The 19th edition of the Biennale Architettura, the international high mass of contemporary architecture, will start in Venice in early May 2025. Under the title ‘Intelligent. Natural. Artificial. Collective.,’ curator Carlo Ratti brings together designers, thinkers and makers who apply different types of intelligence in their architectural, landscape and urban planning projects to respond to the major climatic challenges we face: ‘In this time of change, architecture must take the lead. It must draw on all forms of intelligence – natural, artificial and collective. It must transcend generations and disciplines, from the hard sciences to the arts.’

This is precisely what the experimental project by landscape architect Bas Smets, guest editor of this issue, and neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso in the Belgian pavilion does in all areas. With Building Biospheres, they are attempting to understand the growth and rooting processes of plants, on which the organisation of life on our planet depends, and are investigating the impact of that natural intelligence on architecture. They regard buildings as artificial spaces in which plants can produce a cooling microclimate and play a controlling role in terms of irrigation, ventilation and lighting.