2025 Architecture Biennale: Bahrain, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Kate Crawford awarded. The Golden Lions and mentions reveal the urgency of rethinking architecture between climate and new collective intelligences
The 19th International Architecture Exhibition, curated by Carlo Ratti with the title Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., awarded the official prizes during the ceremony held on Saturday, May 10—the first official day of public opening of the international event—at Ca’ Giustinian, near Piazza San Marco and the historic headquarters of the Venice Biennale.
The awards were determined by the jury composed of Hans Ulrich Obrist (president), Paola Antonelli and Mpho Matsipa, which highlighted the urgency of thinking about architecture in relation to ongoing environmental and social transformations.
Bahrain and climate adaptation
The Golden Lion for Best National Participation was awarded to the Kingdom of Bahrain for the project Canicola, hosted at the Arsenale.
Curated by Andrea Faraguna with a multidisciplinary team, the pavilion addresses the issue of extreme heat and proposes a concrete response inspired by traditional passive cooling methods: wind towers (badgir), shaded courtyards, porous materials. The intervention is designed to be applicable in public spaces and outdoor work environments.
The jury awarded the clarity of the proposal and its ability to unite sustainability and direct application.
Canal Café: an open bar on the lagoon
The Golden Lion for best participation in the Exhibition went to Canal Café, a project by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Natural Systems Utilities, SODAI, Aaron Betsky and chef Davide Oldani, with support also from Lavazza and Kartell.
Located outdoors in front of the Press Pavilion at the Arsenale, it presents itself as a bar-laboratory where coffee is prepared with water from the lagoon, purified through phytoremediation and advanced technologies.
The project transforms a simple, everyday gesture into a moment of ecological awareness, addressing the theme of water as a shared and vulnerable resource.
The jury valued the project’s ability to activate reflection on the Venetian context and urban ecology, as well as its long development history that began in 2008.
A visual genealogy of power
The Silver Lion was awarded to Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500, an installation created by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler.
Exhibited at the Corderie of the Arsenale, the work is a large illustrated panel of 24 m that traces the evolution of technical and social structures from 1500 to today, highlighting the connections between technology and power.
The jury recognized the critical and informative value of the project, capable of making visible the hidden infrastructure of power and opening new readings on the relationships between architecture, data and control.
Two special mentions for National Participations
The first is for the Holy See Pavilion, Opera Aperta, hosted in the Complex of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Castello and curated by Marina Otero Verzier and Giovanna Zabotti, with design by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and MAIO Architects.
The project gives new life to a deconsecrated church, transforming it into a space open to the public, designed to host shared activities and moments of dialogue, in line with the values expressed in the encyclical Laudato si’, which invites us to care for the Earth and for people.
The second mention was awarded to the United Kingdom for the pavilion GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair, curated by Owen Hopkins, Kathryn Yusoff, Kabage Karanja and Stella Mutegi.
The exhibition arises from a collaboration between the United Kingdom and Kenya and addresses the theme of colonial extraction, seeking to imagine new relationships between architecture, geology and repair.
New practices: Lagos and the Elephant Chapel
Two special mentions as well. Alternative Urbanism by Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo explores informal markets and waste disposal sites in Lagos as places of resilience and urban innovation. The project was appreciated for its documentary value and for its potential to generate research and applied knowledge.
The other mention went to Elephant Chapel by Boonserm Premthada, an installation built with bricks composed of elephant dung and natural materials, as part of a sanctuary in Thailand. The structure celebrates the coexistence between humans and animals, and demonstrates an alternative and sustainable use of biomaterials.
The Lifetime Achievement Lions
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to philosopher Donna Haraway, an important figure in the reflection on post-humanism, rethinking the world as a space shared by many species and alternative futures.
The special Lion in Memoriam went to Italo Rota, architect and designer who passed away in 2024, remembered for his visionary and multidisciplinary capacity.
2025 Architecture Biennale Awards
Golden Lion – National Participation
Kingdom of Bahrain – Canicola
Passive cooling and adaptation to extreme heat
Golden Lion – International Exhibition
Diller Scofidio + Renfro – Canal Café
Purified canal water, urban ecology and environmental awareness
Silver Lion – Promising Participation
Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler – Calculating Empires
Visual genealogy of technological power and invisible infrastructures
Special Mentions – National Participations
- Holy See – Opera Aperta
- United Kingdom – GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair
Special Mentions – International Exhibition
- Tosin Oshinowo – Alternative Urbanism
- Boonserm Premthada – Elephant Chapel
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
Donna Haraway – philosopher, post-human theorist
Golden Lion in Memoriam
Italo Rota – architect and designer (1943–2024)
19th Architecture Exhibition
A dynamic laboratory for “adaptation to an altered world.”
Until November 23, 2025
Article by Lucia Pecoraro.
Photos by Lucia Pecoraro, Rossana Viola and La Biennale di Venezia.
