La Biennale di Venezia has announced that architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu will curate the 20th International Architecture Exhibition, opening in May 2027. Founders of Amateur Architecture Studio and leading voices in contemporary practice, the duo is known for an approach rooted in craftsmanship, material reuse, and deep engagement with place. Their appointment brings renewed attention to vernacular knowledge, construction cultures, and the social realities shaping architecture today.
As rising emissions targets collide with shrinking material supplies and the growing urgency of climate commitments, the built environment is being forced into a deeper reckoning with how it consumes, circulates, and discards resources. What was once considered waste is now revealing itself as a dormant architectural archive, an urban ecosystem of materials waiting to be reclaimed, revalued, or reimagined.
In Spain, design reveals a layered character, with architecture that intertwines multiple material strategies, where identity and contemporaneity come together. In step with a changing global scenario, contemporary architecture, particularly that which embraces the future, weaves together practices such as material reuse, circular design, attention to well-being, and greater flexibility, reshaping the ways we live. These explorations are not only addressed on international stages but also take shape in projects that pursue new approaches, attentive to both design and the life unfolding in each space.
Led by Josephine Michau, CEO and Founder of CAFx and curator of the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023, the Biennial launches under the theme "Slow Down," reflecting on how societies can respond to the pressures of rapid population growth, resource consumption, and environmental challenges by rethinking the pace of change in the built environment. The program will feature over 200 events, including city walks, film screenings, lectures, exhibitions, performances, and harvest gatherings, exploring approaches to sustainable futures through architecture.
