The Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 - 22 entries selected by METALOCUS

Muromuro Studio is an architecture and design practice spanning a wide range of typologies, including public spaces, private residences, retail stores and object design, founded by Ioana Chifu and Onar Stănescu in 2024 in Bucharest, Romania.

In 2022, they expanded their activity with the opening of Grotto Gallery, a contemporary art and design gallery. This initiative allowed them to focus on exhibition design and curatorial work, further exploring the intersection between art and design. In addition to their architectural practice, Muromuro Studio is deeply engaged in furniture design, creating pieces that experiment with bold geometric forms, raw materials, and refined details, balancing functionality with artistic expression.

Vlad Nancă (b. 1979, Bucharest) studied at the National University of Arts, Bucharest, Department of Photography and Moving Image.

In his early works, Vlad Nancă uses political and cultural symbols to explore nostalgia and the changes in society, set against the backdrop of Romania and Eastern Europe’s recent history and the rise of aggressive capitalism in the early 2000s.

In his recent work, Nancă explores space in various forms, from public space and architecture to outer space, consistently utilising archival material and references from art and architectural history to create unique subject matter materialising in sculptures and installations.

Cosmina Goagea is an architect, curator and researcher within the doctoral programme at Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya - UPC. Starting in 2000, her research and curatorial practice is focused on museum exhibition, art as urban practice, place-making through cultural interventions, bottom-up city transformation, regenerative architecture, culture-led policy making, contemporary art.

Artistic director of Zeppelin – platform of communication and action. She received distinctions including the DASA Award from the European Museum Academy (2021), BigSEE Design Award (2019 and 2022), and was shortlisted for the European Prize for Public Space (2011) and for the EU Mies van der Rohe Award (2024).

Gabriele G. Kiefer (Frankenthal, Germany, October 17, 1960) is an architect and professor at the TU Braunschweig. In 1989, founded BÜRO KIEFER in Berlin, the projects were created in an amplio style and style. Además de los concepts de áreas reconvertidas, los urban parques en particular son el foco de su trabajo. Kiefer enseñó in various universities, including Versalles, Nápoles y Valdivia. In 2015 he was a visiting professor in the UDP in Santiago de Chile. In 2020, together with Anika Neubauer, the first volumes of the series of text books «Landscape for Architects/Landscape for Architects/Paisaje para arquitectos» were published.

Nicola Borgmann (BDA, DASL) works internationally as a curator, engineer and art historian. She combines her practical work with research, publications and teaching. Since 1995, she has been the director of the Architekturgalerie München, for which she develops exhibits and events on current issues of building culture. For her commitment, she has been awarded, among other recognitions, the Bavarian Architecture Prize of the Bayerische Architektenkammer (2011) and the Architecture Prize of the City of Munich (2018). Nicola Borgman has taught at the TU München, the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, the EIABC in Addis Ababa and, since 2019, at the Universität Zürich.

Elisabeth Endres is an architect and representative, in research, research and practice, integrated concepts in the design of the building parameters, construction activities and energy technology in the design of buildings and urban areas. In 2018 he was director of the engineering company Hausladen and in 2019 he was professor of engineering technology at the TU Braunschweig and was associated with the direction of the Instituto de Climatología de la Construcción y Energía de la Arquitectura y del Centro para la Sociedad de la Innovación de la TU Braunschweig. Endres es miembro de la BDA y de la DASL, así como miembro del consejo asesor del Landesdenkmalrat Berlin y de la HafenCity Hamburg, miembro of the consejo directivo de la IBA’27 Stuttgart y miembro del comité de becas de la Fundación Federal Alemana para el Medio Ambiente y de la Fundación Federal Bauakademie.

Daniele Santucci is an architect, university professor and employer who works in the interface between the data, the climate, the entire structure and its impact on the people. From April 2022, the Cátedra de tecnología de la construction at the University of RWTH de Aachen will be directed. It is co-funded and director general of Climateflux GmbH, an empresa that owns a studios de arquitectura, instituciones públicas y private empresas sobre estrategias y solutions de design para abordar la adaptación climática y el comfort exterior en el espacio urbano. In 2017 and 2018 he was a visiting investigator at the Senseable City Lab of the Technical Institute of Massachusetts and a doctorate at the TU Munich.

Norman Foster Foundation was founded in London in 1999, and headquartered in Madrid since 2017. It promotes interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations anticipate the future. Central to its work is Norman Foster’s enduring philosophy that architecture, infrastructure and urbanism directly impact the quality of our lives as new cities are created and existing ones evolve. Since its launch, the Foundation’s educational programmes— comprising workshops, forums and fellowships —have encouraged new thinking and research to help future civic leaders prepare for the challenges they will face, based on data rather than fashion. Those programmes and principles led to the creation of the Norman Foster Institute which launched its first Master’s Course on Sustainable Cities in January 2024.  

The Foundation is also home to the Norman Foster Archive and part of his Library, which provides a window into the larger narrative and history of our built environment through the work of Norman Foster and other prominent architects. The Archive is an open online resource and contributes to exhibitions worldwide. The education programmes and research teams are supported by the Foundation’s in-house architectural team. The work of the Foundation is shared with a wider audience through the books and reports created by the Norman Foster Foundation publications team.  

The Norman Foster Foundation is the recipient of various awards and was recognised as a Centre of Excellence by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in 2021. The Foundation is headquartered in Madrid and operates globally.

Kaisa Karvinen is an architect, curator, and researcher based in Helsinki. Through writing and exhibitions, she explores the principles that shape the construction of diverse futures and histories in architecture and design. She currently works as a curator at the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design.

She holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from Aalto University (ca. 2017) and a Master of Research in Art and Design from Sint Lucas School of Arts in Antwerp. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Oulu, focusing on modern architecture and the role of concrete in urban environments.

Her recent projects include Stripped Frame (2021), an exhibition addressing the demolition of modern architecture, and the urban research platform (Re)configuring Territories (2019–2022), which explored post-industrial landscapes in the Baltic Sea region. Karvinen is also a member of the Trojan Horse collective and co-editor of the publication Borrowing Positions: Role-Playing Design and Architecture (2019).

Teo Ala-Ruona (b. 1990, Kuopio, Finland) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Helsinki, working internationally within the expanded field of performance. His practice intersects performance art, theatre, and choreography, with a focus on trans embodiment and ecology. Grounded in critical theory and speculative fiction, Ala-Ruona uses the performing body as a reflective surface to examine the impact of social, sociopolitical, and historical structures of power.

His work has been presented at prominent institutions and events, including the Performa Biennial in New York, the Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, and the Finnish National Gallery Kiasma in Helsinki. He holds two master’s degrees: an MA in Art Education from Aalto University (2016) and an MA in Ecology and Contemporary Performance from the Theatre Academy of Helsinki (2018).

In Industry Muscle: Five Scores for Architecture, Ala-Ruona extends his artistic inquiry into the field of architecture, bringing together a multidisciplinary team to explore how trans bodies can reframe our understanding of the built environment. The project challenges modernist conventions and fossil-fuel-based cultural imaginaries through embodied, performative interventions.

RSAU is is a design practice working in the fields of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and research. It was established by Roi Salgueiro Barrio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA in 2007.

Roi Salgueiro Barrio is an architect and urbanist. He holds a PhD in Architectural Design by the University of Barcelona, a Master in Design Studies from Harvard University, and a Master in Architecture from the University of Navarra.

His work has been published in journals such as Log, The Journal of Architectural Education, New Geographies, San Rocco, or Cartha. It has also been exhibited at the 2016 Lisbon Triennale, Yale University, Sao Paolo School of Architecture, and Melbourne School of Design.

Roi teaches at the MIT Department of Architecture, where he is also a Research Scientist at the MIT Leventhal for Advanced Urbanism. Previously, he was a Research Associate at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Between 2006 and 2012, Roi was the Architect and Director of the Office of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of A Coruña (Spain).

Juan Manuel Pachué and Marco Zampieron, along with Matías Salmón, are the founders of "Cooperativa", a space dedicated to holding architectural competitions established in the city of Rosario since 2015. They have received various awards, including the MAAPE call for young architects in 2023.

They are also co-founders of "Architecture as an Excuse" (2022), an independent publishing project that published the book "Casa Yapeyú" in 2024 through the FNA Creation Scholarship in 2023. They are also finalists for the Estímulo a la Escritura: Todos los tiempos el tiempo (Writing Incentive Award): 2022.

Juan Manuel Pachué is an architect, graduated from the Faculty of Architecture, Planning, and Design at the National University of Rosario. He teaches architecture and graphic design at the FAPyD - UNR (National University of Rosario). He currently resides and works in Rosario.

Marco Zampieron holds a degree in Architecture from the National University of Rosario. He is a member of the Fuga collective, with whom he received the Plan Fomento Scholarship in 2021 and 2022. He also edited the book Cien Edificios in 2022, with the support of Ventanilla Continua.

Andrea Faraguna (b. 1981) is an architect, he studied architecture at Università Iuav di Venezia, where he received a master’s degree in 2006 and a doctorate in 2017. From 2010 to 2018, he taught at the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio, first with Francesco Venezia and later with Piet Eckert and Wim Eckert of the studio E2A. In 2017, he and Niklas Bildstein Zaar cofounded the Berlin-based architecture office Sub.

Sub translates sociocultural dynamics into sensorially complex environments. Synthesizing visuals, research, technology, and architecture, the office involves practitioners from a range of disciplinary and cultural backgrounds to create projects that vary in duration and scale. Their multifaceted, world-building approach combines emerging technologies and semantic analysis with traditional architectural techniques, adding a rich layer of versatility to their creative endeavors across commercial, cultural, and entertainment environments.

Exemplary of Sub’s agenda are the following projects: the Museum of the History of the Tragedy, designed for the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, Kyiv; Balenciaga Couture Headquarters on Avenue George V, Paris; and the exhibition design for Anne Imhof’s Natures Mortes at Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

Fai AU (HKIA) is the founder and principal of O Studio Architects, and Associate Professor of Practice in the University of Hong Kong. His practice has received numerous awards and honour including 2021 Prix Versailles Continental Winner, 2020 Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard and 2011 HKIA Medal of the Year. His research focuses primarily on the topic of high-density city living, congestion, gentrification, and social inequality. He is a co-curator of 2017 Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Hong Kong)*, and the curator of 2022 PMQ HKU Architecture Gallery Exhibition.

His works have been featured in various exhibitions including 2023 The Architecture of Prayer Exhibition, 2019 Good Design Award Exhibition, 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2018 Play to Change Exhibition, 2017 Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Hong Kong)*, 2017 PMQ 10×100 Exhibition*, 2016 "REVEAL 2: +-x÷" Exhibition, 2015 "Past Present Future – Tracking Hong Kong" Exhibition* and 2013 Agoras Green Architecture Exhibition.

Dr. Ying Zhou (AIA Assoc.) is an architect and urban theorist teaching at The University of Hong Kong. She is the current chair of Docomomo HK and is on the editorial board of Architectural Histories, the journal of the European Architectural History Network. Her concern for architecture’s agency in the civicness of the city has compelled her current research into the conceptions and aspirations for the Urban Council complexes since the 1970s in Hong Kong.

She also researches the arts ecologies in East Asian cities through their spatial productions, and their intersections with heritage conservation, gentrification, and creative cities. Prior to Hong Kong, she taught and researched with the chair of Professor Kees Christiaanse at the Future Cities Laboratory of the Singapore-ETH Centre and the chair of Professors Herzog and de Meuron at the ETH Studio Basel Contemporary Cities Institute.

Ar. Sing Yeung Sunnie LAU (HKIA) is the founding director of SOSArchitecture Urban Design Studio. Her professional development focuses on human-centered design, promoting inclusive communities through innovative sustainable design strategies.

She implemented the "Smart City" and "Sustainability" initiatives at the MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node (2019-2024) as director. She co-taught and led the 2021 "Hacking Kowloon East" IAP workshop and spring course with Professor Brent Ryan (MIT); and the 2022 "Beyond Smart Cities - 10-min Self-Sustainable Neighbors in Island South" IAP workshop with Professor Kent Larson (City Science Group, Media Lab, MIT); and Urban Technology Week 2023-2024 with MITDesignX, MAD, MIT.

Taking on the roles of both practitioner and educator, she has been promoting architecture through design, exhibition, writing as outreach, and community engagement. Her published research includes: “Inclusive Innovation and Growth in Kowloon East,” “Urban Mobility and Smart Infrastructure,” “Urban Resilience by Design: Adaptive Landscapes for Public Relations Development,” etc. She was a co-curator and exhibitor at the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture (Hong Kong)* in 2017 and 2019, and an exhibitor at the 2021 Architecture Biennale (Hong Kong)* in Venice.* Sponsored by the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (formerly known as Create Hong Kong of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government).

The Living Room Collective is a group of architects, scientists, artists and educators who work at the intersection of architecture, biology and digital fabrication technologies—led by Canadian architect and biodesigner Andrea Shin Ling. Alongside core team members Nicholas Hoban, Vincent Hui and Clayton Lee, the collective seeks to move society away from exploitative systems of production to regenerative ones by inventing design methods and processes that center on natural systems. They see the Biennale Architettura 2025 as a platform to generate national and international conversations that ask: How does one fabricate a biological architecture? What are the conditions of stewardship? What are the strategies to instigate this at scale, regionally and globally?

Andrea Shin Ling is an architect and biodesigner who works at the intersection of design, digital fabrication and biology. Her work focuses on how the critical application of biologically and computationally mediated design processes can move society away from exploitative systems of production to regenerative ones. She is the 2020 S+T+ARTS Grand Prize winner for her work as Ginkgo Bioworks’ creative resident designing the decay of artifacts in order to access material circularity. Andrea is a founder of designGUILD, a Toronto-based art collective, and was a researcher in the Mediated Matter group at the MIT Media Lab, where she worked on Aguahoja I, a 3D-printed bio-material pavilion. She is currently a doctoral fellow at the Chair of Digital Building Technologies at ETH Zurich.

Nicholas Hoban is a computational designer, fabricator and educator. He works at the intersection of computational design, robotics, construction and simulation in pedagogy, research and practice. Nicholas is the director of applied technologies at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design and a lecturer within the Daniels technology specialist program, leading various research and teaching labs while developing curriculum for studios and seminars on advanced fabrication and robotics within architecture. His research focuses on the application of robotics within fabrication and construction and on how we can solve critical problems in geometry through integrated processes. Nicholas was a lead fabricator and computational designer for two previous Venice Biennales: for the 2014 Canadian Pavilion for Lateral Office’s Arctic Adaptations and for the 2016 Swiss Pavilion for Christian Kerez’s Incidental Space.

Vincent Hui is a distinguished professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Department of Architectural Science, imparting knowledge across diverse domains from design studios to digital tools. His pedagogical excellence has earned him multiple teaching accolades, as he delves into the intersections of architecture, fabrication and allied disciplines. With over 25 years of experience, his extensive publication portfolio focuses on design pedagogy, simulation, prototyping and technological convergence, complemented by a rich body of creative work showcased globally. Collaborating with esteemed organizations such as the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) and the Canadian Architecture Students’ Association (CASA), Vincent endeavours to empower the next generation of designers, navigating emergent shifts in praxis. Committed to bridging academia and industry, he advocates for experiential learning initiatives and outreach endeavours for aspiring designers. His remarkable contributions have culminated in his induction into the esteemed RAIC College of Fellows.

Clayton Lee is a curator, producer and performance artist. He is currently the director (artistic) of the Fierce Festival, in Birmingham, UK. He was previously the director of the Rhubarb Festival, Canada’s longest-running festival of new and experimental performance, at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Clayton has also worked as creative producer on Jess Dobkin’s projects, including For What It’s Worth, her commission at the Wellcome Collection, in London, UK; as curatorial associate at the Luminato Festival; and as managing producer of the CanadaHub at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His performance projects have been presented in venues across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. He was one of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s 2023 artists-in-residence.

Søren Pihlmann, born in 1987, founded his Copenhagen-based architectural studio Pihlmann Architects in 2021, where by exploring new materials and re-evaluating existing ones, he strives to rethink conventional architectural perspectives.

Examining the potential of both overproduced and underrated materials, he combines them based on their inherent properties, creating compositions that evoke both familiarity and discovery.

In recent years, he has made a significant mark on the Danish architectural scene through a series of transformative projects that have influenced contemporary discourse. In 2023, his project House14a was awarded Denmark’s most prestigious architectural prize, the Årets Arne, named after celebrated modernist Arne Jacobsen. That same year, he was shortlisted for three Architectural Review Awards, having previously received the Henning Larsen Foundation Honorary Award in 2022.

Electric Architects is an architecture and urban planning studio founded in 2011 in Moscow, Russia, by architect and urban planner Marianna Karapetyan. In 2017, the studio moved to Yerevan, Armenia, to develop the "Dépot" project, an urban innovation neighbourhood they conceived.

Marianna Karapetyan is an Armenian architect and urban planner with a master's degree in industrial architecture from the Moscow Institute of Architecture and a master's degree in "Housing and Urbanism" from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. Throughout her career, she has worked on projects of diverse scales, from furniture design to large-scale urban developments.

Karapetyan is the curator of the Armenian Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2025, with the project entitled "Microarchitecture Through AI: Making New Memories with Ancient Monuments."

Currently, Electric Architects has a multidisciplinary team of 28 professionals, including architects, interior and graphic designers, engineers, and managers. The studio is led by Marianna Karapetyan as CEO and Karen Badalian as artistic director.

In recent years, the studio has focused primarily on residential development in Yerevan, exploring typological approaches to the formation of housing units and communities. Its projects range from large-scale urban projects to the organization of temporary festivals.

Tai Lee Siang is the Deputy President/Chief Innovation & Enterprise Officer of SUTD. He also oversees the Design and Artificial Intelligence degree programme that is now seeing a profound impact in the fields of design. In 2022, he was appointed as Centre Director of DesignZ – the next generation design centre. He was the Head of Pillar for Architecture and Sustainability Design from 2021 to 2024.

Prof. Tai graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) from NUS in 1987 and has been practising as an architect and urban designer since 1990. As a partner at DP Architects Pte Ltd, his projects won local and international awards, and he was featured in the Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority’s ‘20 under 45’ young architects’ exhibition in 2004.

He served as President of the Singapore Institute of Architects from 2007 to 2009 and became the first Chairman of the Design Alliance of Singapore in 2009. In 2013, he was elected President of the Design Business Chamber Singapore and launched the Singapore Good Design Mark in 2014. From 2010 to 2016, he was Group Managing Director of Ong&Ong Group, a multidisciplinary design firm.

In 2011, Prof. Tai was elected President of the Singapore Green Building Council and established Singapore’s first green building product certification scheme. He joined the World Green Building Council as a Board Director in 2013 and was elected Chairman in 2016, initiating the global Advancing Net Zero campaign.

After his tenure at the World Green Building Council, he joined the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) as Executive Director of BuildSG, leading a nearly 100-strong team and spearheading industry transformation.

Awards
. 1988 – Sword of Honour, Singapore Armed Forces.
. 1999 – Architectural Heritage Awards – Far East Square.
. 2004 – “20 under 45” – Top 20 Singapore Architects below the age of 45.
. 2006 – President’s Design Award – Design of the Year, New Majestic Hotel.
. 2010 – The International FIABCI Prix d’Excellence Award – Central@Clark Quay.

Khoo Peng Beng is the Head of the Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) pillar and Professor of Practice at SUTD.

Prior to joining SUTD in 2025, Prof Khoo served as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for over 23 years, where he led multiple international design studios representing NUS and Singapore in architecture and design.

With over 31 years of experience in the architecture field, Prof Khoo is the co-founder of ARC Studio Architecture + Urbanism which he established in 1998 with his wife and fellow architect, Belinda Huang. Their architectural practice is renowned for its bold and transformative designs across multiple countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, China, India, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, and Rwanda. One of their most iconic projects, the Pinnacle@Duxton, has redefined high-rise, high-density public housing in Singapore, proving that sustainable, green, and living closer together can be both practical and enjoyable. In recognition of their design excellence, outstanding contributions to the community and inspiring the younger generation, the team was conferred the prestigious President’s Design Award Designer of the Year in 2020. The project has also won several other prestigious awards including the CTBUH Best Tall Building in Asia Australasia, CTBUH Most Sustainable Tall Building Award, World Architecture Festival (WAF) Best Residential Building in the World, FIABCI Prix d’Excellence Award and ULI Award for Excellence 2010.

In 2022, Prof Khoo co-curated the ArchiFest and in 2010, he was the lead curator for the Singapore Pavillion ‘1000 Singapores: A Model of a Compact City’ at the Venice Biennale.

Prof Khoo’s research interests spans across quantum consciousness, holarchy, trans-contextuality, deep sustainability, and integral ecology in architecture.

Immanuel Koh is an Assistant Professor in both the pillars of Architecture & Sustainable Design (ASD) and Design & Artificial Intelligence (DAI) at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). He directs Artificial-Architecture — an interdisciplinary research laboratory that focuses on the design and development of deep learning models for artificial creativity, generative architecture, predictive urbanism and defence intelligence, with funded projects from industry, academia and government. At ASD & DAI, he teaches courses on the history, theory and practice of artificial intelligence for critical thinking (Artificial & Architectural Intelligence in Design), creative design (Creative Machine Learning) and industry application (Spatial Design Studio).

Prior to joining SUTD, he was based at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, doing transdisciplinary research work between the School of Computer Sciences and the Institute of Architecture. His doctoral studies, which was nominated for the EPFL Best Thesis Prize and the Lopez-Loreta Prize, interrogated the formal basis of machine-learnable architecture by formulating a new design theory called Architectural Sampling. He is the author of the book Artificial & Architectural Intelligence in Design (2020) — a first to reflect on the epistemological implications of AI on architecture, and vice versa.

Since graduating from the Architectural Association (AA) London, Immanuel has taught at the AA, Royal College of Art (London), Tsinghua (Beijing), Strelka (Moscow), Die Angewandte (Vienna), DIA (Bauhaus Dessau), Harvard GSD, UCL Bartlett, GAFA (Guangzhou), HIT (Harbin), Makerspace Academy (Bangalore) and many others. His design work has been exhibited internationally, such as at NeurIPS’ AI & Art Gallery, Venice Architecture Biennale, London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, Shanghai’s 3D Printing Museum and Taipei’s Tittot Glass Art Museum; and published widely, such as in Architectural Design (AD), Design Computing & Cognition, CAAD Futures and DigitalFUTURES. Immanuel has also practiced as an architect at Zaha Hadid Architects (London), as a programmer at ARUP with Relational Urbanism (London), and as a creative coder at Convergeo (Lausanne) and anOtherArchitect (Berlin). He is the co-founder of the international avant-garde collective Neural Architecture Group (NAG) and co-curator of the global AIArchitects.org.

Sam Conrad Joyce is an Associate Professor, with a joint appointment in Architecture and Sustainable Design pillar acting as coordinator for PhD programme as well as Design and Artificial Intelligence as studio leader for the Spatial AI Studio.

He heads up the Meta Design Lab a research group which focuses on the productive intersection between the city, creative design, and computation: Seeking new insights, interfaces, and collaborative models for human and machines to work together for the betterment of architecture and master planning. Specifically exploring the way that generative design, big data, analytics, and machine learning can augment existing human design processes though data visualisation, predictions, generative-AI, decision support, and web based feedback.

Prior to this he was an Associate at Foster + Partners, in the Applied Research and Development group leading structural integration and contributing to a range of projects including Mexico City New Airport, Apple Campus, Bloomberg Headquarters, and UAE Expo Pavilion Milan. And before this he held a role as Design Systems Analyst at Buro Happold working on geometrical, structural and master-planning projects, such as Louvré Abu Dhabi and both the London and Sochi Olympic Stadiums. Working with Autodesk developing the programming language Design Script for parametric design in Revit.

His doctoral work focused on applied design computation for integrated architectural and engineering in professional practice, deploying develop data rich systems for effective design space exploration and executive decision making. To enable this, his work synthesised and applied new techniques in distributed and scalable computing, multi-objective optimization, big data analytics, artificial intelligence and web based visualisation.

He has taught internationally including technical studies in the Architectural Association, London, and Design Programming at Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden. Holding workshops and collaborations widely including the Singapore Pavilion Venice Biennale, Smart Geometry at the University of Toronto, Kyoto University of Technology and Inujima Island with Sejima architects SANAA, and Geidai University Tokyo with Ryuji Fujimura Architects.

Giovanna Zabotti, born in Venice in 1971, is a prominent figure in Italy’s cultural and religious spheres, known for her role as curator of the Holy See Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. She studied Philosophy at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in the 1990s and has built a career focused on fostering dialogue between contemporary art and spirituality. Her curatorial approach bridges faith, art, and society, with a keen sensitivity to the symbolic, ethical, and transcendent.

Since 2013, she has collaborated with artists, architects, and theologians to create spaces of encounter and reflection. Her work goes beyond selecting artworks, shaping a cultural and spiritual mediation aligned with the Church’s pastoral mission. She has established the pavilion as a key reference within the Biennale, highlighting art as a powerful tool for intercultural and interreligious dialogue and a means of seeking meaning.

Davor Ereš is an architect and research assistant at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade. He works in the fields of architectural design, teaching, and research, with a focus on models of learning through architecture, architectural (post)production, and contemporary issues. His main professional motivation revolves around the perspective of architecture as a strategy for critical practice and action.

He was a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, teaching various architectural design courses, both undergraduate and master's, between 2003 and 2015. Since 2015, he has lectured at various international architecture schools and workshops. Since 2016, he has been a visiting professor at the Confluence Institute for Innovation and Creative Strategies in Architecture (Lyon and Paris).

He has exhibited at the Venice Biennale and the Tallinn Architecture Biennale. Founder of the architectural platform "Poligon," through which he practices architecture and develops independent research projects.

Jelena Mitrović holds a PhD in Architecture (2007) and a PhD in Technical Sciences in Architecture and Urbanism (2021) from the University of Belgrade.

Since 2022, she has been an assistant professor at the Nikola Tesla University. She has also worked as an associate professor and assistant professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture Belgrade, Serbia (2005-2015).

Regarding her professional experience, she has worked as an architect at Blakstad Haffner Architects - EBH, Belgrade (2016-2018) and as an external collaborator at the MITarh architectural firm in Belgrade (2018-2022).

Igor Pantić is a London-based architect and educator, and the founder of Studio Igor Pantic Ltd. He works at the convergence of computational design, digital fabrication, and immersive AR/VR technologies, exploring how these disciplines influence how we design, create, and perceive built and virtual environments.

Igor is a Professor at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture in London, where he teaches in the B-Pro Architectural Design (AD) program. He leads research focused on the application of Mixed Reality technologies in architectural design and fabrication, working at the intersection of low-cost AR-assisted manufacturing and automation. He is also a Professor at the University of East London (UEL), where he teaches the MA Architecture Unit 6 program. He has also lectured and delivered computational design workshops and seminars internationally, and previously co-directed the AA Visiting School in Vienna.

Before founding his own design studio, Igor worked for seven years at Zaha Hadid Architects in London, where he worked on numerous large-scale projects. Igor holds a Master's degree from the Architectural Association Design Research Lab (AADRL) in London and the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Belgrade (Serbia).

Ana Paula de Alba, an architect from Anáhuac University Mexico, founded her own studio, apda Interior Design Studio, in 2018, based in Mexico City.

She completed her Interior Design studies with a distinction in Excellence in Design at Parsons The New School of Design (2012). She worked on residential interior design projects at Shaker Inc. in New York (2013-2014). In 2014, she returned to Mexico City and worked as an interior architect at the design firm ESRAWE (2014-2015). She subsequently collaborated with Gloria Cortina on residential interior design projects both domestically and internationally. She was also part of the design team for special editions of the GC Ediciones collection furniture line (2015-2019).

Ana Paula has participated in the development and coordination of interior design projects both domestically and internationally. He now runs his own design firm, a p d a, focusing primarily on residential and hospitality design projects, creating value through concepts and designs rooted in Mexican culture with a contemporary language and aesthetics curated specifically for each context.

Plano Coletivo is a group of architects, professors and researchers with diverse interests and backgrounds who freely collaborate around two common objectives: to discuss urban territory as a critical narrative and to reflect on architecture as a socio-environmental action.

Luciana Saboia. An architect who graduated from the Universidade de Brasília, UnB (1997), she holds a Ph.D. in the theory and history of architecture and the city from the Université Catholique de Louvain, UCLouvain (2009), and is a visiting researcher at the Office for Urbanization at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, GSD (2017). She is a professor at the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo at the Universidade de Brasília (FAU Unb) and a researcher with extensive experience in landscape and social appropriation. Saboia develops research focused on the environmental and social transformations of metropolitan peripheries. With international experience, she proposes new strategies for landscape design that reflect her critical and engaged vision of architecture and urbanism.

Eder Alencar. Architect, graduated from the Universidade de Brasília, UnB (2010). He is a founding partner of ARQBR Arquitetos, where he develops work that combines the relationship between architecture and the local context with a deep commitment to architectural critique, always seeking to respond to the human and landscape scale of each project. Together with ARQBR, he has a track record of winning awards in major public competitions.

Matheus Seco. Architect, graduated from the Universidade de Brasília, UnB (1999) with a Master's in architectural design from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL (2004). A founding partner of BLOCO Arquitetos, his work reflects an interest in the direct relationship between the project and specific constraints, as well as respect for the local context. Together with BLOCO, he has won awards in national and international competitions for built works.

Christian Tenefrancia Illi is a German-Filipino artist (1987) living and working between Berlin, Germany and Bacolod, Philippines. He is co-founder of Studio KIM/ILLI, a transdisciplinary platform working across art, architecture, and design. His work explores themes of migration, colonial legacies, and ecological intimacy through time-based media and spatial installations. Terrarium is the culmination of months of research, collaboration, and site-specifi c experimentation across the Philippines and beyond.