Belgium’s Biennale pavilion becomes a living lab for plant intelligence
At the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, the Belgian pavilion will present Building Biospheres, an ambitious exhibition that explores how plant intelligence can help create and regulate indoor climates. Announced Wednesday by the Flemish Architecture Institute (VAi), the installation opens on 10 May and runs through 23 November.
Curated by renowned landscape architect Bas Smets, in collaboration with plant neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, Building Biospheres transforms the Belgian pavilion into a living prototype. The project examines how plants (specifically those from subtropical climates) can work symbiotically with architecture to sustain human comfort, naturally adjusting elements like humidity, ventilation and light.
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Climate regulation
“With the prototype in Venice, we can test whether plants can actively produce and regulate the indoor climate of a building,” said Smets. “This makes us want to consider architecture as a microclimate where plants and people can live together.”
Over 200 plants have been integrated into the installation. Sensors monitor their behaviour, with real-time data driving adaptive responses such as irrigation and lighting. The system creates what the team calls “a new symbiosis between what the plants need, what the building can handle and what people want.”
This year's exhibition, organised by the VAi in collaboration with the Flemish government, marks the Flemish Community’s turn to represent Belgium at the international event. Since 2004, the VAi has alternated this responsibility with the French-speaking Community of Belgium.
The 2025 edition of the Biennale Architettura, the 19th since its founding, is once again expected to draw global attention as one of the most prestigious events in contemporary architecture.
"We have to design with our biosphere, not against it”
“For too long, landscape has served as a backdrop for architecture,” said Dennis Pohl, director of the Flanders Architecture Institute and commissioner of Building Biospheres. “If we are to build a future that is truly sustainable, then natural intelligence must become the leading agent, shaping the way we live together. We have to design with our biosphere, not against it.”
The Belgian pavilion will not only house the central living prototype but also feature three additional rooms. The front spaces offer historical and scientific context for the research, while a rear room displays the live environmental data being collected from the plants.
Two side rooms showcase speculative design work by four emerging Belgian architects. Their contributions imagine futures where natural intelligence takes on a generative role in architecture, rethinking traditional boundaries between built environments and nature.
#FlandersNewsService | Building Biospheres by Bureau Bas Smets with Stefano Mancuso. Flanders Architecture Institute 2025 © PHOTO MICHIEL DE CLEENE
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