Weitzman Faculty to Exhibit at 19th International Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia & Time Space Existence

Five members of the faculty at Weitzman are participating in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Carlo Ratti. Widely seen as the world’s most important survey of contemporary architecture, the International Architecture Exhibition draws architects and other visitors from around the world to Venice for a series of exhibitions, conferences, and workshops at the Giardini, the Arsenale, the Forte Marghera and other venues beginning Saturday, May 10, 2025.

The participants from Penn represent the departments of architecture, landscape architecture, city and regional planning, and historic preservation. They are:

• Winka Dubbeldam, Professor of Architecture; Co-founder, Archi-Tectonics, New York (Hopeful Monsters)
• Randall Mason, Professor of Historic Preservation and City & Regional Planning; Director, Urban Heritage Project (Reflected Heritage: Digital Cultural Landscapes of the US National Park Service)
• Laia Mogas-Soldevila, Assistant Professor of Architecture and Director, DumoLab Research (VAMO)
• Robert Gerard Pietrusko, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture; Principal, Warning Office (A Satellite Symphony and The Next Earth)
• Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, Paul Philippe Cret Visiting Professor; Director, Centre for IT and Architecture research group (CITA), Royal Danish Academy (Local Resource/Collective Knowledge)
• Marion Weiss, Graham Professor of Practice in Architecture; Co-founder, WEISS/MANFREDI (Surface/Subsurface: The Contours Of Changing Climates and PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity, the US Pavilion exhibition, organized by the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas)

The theme of the Biennale Architettura 2025 is “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.” and explores the built environment’s position and responsibility in the context of the global climate crisis. “The built environment is one of the largest contributors to atmospheric emissions, placing architecture among the main culprits in the degradation of our planets,” says Ratti in his curatorial statement. “As the climate crisis accelerates, must we resign ourselves to this role, or are we still able to offer solutions, substantial and non-cosmetic, effective and quick to achieve?”

The Biennale Architettura 2025 is open to the public from Saturday, May 10 to Sunday, November 23, 2025, at the Giardini, the Arsenale, the Forte Marghera, and other venues around the city centre of Venice.

In addition to faculty participation, Nour Jafar, a candidate for the Master of Science in Historic Preservation who earned her Master of City Planning in 2021, is participating in the Kuwait Pavilion as an assistant curator and exhibitor. Jafar’s work documents the culture of demolition in her native Kuwait, as well as the Ahmadi Shopping Centre, part of a colonial oil company town that was designed and constructed by British Petroleum for the Kuwait Government.

Also on View: Time Space Existence 2025

Running concurrently with the Biennale Architettura 2025 is Time Space Existence 2025: Repair, Regenerate, Reuse, organized by the European Cultural Centre to “question our relationship with space and time, re-envisioning new ways of living and rethinking architecture through a larger lens.”

Two members of the faculty in the Department of Architecture are representing Penn:

• Masoud Akbarzadeh, Associate Professor of Architecture and Director, Polyhedral Structures Lab, Penn (with Sika Group)
• Richard Garber, Lecturer, Penn; Founding Partner, GRO Architects, New York

In addition, second-year Master of Architecture students enrolled in the Urban Housing Studio will also be exhibiting their work in a selection curated by Associate Professor of Practice Hina Jamelle.

Organized every other year, Time Space Existence features an international and eclectic ensemble of architects, designers, artists, academics, and photographers from 52 different countries. They present over 200 projects in the historic settings of Palazzo Bembo, Palazzo Mora, and Marinaressa Gardens, all located in the heart of Venice. Time Space Existence, organizers say, “aims to stimulate an exchange among architects, universities, legendary masters, emerging studios, established global practices, designers, artists, photographers, developers, and engineering companies, who together can have a crucial role in shaping the future of our ways of living.”

Faculty Talks in Venice in May

On Monday, May 5 at 6:00pm, Marion Weiss, Graham Professor of Practice in Architecture, and Michael Manfredi, partners at WEISS/MANFREDI, will give the keynote talk at Perspective Europe 2025, the international forum dedicated to architecture, interior design, real estate and contract, organized by THE PLAN.

On Saturday, May 10 at 10:00am, Winka Dubbeldam, professor of architecture and founding partner at Archi-Tectonics, will moderate a panel of international architects, writers and publishers at Palazzo Bembo, coinciding with the launch of her firm’s latest monograph, Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Forms (Actar, 2024).