20th International Architecture Exhibition, from 8 May to 21 November 2027, entrusted to Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu: “Do Architecture”.
Architecture Biennale 2027: “Do Architecture”
The 20th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale will be held from 8 May to 21 November 2027, with pre-opening days on 6 and 7 May, at the Giardini, the Arsenale and throughout the city.
On 26 November 2025, the Biennale entrusted it to Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, founders in 1997 of Amateur Architecture Studio. Wang Shu received the Pritzker Prize in 2012, the highest distinction in architecture, and has been a member of the French Academy of Architecture since 2023. This is the first time the Architecture Biennale has been entrusted to a duo of Chinese architects.
Their work is known for its attachment to the memory of places and to construction know-how. For the Ningbo History Museum, for example, they reused bricks and tiles recovered from demolished villages, assembled according to a traditional technique of the region. The announced title, “Do Architecture”, accompanied by a subtitle on the possibility of coexistence in the face of reality, suggests an exhibition oriented toward making and matter rather than toward image.
For the history of the event and visiting the sites, see the Venice Biennale page.
Sources and further information: Biennale Architettura 2027, official page; Announcement of the curators (La Biennale, 26 November 2025); Dezeen; Britannica, Wang Shu.