Carlo Ratti has been named as Director of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2025 La Biennale di Venezia by the fair’s Board of Directors and at the recommendation of current and future Presidents Roberto Cicutto and Pietrangelo Buttafuoco.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and director of Carlo Ratti Associati follows Lesley Lokko’s turn as the 2023 Venice Biennale Architecture curator.
Ratti will lean on past curatorial experiences with the Future Food District pavilion at Expo 2015 Milan; the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow; and the second Porto Design Biennale in 2021 to inform his creative direction for the exhibition. A focus on the growing influence of technology on design and urban planning will most likely follow, culminating in an impressive intellectual output that has seen him write or co-author more than 750 different research publications.
Previewing his direction, Ratti said: “We architects like to think we are smart, but real intelligence is everywhere. The disembodied ingenuity of evolution, the growing power of computers, and the collective wisdom of the crowd. To face a burning world, architecture must harness all the intelligence around us. I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to curate the Biennale Architettura 2025.”
Aside from his building projects and teaching, Ratti’s work through the MIT SENSEable City Lab has been equally provocative and well-regarded. His influence has bridged the gap between architecture and the outside world, garnering mention in TIME magazine's “Best Inventions of the Year” three times, among many mentions or profiles in other national or regional publications in Europe and his native country.
The Turin-born Ratti joins a list of other Italian architects to curate the Biennale that includes Aldo Rossi, Francesco Dal Co, Massimiliano Fuksas, and the exhibition's first curator, Paolo Portoghesi, who passed away in May at the age of 91.
2 Comments
And the topic of the Biennale will be "Killers of the Flower Moon"
Carlo : To be notest, with you guys, MIT doesn’t have architecture school. Most students took a train to take architectural classes at Havard GSD. Give me something to present at Biennale. We only have horrendous high school level student work at our own school.
MIT Median Lab :I was stolen a whole project and crucial academic papers during this Biennale season dubiously by architecture instructors. And decided to install a fingerprint sesitive keycard to each door of our studio.
Carlo : Stop doing this please. If I couldn’t steal anything from Media Lab, I will be demoted to Syracuse or Pratt Institute part time lecturer next year. I don’t want to end up like them.
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