and global standardization. Through the recovery of materials, artisanal techniques, and processes of slow transformation, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu propose an idea of architecture that incorporates the past as a living material of the present. This is also why I decided to entrust them with the direction of the Biennale: inhabiting and moving through their buildings has been the most tangible confirmation of the strength of their ideas. The theme Do Architecture – The Possibility of Coexistence in Real Reality thus becomes an invitation to build new forms of coexistence between nature and artifice, innovation and memory, contemporary design and local cultures. Their appointment recognizes architecture’s ability to root itself in territories and transform them while safeguarding their complexity.”
Cover image: © ASAC- Matteo Losurdo
All images courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
