Photo: Andrea Avezzù
Curators Ceren Erdem and Bilge Kalfa invite architecture students and architects to contribute to the Grounded project, which will be featured in the Türkiye Pavilion in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, coordinated by İKSV.
Open Call
Soil is a living ecosystem, a form of natural intelligence, and an archive carrying traces of the past. Selected for the Türkiye Pavilion at the International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, Grounded will include projects that aim to learn from the soil and draw inspiration from its sensory and cyclical nature. This call invites architecture students and architects to submit projects that rethink architecture’s relationship with soil, open discussions about this connection in the context of Türkiye, and explore the role of soil in the production of physical and social spaces of the future.
The submitted projects are expected to explore the traditional knowledge embedded in soil, adopting innovative and critical approaches that neither marginalise soil nor separate it from life, but instead consider it as an integral element. Applicants may develop new projects specifically for this exhibition or submit projects previously produced or planned to be produced in architecture studio courses at universities. Selected projects will be featured in the Grounded exhibition of the Türkiye Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2025. The presentation of the projects in the exhibition will be determined by the curators in accordance with the scope of each project.
Who can apply?
Architecture department students from universities, recent graduates, and architects can apply.
Requirements of Application
- Online application form
- Project credentials; including the participant’s full name, university, studio coordinator, and year of production.
- Two presentation boards (dimensions: 29.5 cm height x 35 cm, 300 dpi resolution) that convey the conceptual and visual details of the projects. All visuals used in the boards should comply with this resolution, and technical drawings, if included, must be prepared as vector graphics.
- A descriptive text explaining the project with a maximum length of 1,200 characters (excluding spaces), in PDF format.
All documents must be prepared in English and in PDF format.
The application form will remain open until Monday, 3 March 2025, at 17.00 (Istanbul time, GMT+3).
For detailed information about the open call, please contact: yerebasan@iksv.org
The Jury
Submissions to the open call will be evaluated by a jury including the exhibition curators Ceren Erdem and Bilge Kalfa; Yelda Gin, architect, researcher and lecturer at London South Bank University; Özgül Öztürk, founder of A Architecture with a focus on circular design; and Levent Özruh, director of London-based architectural design studio OZRUH and a UK Design Council expert.
BIENNALE ARCHITETTURA 2025: INTELLIGENS. NATURAL. ARTIFICIAL. COLLECTIVE.
Curator: Carlo Ratti
Giardini, Arsenale and various sires around Venice
10 May–23 November, 2025 (pre-opening 8–9 May)
The president of La Biennale di Venezia, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, and the curator of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, Carlo Ratti –appointed as Artistic Director of Architecture Department by Board of Directors on 21 December 2023– announced the title and theme of the Biennale Architettura 2025.
The title of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition is Intelligence. Natural. Artificial. Collective.
Explaining his choice Carlo Ratti said that the title of the International Architecture Exhibition is usually announced in both English and Italian, but for the year 2025, it will be condensed into a single word for both languages via the common Latin precedent: intelligens. Although the title is associated with the modern term intelligence, Ratti emphasises the last syllable of the word, gens is Latin for “people”: “A new, fictional root emerges, suggesting a future of intelligence that is inclusive, multiple, and imaginative beyond today’s limiting focus on AI.”
The exhibition aims to engage with art, engineering, biology, data science, and other disciplines – linking each and all of them to the materiality of urban space and climate crisis.
Ratti also announced that the exhibition will founded on four methodological pillars. “Transdisciplinarity” will feature architectural projects that collaborates between multiple professionals, with the objective of advancing scientific knowledge whenever possible. “Living Lab” will focus on a number of special projects that will leverage Venice and the outdoor areas of the Biennale Exhibition venues, as the Central Pavilion at the Giardini will be under renovation in 2025. Participants will be invited to share their ideas through the biennale's website on a third pillar, “Space for Ideas”, which encourages collaborative design approaches. Finally, the “Circularity Protocol” aims to develop a manifesto to define clear directions and a new standard for the future of cultural events.
With the aim to reintroduce a degree of coordination and coherence with the theme of the main International Exhibition among the National Pavilions, Ratti encourages the participating countries to address the common prompt of “One place, one solution”: “Showcasing how local ingenuity can address our time’s existential challenge that can only be tackled in a cooperative manner, reflecting a multiplicity of approaches. If every country brings one success to the table, together we can assemble a global kit for adapting to the future”.
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