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Carlo Ratti: The Latest Architecture and News

From Martian Hydrospheres to Forest-Like Cities: 6 Radical Urban Visions Unveiled at the Venice 2025 Architecture Biennale

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Cities today are being reimagined as living, evolving organisms, combining digital intelligence, ecological systems, and new materials to shape radical futures. At Carlo Ratti's "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective." biennial, over 750 participants challenge established boundaries between architecture, landscape, and technology. Several conceptual projects showcased in the main exhibition challenge conventional boundaries between architecture, landscape, and technology. From bio-adaptive urban systems and Martian water-based settlements to immersive symphonies of satellite data, these works collectively envision new models for cohabitation, resilience, and planetary awareness.

This month's Unbuilt selection presents six speculative projects, presented as part of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale exhibition, as provocations for rethinking the future of cities and human settlement. While some proposals transform architecture into self-sustaining, living infrastructures, others explore how data and sensory interfaces can redefine our relationship with natural and urban environments. Together, they offer a cross-section of how architects and designers are using unbuilt work to imagine new possibilities for life on Earth and beyond.

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CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and Höweler + Yoon Design Floating Plaza to be Transported from Venice Biennale to COP30 in Brazil

CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati and Höweler + Yoon have unveiled images of AquaPraça, a floating gathering space for global climate dialogue set to anchor COP30 in Belém, Brazil. Currently under construction in northeastern Italy by steel construction company Cimolai, the project will be unveiled at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia on 4 September 2025. It will then embark on a transatlantic journey to Brazil, where it will form part of the Italian Pavilion at COP30, held from 10 to 21 November 2025. Following the event, it is intended to become a permanent floating landmark in the Amazon as part of Belém's cultural infrastructure.

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The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale Opens on Saturday, May 10th

The 19th edition of one of the world's most renowned architectural events opens to the public this week. The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. and curated by Carlo Ratti, will run from Saturday, May 10, to Sunday, November 23, 2025. This year's edition stands out for both its scale and its expanded range of venues, partly due to the ongoing renovation of traditional sites such as the Central Pavilion in the Giardini. The event is set to transform Venice into what the curator describes as "a living laboratory."

The inauguration ceremony, to be held on May 10, will also feature the announcement of the official awards by the International Jury, chaired by Hans Ulrich Obrist and composed of Paola Antonelli and Mpho Matsipa. On this occasion, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement will be presented to philosopher Donna Haraway, while the Special Golden Lion in Memoriam will honor the late architect Italo Rota. Alongside the international exhibition, national participations and a broad range of special events will explore the Biennale's invitation, making this one of the most extensive architecture exhibitions in the Biennale's history.

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Architecture Now: Urban Updates from Madrid to L.A. on Climate, Policy, and Recovery

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In recent weeks, cities around the world have introduced new policies, recovery efforts, and infrastructure projects that reflect growing pressure to adapt to climate realities. From Southern Europe to South America and the United States, these urban updates address both immediate challenges and long-term shifts in how the built environment is governed, designed, and inhabited. Some initiatives focus on regulation, tightening building codes in fire-prone areas or reforming aging safety systems, while others spotlight large-scale investments tied to global events such as COP30 and the Venice Architecture Biennale. This edition of Architecture Now gathers a selection of city-led actions and collaborative efforts that point toward a more resilient, responsive future for architecture and urban life.

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Discover the Full List of Special Projects and Participants of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale

The 19th International Architecture Exhibition, organised by La Biennale di Venezia under Carlo Ratti's curatorship and the theme "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective," is set to transform Venice into a "Living Laboratory" of experimentation and collaboration. This year's special projects extend beyond the exhibition grounds, integrating into various city locations and Forte Marghera in Mestre, providing an alternative perspective that expands the reach of architectural discourse.

The Biennale promises to be a dynamic platform uniting over 750 participants from diverse backgrounds, including architects, engineers, mathematicians, climate scientists, and artists. Such a broad coalition of over 280 projects underlines the Exhibition's focus on inclusivity and interdisciplinary collaboration, an essential aspect for adaptation. The selection process proposed a bottom-up, open call approach through the Space for Ideas initiative, which ran between May and June 2024. It encouraged participation from global teams, from Pritzker Prize winners and Nobel laureates to emerging architects and scientists.

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The Taiwan Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Biennale Explores the “Precarious Intelligens”

At the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia 2025, the collateral event titled "NON-Belief: Taiwan Intelligens of Precarity" is curated by Cheng-Luen Hsueh and co-curators Ping-Sheng Wu, Meng-Tsun Su, and Sung-Chang Leo Chiang, working alongside a team from the NCKU Department of Architecture. In line with the Biennale's main theme, "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.", the exhibition explores the idea of "precarious intelligens," a form of resilience shaped by the intersection of natural disasters, geopolitical challenges, globalization, and an uncertain future.

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Carlo Ratti Designs Olympic and Paralympic Torches for Milano Cortina 2026

The official torches, named Essential, for the Milano Cortina 2026: Winter Olympics and Paralympics, were unveiled in parallel events at the Triennale di Milano and Expo 2025 in Osaka. Designed by Carlo Ratti Associati in collaboration with Eni and its subsidiary Versalis, Essential takes a minimalist approach that foregrounds the flame as the central element. The project blends Italian design with engineering precision, resulting in a torch that serves as both a symbolic and technical object. Its open structure, uncommon in torch design, allows viewers to see how the flame is produced, revealing the typically hidden mechanisms at work.

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