Carlo Ratti has been revealed as Director of the Architecture Department at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. The Italian architect will spearhead the next global festival of architecture at the lagoon city, leading the curation of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition in 2025. The appointment was recommended by current biennale president Roberto Cicutto, in agreement with Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, who is set to begin his own four-year term as president of La Biennale di Venezia in 2024, succeeding Cicutto.
Carlo 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 honoured and humbled to have the opportunity to curate the Biennale Architettura 2025.'
Carlo Ratti: architect and curator of Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
Ratti is an architect and engineer based in Turin, also teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Politecnico di Milano. He is the director of the Senseable City Lab and a founding partner of the architecture and innovation office CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati (Torino, New York City, and London).
Urban planning and sustainable architecture are key interests for the architect, who has worked on projects of all scales and typologies, globally – including his popular The Greenary, which he co-designed with Italo Rota in Parma, Italy. The house was also nominated for Wallpaper* Design Award: Best Private House in 2022.
The dates of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition have also been announced today. The event will be held from Saturday 24 May to Sunday 23 November 2025. It will be next architecture biennale to launch, following Lesley Lokko's Venice Architecture Biennale 2023.
