Antoni Gaudí, master of the leading architects of the Venice Architecture Biennale

VeniceOne of the most striking installations of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 is The Elephant Chapel, by Thai architect Boonserm Premthada, who received a special mention this Saturday in the awards given out by the biennial each year. The chapel consists of a succession of catenary arches made from elephant dung. These arches recall structures by Antoni Gaudí, such as those in the attic of La Pedrera. What's most surprising is that Gaudí, among hundreds of architects of recent decades, is also one of the creators represented in the central exhibition. This is thanks to a study by New Zealand architect Mark Burry, who considers Gaudí a precursor to "the circular economy" through "biomimicry," that is, the study of the structures of biological systems.

Burry presents plans of some details of the Sagrada Família. "The Sagrada Familia Basilica occupied Gaudí for 43 years and demonstrates his transition from an instinctive, practical artist to an architect with a translatable message. An experimental and transmissible working method emerges within his writings," says Burry. "To guide the completion of the basilica after his death, Gaudí drew on nature's hyperbolic and helical geometries: a code for advancing architecture through natural and collective intelligence, answering today's call for a resilient, nature-led future," she explains.

Gaudí is also the first of the twenty Catalan studios represented in different areas of the Venice Biennale. In the same central exhibition, Japanese architect Kengo Kuma didn't hesitate to make a point of making a mess in Benedetta Tagliabue's pavilion on water, made of wood and paper. For Tagliabue, being in a state of relaxation and "contemplation" doesn't prevent the public from becoming aware of the problems of water scarcity. "We talk about the water in rivers and seas, but not about all the water present in objects, which we can't see but has a brutal impact, or when products travel from one place to another in the world. And with the use of artificial intelligence, water consumption will multiply," warns Tagliabue. After Venice, the pavilion is scheduled to be on display at the Roca Gallery in Barcelona to coincide with the World Capital of Architecture.

A deeper look into housing projects

Housing is the focus of two other Catalan projects at the Arsenale: the UPC's Rearq research group, in collaboration with Sorigué, has taken a step forward in the prototypes for regenerating housing in industrial estates they exhibited at the Besòs. They are now presenting this system, the result of a competition organized by Barcelona City Council, applied to Ciudad Meridiana, Montbau, and Can Franquesa. "We wanted to design an open structural support that can accommodate different forms of appropriation or use," says architect and UPC professor Sara Vima. "This means that in some buildings we can respond to needs such as improved accessibility, communal outdoor spaces, or new walkways, and in others we can accommodate extensions to homes that are too small, install thermal insulation, or other renaturalization techniques, depending on the orientation of each façade," explains Vima. The innovation of this project lies in its use of elements currently available on the market. The cost of implementing the system, around 2,000 euros per square meter, is advantageous compared to the average of 2,500 euros.

On the other hand, Lluís Ortega and Julia Capomaggi have unveiled the lighting installation that demonstrates the potential of AI to create infinite housing plans based on around 2,500 public housing competition proposals. "This project is a kind of collective intelligence that architects can use to interact in conversation with these models, in order to design housing with greater power," say Ortega and Capomaggi.

The fishermen of the Venetian lagoon, the rocket-firing men of the Ebro

In Venice, Caterina Miralles gives more details of 0.5, the two-screen film that delves into the problems of the Venetian lagoon. One of the film's protagonists is a fisherman who maintains the more environmentally friendly tradition of fishing with the rhythm of the tides. "These fishermen, known as serejantes, represent a lesson not to force an ecosystem, but to observe it and live with it, with the good and the bad that this entails, because it is a very hard life," says Miralles.

The work on the rocket launchers in the Ebro Delta by José Luis de Vicente and Eva Franch also has an environmental impact. This is the first proposal from the platform they recently created, called Fast, and the first project presented by De Vicente. after announcing that he is leaving the direction of the Design MuseumThe rocket launchers are buildings for storing hailstone fireworks used to combat hail in rice fields. "The rocket launchers represent the fact that in Catalonia, in the 1950s, there was a culture of weather modification practices, which is quite mind-boggling, and which we are talking about again in the era of climate instability. In other words, there is a growing belief that reducing carbon dioxide emissions will not be enough, and what is needed," the commissioner said. "But now, the geoengineering model being proposed is very vertical; we don't have a governance model between countries, and it's about reversing that: thinking about vernacular weather modification practices, which have been a vernacular popular geoengineering that has been much more deeply rooted and much more contextual." One of the proposals De Vicente and Franch make for reusing the rocket launchers is to turn them into citizen climatological observatories.

Research on wood and land

In it Spanish pavilion, the Catalan representation goes beyond ten of the sixteen featured works: in the rooms surrounding the central space, Daniel Ibáñez, a member of the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, and Carla Ferrer have developed research on wood as a construction material. Likewise, Carles Oliver and David Mayol have produced one on emissions reduction, and Anna and Eugeni Bach another on trades. The latter focuses on the use of compacted soil, clay and stoneware, represented, respectively, by Fetdeterra, Quintana tiles and Cerámica Cumella.

Furthermore, Catalan architects are also leaving their mark outside of Catalonia: the Albanian pavilion, in its pursuit of architectural and urban transformation, includes projects by the studios G Arquitectura, Barozzi Veiga, Benedetta Tagliabue - EMBT, Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, Toni Gironès, and RCR. Likewise, the Maio studio is part of the international team that received another special mention this Saturday for their work on the Vatican pavilion. And in the Italian pavilion, you can see the Garcés Bonet De Seta studio's project for an opera set. Rule to