Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, La Biennale di Venezia president, and directors Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu announced today the title and theme of La Biennale Architettura 2027.
Shu and Wenyu are cofounders of Hangzhou, China-based Amateur Architecture Studio. Last November, they were named the artistic directors of the 20th staging of La Biennale Architettura.
The 2027 thematic title is “Do Architecture—For the Possibility of Coexistence Facing a Real Reality.”
La Biennale Architettura 2027 exhibitions, as the title suggests, will delve into the subject of coexistence amid global warming.
“In the face of global climate change, can active and passive approaches to design, strategy, and technology work alongside one another? Can land and architecture coexist,” the curators posited in a joint statement.
The curators will explore the potential of integrating “natural materials and local craftsmanship” into modern design and construction methods.
“Can we resolve the conflict between urban and rural models of development,” the curators continued. “Is there a way for them to coexist while preserving the vulnerable character of rural areas?”
Shu and Wenyu are the first Chinese curators of La Biennale Architettura. And they are the second joint curators. (The first were Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects in 2018.)
Buttafuoco credited Shu and Wenyu with returning “architecture to its most concrete, physical and essential dimension: that of building in direct relation to the land, to the materials, to the communities, and to the reality of places.”
“Their philosophy reaffirms the value of ‘doing’ as a cultural, ethical and constructive act, shunning spectacle and global standardisation,” Buttafuoco said. “Through the reuse of materials, traditional craftsmanship and slow transformation processes, they propose a vision of architecture that incorporates the past as a living matter of the present.”
La Biennale Architettura 2027 will be open in the Arsenale and Giardini from May 8, 2027, through November 21, 2027.
The 2025 director of La Biennale Architettura was Carlo Ratti. The U.S. Pavilion was directed by Peter Mackeith, Susan Chin, and Rod Bigelow.
A $36 million renovation led by Labics, and others, of the Central Pavilion at the Giardini della Biennale wrapped up in March.