On the initiative of the government of Flanders and commissioned by the Flanders Architecture Institute, curator and landscape architect Bas Smets in collaboration with neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso present 'Building Biospheres' in the Belgian pavilion. The exhibition investigates how the natural intelligence of plants can be used to produce an indoor climate. During six months, the pavilion will serve as a prototype for this innovative research.

On the first day of the Biennale Architettura 2025 in Venice, the Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi) presents the Building Biospheres catalogue and a cross section of architecture publications from its home region and close neighbours. Throughout the day, VAi and partner institutions will present their recent titles in front of the Belgian Pavilion in the Giardini. Together they provide a glimpse into a rich architectural publishing culture, from a small but vivid corner of Europe.

As part of Building Biospheres, four design teams researched the implications of using plant intelligence in different aspects of architecture. Their proposals comprise two duos, in which architectural concepts resonate with each other and have been formulated or reformulated based on the precondition of natural intelligence. On the one hand, the proposals by Elmēs and Panta explore the effects of artificial biospheres on familiar architectural archetypes. In their work, they investigate the extent to which current structures, and the associated living and usage patterns, are compatible with plant intelligence. The other duos are Maud Gerard Goossens and Henri Uijtterhaegen, on the one hand, and Lisa Mandelartz Schenk and Steven Schenk, on the other. They visualize structural and technical concepts that stem from the dynamic logic of natural processes.