The microcosm of pavilions, exhibitions and collateral events that has animated the 19th International Architecture Exhibition is heading toward its 23 November finale. Ahead of the finissage, here is a selection of unmissable appointments.

A building in repair and a community coming back together. The Pavilion of the Holy See at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale presents a process, rather than a mere exhibition: a gesture of openness and care, a laboratory of collective intelligence unfolding over time and space, in the vibrant heart of the Castello district, within the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice complex.

A new cultural hub in the heart of Venice has opened its doors to contemporary art and design thinking. With a program that weaves together architecture, design, fashion, and cinema, SMAC – San Marco Art Centre – launched in May at the Procuratie Vecchie with two outstanding exhibitions.

Ca’ Corner della Regina reopens with Diagrams. A project by AMO/OMA, an exhibition that questions the neutrality of visual information and its impact on the major issues of our time. At its core: the diagram as a tool for knowledge, persuasion, and critique.

Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain once again entrusts architect Jean Nouvel with the design of a second venue near the Louvre, spectacularly presented in the Collateral Event of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, La Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain by Jean Nouvel.

Half experimental café, half ecological lab, Canal Café filters Venice’s brackish water to brew an espresso that tells the story of the city—blending nature, technology, and urban memory.

At Palazzo Mora, as part of Time Space Existence, a path of symbolic portals weaves together memory, craftsmanship, and innovation in an immersive narrative of resilience and renewal.

For Time Space Existence, the Canadian architecture studio presents 3D-printed sculptures inspired by Symplasma glass sponges (Hexactinellida), reimagined as visionary models for new towers in Vancouver – set in an ideal dialogue with Canaletto’s paintings and the Venetian lagoon landscape.

The collateral event Parallel Worlds, held at Campo della Tana, delves into the layered nature – temporal, geographical, and social – of Macao’s urban fabric.

A powerful image welcomes visitors at the entrance to the Lithuanian space at the Ospedaletto Complex: an uprooted tree stump, bare and wounded. It stands as a tangible symbol of what so often vanishes silently from our urban landscapes—not just trees, but also memory, identity, and continuity.

The international jury selected by Carlo Ratti has awarded the prizes for this edition of the Architecture Biennale, Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. The award ceremony also included the presentation of Lifetime Achievement awards to Donna Haraway and Italo Rota (in memoriam).

National Pavilions have been encouraged by curator Carlo Ratti to respond to the motto One Place, One Solution and to maintain a goal of a circular economy. How are different countries responding?