The Biennale Architettura 2021 comprises works by 114 participants with equal representation of men and women, and coming from 46 countries with increased representation from Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
In addition to the invited participants, the 2021 Biennale also includes a series of research stations that support the Exhibition, developed by researchers from universities around the world.
The Biennale Architettura 2021 is organized into five scales, three in the Arsenale and two in the Central Pavilion. Projects range from the analytic to the conceptual, the experimental, the tested and proven, and the widely deployed.
Scale 1: Among Diverse Beings (Arsenale)
- Designing for New Bodies: Addressing changes in the perception and conception of the human body.
- Living with Other Beings: Foregrounding empathy and engagement with other beings.
Scale 2: As New Households (Arsenale)
- Catering to New Demographics: Responding to changing compositions and densities of households.
- Inhabiting New Tectonics: Exploring technologies that enable innovative housing construction.
- Living Apart Together: Expanding possibilities of the apartment building as a collective housing typology.
Scale 3: As Emerging Communities (Arsenale)
- Engaging Varied Forms of Civicness: Investigating novel ways for communities to organize themselves spatially.
- Re-equipping Society: Proposing new forms of social equipment (parks, schools, hospitals, …).
- Coming Together in Venice: Imagining the future of Venice.
- Co-habitats: Showing how we do live together in… Addis Ababa, Al Azraq Refugee Camp, Beirut, Hong-Kong, India-Pakistan corridors, Lagos squatter settlement, New York, Prishtina, and the Rio-São Paulo area.
Scale 4: Across Borders (Giardini, Central Pavilion)
- Transcending the Urban-Rural Divide: Mitigating the growing social and economic differences between global cities and the global hinterland.
- Linking the Levant: Negotiating sharp political divisions in the Levant region.
- Bridging Infrastructures: Exploring how infrastructural design can provide trans-regional connectivity.
- Protecting Global Commons: Bringing the architectural imaginary to endangered treasures such as the Poles, the Amazon, the Oceans, the Indo-Pacific Region, and the Air.
Scale 5: As One Planet (Giardini, Central Pavilion)
- Making Worlds: Anticipating and calibrating the future of the planet.
- Uniting the Nations: Marking the 75th anniversary of the United Nations by revising and expanding its spatial scope.
- Changing Designs for Climate Change: Presenting solutions in face of global warming.
- Networking Space: Connecting between Earth and outer space.
The grounds of the Arsenale and the Central Pavilion at the Giardini will include several large installations that relate to one of the five scales.
The grounds of Forte Marghera will feature projects devoted to children’s play, by five architects and an architectural photographer under the subtheme: “How Will We Play Together?”.
