Staging the Archive at Venice Biennale

Staging the Archive will be part of Projecting Future Heritage: A Hong Kong Archive, the Hong Kong contribution to the collateral events of the 19th International Architecture Biennale - La Biennale di Venezia.

Inspired by the bamboo scaffolding that is emblematic of Hong Kong's urban landscape, it is integrated into the exhibition as a living expression of collective intelligence and craftsmanship, in perfect resonance with the Biennale's theme. Practised by master scaffolders, or sifus, this ancestral know-how embodies a form of temporary architecture that is adaptable, respectful of the environment and already part of a circular economy. In Venice, these structures will be erected in the outer courtyard of the Campo della Tana, not only as a physical reference to the buildings of Hong Kong, but also as a living, ritual scenography, transformed over the course of traditional festivals (Tinhau, Dragon Boat, Hungry Ghost, Mid-Autumn). In this way, the bamboo scaffolding becomes a symbolic and material bridge between past and future, between the natural and the artificial, between two cities shaped by water and by the collective hand of their peoples.

The design of the installation, conceived by Architecture Land Initiative (ALIN) (Guillaume Othenin-Girard, Kent Mundle), BEAU Architects (Charlotte Lafont-Hugo, Gilles Vanderstocken), emphasises the simplicity and logic of the constructive gesture, without seeking to over-complexify the structure, highlighting traditional know-how as much as the collective intelligence it mobilises.  A ‘typical’ cross-section, interpreted and extruded, runs along the morphology of the courtyard’s interior, creating the intimacy required to hold a series of forums and events during the Biennale. In addition, their approach documents and understands ‘scaffolding’ as both a noun and a verb, an action embodying a craftsmanship that could be considered intangible heritage.”

Structural Consultant: Kam-Ming Mark Tam, Zongshuai Wan; Bamboo Expertise: Wallace Chang; Production House: IDS & Master Wing Kei

*BEAU Architects was founded in Hong Kong in 2014 by Charlotte Lafont-Hugo and Gilles Vanderstocken. The studio has since evolved into a larger team of various fields and origins, all contributing to a critical methodology and rigorous production. In addition, both founders are involved in the academic field as tutors and invited critics. Gilles Vanderstocken is teaching at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (School of Design) since 2015, leading 2 design studios per year while they collectively led a M.Arch studio on adaptive reuse at Hong Kong University (faculty of Architecture) in 2022.

*Architecture Land Initiative (ALIN) is a cooperative based in Switzerland that works closely with political actors and NGOs at the local and national scale to enact sustainable and equitable transformations of landscape, public space and architecture. ALIN brings together design, research, and strategic thinking to address the necessity for a shift towards a less destructive, non-extractive architecture. Multidisciplinary in nature, our initiatives support community-led solutions, acknowledge lived experiences and provide blueprints for direct action.

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Hong Kong's participation in the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 is based on the theme "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective" by highlighting the collective intelligence of the public infrastructures developed in the post-war decades. These ordinary architectures - cooperative housing, multifunctional public buildings, modernist factories - were designed to meet the climatic and social challenges of a dense and rapidly changing territory. They bear witness to an adapted form of tropical modernism, often ignored internationally but crucial to Hong Kong's urban and global development.

Using a quasi-archaeological approach, the exhibition takes over the Campo della Tana site, a former industrial area of Venice, to transpose these urban artefacts as evidence of a future heritage. It highlights the parallels between Venice and Hong Kong: two island cities that emerged from precarious environments to become global cultural and economic hubs. The exhibition blends the archive with the project, heritage with the future, collective intelligence with the natural and the artificial.

Projecting Future Heritage: A Hong Kong Archive
Organising Institutions: The Hong Kong Institute of Architects Biennale Foundation and Hong Kong Arts Development Council

Curators: Fai Au, Ying Zhou, and Sunnie S.Y. Lau

Venue: Arsenale, Campo della Tana, Castello 2126
 

Opening period: 10 May – 23 November 2025
 

Opening hours/closing days: 11 am - 7 pm from 10 May to 28 September; 10 am - 6 pm from 29 September to 23 November
 

Closed on Mondays (except for 12 May, 2 June, 21 July, 1 September, 20 October, 17 November)
 

Email address for inquiries: vbhk2025@gmail.com

Press kit: PROJECTING FUTURE HERITAGE: A HONG KONG ARCHIVE

Website: www.hkia.net; www.hkadc.org.hk