Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu announce venice biennale 2027 theme
Curators Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu unveil Do Architecture: The Possibility of Coexistence in the Face of Real Reality as the theme of the 20th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Running from May 8th to November 21st, 2027, the exhibition positions architecture as a direct response to an increasingly unstable world shaped by ecological crisis, accelerated urbanization, technological abstraction, and the erosion of cultural memory.
Announced at the Biennale headquarters in Venice, the theme marks a notable shift from the technologically driven discourse of recent editions toward a more grounded architectural approach centered on materiality, local participation, craftsmanship, and lived experience. Through the deliberately direct title Do Architecture, the curators call for architecture to move beyond excessive conceptualization and reconnect with the physical realities of building, inhabitation, and coexistence.
Padiglione Centrale Giardini | image by Andrea Avezzu, courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
architecture must confront ‘real reality’
In their presentation, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu describe today’s global condition as one of uncertainty, instability, and detachment from reality, arguing that contemporary architecture has often become disconnected from the places and communities it serves. ‘Overly conceptual experiments are often detached from reality,’ the curators noted, warning against forms of architectural production driven by commercialization, speed, and image-making.
Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu frame architecture itself as deeply implicated in the environmental and cultural crises of the present. ‘Architecture must recognize the depth of the crisis in which it finds itself,’ the duo shares, pointing to the destructive impact of large-scale construction on both natural ecosystems and historic urban environments. The exhibition proposes a slower and more tactile practice rooted in continuity, memory, and repair.
image by Francesco Galli, courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
reclaiming craft, memory, and local knowledge
Central to the Biennale’s curatorial vision is the work of Amateur Architecture Studio, founded by Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, whose practice has long explored reclaimed materials, vernacular building traditions, and the coexistence of old and new forms of construction. The curators emphasized the importance of recovering not only materials, but also local cultural memory and craftsmanship, arguing that architecture should preserve the diversity and specificity of places.
The exhibition will address a series of questions surrounding architecture’s relationship to climate change, artificial intelligence, rural and urban development, and collective participation. Among the central themes introduced during the announcement was the question: ‘Can artificial intelligence coexist with the tactility of human architecture?’ The Biennale will also investigate how passive and active environmental strategies, traditional building knowledge, and contemporary technologies might coexist without erasing local identities and lived experience.
Weng Shu and Lu Wenyu | all images © La Biennale di Venezia by ASAC- Matteo Losurdo
venice as a living site of architectural intervention
Beyond the Giardini and the Arsenale, the 2027 Biennale will extend directly into Venice itself through architectural interventions across the city. Referencing the legacy of the 1964 Venice Charter on heritage conservation, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu described Venice as an active participant in the exhibition. ‘We should not ignore the city in which the exhibition is taking place, Venice,’ the curatorial duo states, adding that the city must not become ‘an invisible city,’ invoking the writing of Italo Calvino.
The curators also stressed the role of education and collective exchange within the Biennale, proposing workshops, dialogues, and forms of direct participation that move beyond discussion toward physical engagement and construction. ‘We should not only discuss, we should do,’ they conclude.
The 2027 edition marks the 20th International Architecture Exhibition since architecture first became an independent department of the Biennale in 1980 under the direction of Paolo Portoghesi. With Do Architecture, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu position this anniversary edition as a call to rethink architecture as a material and ethical practice grounded in coexistence, continuity, and reality.
Gaggiandre | image by Andrea Avezzu, courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu have spent nearly three decades challenging dominant architectural narratives
project info:
event: 20th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia
theme: Do Architecture: The Possibility of Coexistence in the Face of Real Reality
curators: Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu (Amateur Architecture Studio)
organizer: La Biennale di Venezia | @labiennale
location: Giardini and Arsenale, Venice, Italy
dates: May 8 – November 21, 2027
