The Rice School of Architecture is honored to participate in the Biennale Architettura 2025, or 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, one of the world's most influential platforms for architectural thought and experimentation. Through current and incoming faculty work, the school will be represented in the official program and a major parallel exhibition opening in May 2025 in Venice, Italy.
This year’s architecture biennial, titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective, responds to an increasingly urgent global context. As the planet experiences record-breaking heat, wildfires, floods, and droughts, the exhibition calls on architects to lead in climate mitigation and adaptation—rethinking how we build for a fundamentally altered world. It invites architects, scientists, artists, coders, farmers, and creatives to work collectively across generations, disciplines, and forms of intelligence. Curated through an open, bottom-up process, Intelligens brings together more than 750 participants from around the globe.
“Participation in the Venice Biennale affirms the Rice School of Architecture’s growing presence in global conversations about the future of our planet and our profession,” said the school’s William Ward Watkin Dean, Igor Marjanović. “Our faculty are advancing a new architectural imagination—one rooted in design excellence, ecological insight, and the collective intelligence of many disciplines.”
Featured Alumnus, Faculty, and Students
Mónica Rivera, Harry K. and Albert K. Smith Professor (from July 2025)
Incoming faculty member Mónica Rivera will exhibit in Internalities, the Spanish Pavilion exhibition curated by Roi Salgueiro (MIT) and Manuel Bouzas (Cornell). House in Arteaga, designed by her Barcelona-based firm, Emiliano López Mónica Rivera Arquitectos, demonstrates how regenerative and low-carbon architecture can emerge from local materials and contexts. Built with cross-laminated timber and stone sourced from a nearby quarry, the house uses no concrete, offering a model for territorial harmony and architectural restraint. A publication on the project is forthcoming later this year.
Zhicheng Xu, Wortham Fellow
Wortham Fellow Zhicheng Xu will present two projects at the Arsenale, which is part of Intelligens.
Lodging in Time, designed through his firm Hyperlocal, explores architecture as a transitory, responsive practice rooted in traditional ecological knowledge and the cyclical rhythms of the Black Rock Desert. Through structures that build and unbuild themselves using native materials, the project tunes itself to the landscape rather than imposing upon it, embracing entropy, resilience, and the intelligence of place. Rather than permanent monuments, these forms leave ephemeral imprints shaped by wind, water, and decay.
From Plantation to Pavilion: Weaving Ecologies in the Plantationocene, a project designed in collaboration with Rice School of Architecture staff and students, explores banana fiber, a building material derived from agricultural waste. The work connects traditional ecological knowledge, cultural sustainability, and new architectural methodologies and proposes a resilient, craft-based approach to contemporary practice. Team: Joshua Chiang, B.A. '24, B.Arch. '26; Justin Hughes; Chris Humphrey; Jiayi Lily Li, B.A.'24, B.Arch. '26; Kevin Mastro; Jeremy Thorn. Student support: Qile Gao, M.Arch. '27; Fenghua Lin, M.Arch. '26; Lehan Zhang, M.Arch. '27. Student support: Alice Bian, B.A. '25, B.Arch. '27; Isabela Canavati, B.A. '25, B.Arch. '27; Jiahe Chen, M.Arch. '28; Sarai Huaman, B.A. '25, B.Arch. '27; Faiza Hyder, M.Arch. '28; Deniz Kantar, M.Arch. '28; Nikola Kolarov, B.A. '25, B.Arch. '27; William Liu, M.Arch. '28; Anadaysi Lopez, B.A. '25, B.Arch. '27; Stuti Mehta, B.A.'25, B.Arch. '27; Ghazal Torkamaniha, M.Arch. '28; Whitney Walden, M.Arch. '28; Ralphie Xu, B.A.'25, B.Arch. '27; Hyacinthus Zhang, B.A. '25, B.Arch. '27; Vitoria Carneiro Zhu, B.A.'25, B.Arch. '27.
Li Hu, M.Arch. ’98, FAIA, Founding Partner, OPEN Architecture
Distinguished alumnus Li Hu will present Nature Trilogy, a video installation created in collaboration with filmmaker Zhang Nan, as part of the official exhibition at the Arsenale. The installation features three of OPEN Architecture's recently built works—the UCCA Dune Art Museum, Chapel of Sound, and Sun Tower—each deeply attuned to its natural setting and aligned with celestial cycles. Together, they form a call for architecture to awaken the human senses and renew our connection to the natural world. The project reflects OPEN's commitment to harmonizing technological innovation with reverence for nature, resilience, and sensory experience.
Assistant Professors Georgina Baronian, Juan José Castellón, and Visiting Critic Amna Ansari
Assistant Professors Georgina Baronian (cofounder of clovisbaronian), Juan José Castellón (cofounder of xmade), and visiting critic Amna Ansari (cofounder of UltraBarrio) will each exhibit works in Time Space Existence, a parallel architecture exhibition organized by the European Cultural Centre. Held in Venice during the biennale, Time Space Existence brings together an international group of architects, artists, and researchers who explore the philosophical dimensions invoked by the exhibition's title. Since 2012, the exhibition has offered a vital platform for cross-disciplinary dialogue about architecture's evolving role in shaping the future.