Architecture Biennale 2025: Material in focus
4 min read
Spain: Internalities: Architectures for Territorial Equilibrium
Under the title ‘Internalities’, the Spanish pavilion presents 16 projects from various regions of the Iberian Peninsula that work with local, renewable and low-carbon materials such as wood, stone, cork, clay and plant fibres.
Curated by Roi Salgueiro and Manuel Bouzas, the exhibition is divided into five thematic areas: Materials, Craft, Energy, Waste and Emissions. Along these categories, the path of the materials used is traced - from their origin in forests, quarries and cultivated areas to their architectural application.
Iceland: Lavaforming
The Icelandic contribution ‘Lavaforming’, curated by Arnhildur Pálmadóttir, focuses on lava as a sustainable building material. It examines how the volcanic rock basalt can be moulded in molten form in a controlled manner - for example into bricks, façade elements or load-bearing structures.
The concept is complemented by an animated short film about the fictional city of ‘Eldborg’ in the year 2150, whose architecture is made entirely of lava. Instead of seeing lava as a natural hazard, the pavilion conceptualises it as a local, almost emission-free resource with great architectural potential.
Morocco: Materiae Palimpsest
The Moroccan pavilion ‘Materiae Palimpsest’ highlights the architectural richness of traditional building methods - especially with regard to the use of clay and other natural materials.
Curated by Khalil Morad El Ghilali and El Mehdi Belyasmine, the exhibition shows how craft techniques and material knowledge have been passed down through the generations - and what significance these practices have for sustainable and climate-adapted architecture.
Denmark: Build of Site
The Danish pavilion ‘Build of Site’ focusses on the reuse of materials. The installation designed by Søren Pihlmann was built entirely from used and recycled building materials on site - including concrete fragments, steel parts and wooden elements.
The pavilion thus demonstrates that sustainable construction does not begin with the selection of new building materials, but with the appreciation and reuse of existing resources - as part of a consistent circular construction method.
