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Designers in dialogue with Building Biospheres

In the prelude to the Biennale Architettura 2025, four young design teams are working on new architecture, focusing on natural intelligence. They are investigating the spatial impact of the prototype that curators Bas Smets and Stefano Mancuso are presenting in the Belgian pavilion. In the coming months, the designers will work intensively with the curators, the artistic and scientific team and the Flanders Architecture Institute.

© Bureau Bas Smets, Stefano Mancuso en Valerie Trouet

Building Biospheres

How can architecture evolve under the influence of natural intelligence? With their exhibition concept Building Biospheres, landscape architect Bas Smets and biologist Stefano Mancuso explore a new relationship between nature and architecture. Building Biospheres proposes to consider buildings as artificial spaces in which plants can produce a cooling microclimate and actively control the building in terms of sprinkling, ventilation and lighting. Using the latest insights into the intelligence of plants, the project explores what this could mean for the development of architecture. The Belgian pavilion at the 2025 Architecture Biennale will serve as a laboratory to explore and demonstrate these ideas.

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Elmes Henri en Maud Panta Schenk Mandelartz Schenk

Invited architects

In summer 2024, the curators of the Belgian pavilion and the Flanders Architecture Institute organised a closed call. 25 promising designers were asked to submit their ideas for the architecture of natural intelligence. The selection committee consisted of Bas Smets (Bureau Bas Smets), Lisa De Visscher (ULiège), Véronique Patteeuw (ENSAPL), Dirk De Pauw (UGent), Kathy Steppe (UGent), Dennis Pohl (VAi) and Petrus Kemme (VAi).

After a pre-selection and a round of exploratory talks, the committee retained four design teams to further develop their proposal.

  • Elmēs is a Brussels-based architecture office that works on purpose-driven projects, capturing the frictional relationship between architecture and the many layers of reality. The firm was founded in 2020 by Vinh Linh, Thomas Mertens and Jochen Schamelhout.
  • Maud Goossens (independent architect) and Henri Uijtterhagen (BC architects & studies) both teach at KU Leuven. From different perspectives, but with a shared enthusiasm and sense of experimentation, Maud and Henri search for new insights within the broad field of architecture. This thanks to links across disciplines. In a humble and open-minded way, they strive for added value for our living environment through architecture.
  • Panta is a multidisciplinary practice with a focus on architecture, furniture and industrial design. For each project or object, they focus on
  • Lisa Mandelartz Schenk is attached to the Chair of Housing at RWTH Aachen University. She studied Art History and Social Sciences in Basel and Monument and Landscape Care in Antwerp. Steven Schenk teaches at KU Leuven and is simultaneously working on a PhD there. He studied Architecture at the University of Antwerp, the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio and ETH Zurich. Their work focuses on humane and enchanting aspects of architecture, with an interest in the alchemy of space, construction and materials.

The selected designers will develop complementary aspects of architectures for Building Biospheres. They will do this in a series of workshops under the artistic direction of Lisa De Visscher and coordinated by Petrus Kemme. The resulting work will be part of the Building Biospheres exhibition in the Belgian pavilion at the Biennale Architettura in Venice from early May 2025.

    Published on 15 October 2024

    Building Biospheres - Biennale Architettura 2025

    From 10 May to 23 November 2025, the Flanders Architecture Institute and Bureau Bas Smets i.c.w. Stefano Mancuso will present the Building Biospheres project at the 19th Biennale Architettura in Venice.

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